Solving the Reload Problem with Express JS and PostgreSQL

Discover how to fix the `reload problem` in your Express JS application to ensure real-time count updates from your PostgreSQL database without server restarts.
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Solving the Reload Problem with Express JS and PostgreSQL: A Step-by-Step Guide

When developing applications using Express JS and PostgreSQL, it’s common to encounter issues where changes in the database are not reflected on the web page without restarting the server. This reload problem can be frustrating, especially when you're updating your database dynamically. In this guide, we’ll break down the problem and provide you with a solution that ensures you always display the latest data.

Understanding the Problem

In the provided example, the initial setup of your Express application retrieves the member count from the PostgreSQL database and stores it in a variable called memberCount. Here’s the catch: this database query only runs once when the app starts. As a result, any changes made to the member table after the server has started won't be reflected on the page unless the server is restarted. This isn't practical for real-world applications.

Key Points:

Count is fetched only once: The current implementation queries the member table for the count only at startup.

No updates on refresh: After adding a new member, the page reloads the stale count.

Restarting the server: The only way to see updated counts is to restart the server, which is inefficient.

The Solution

To address this problem, we need to fetch the member count directly inside the route handler for each request. This ensures that every page load retrieves the most current count from the database. Here's how to implement this:

Step 1: Modify the Code

Instead of fetching the total count globally, we’ll create a function to get the count, and call this function every time a request is made to the home page.

Here is the revised code:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 2: Explanation of Changes

Asynchronous Count Retrieval: The function getTotalUsers is created to fetch the count asynchronously. This allows the server to access the latest count every time a page is loaded.

Error Handling: The error handling ensures that if the query fails, it logs the error but does not crash your application. If an error occurs, users will fallback to 0.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can efficiently solve the reload problem in your Express JS application. With the modified approach, the member count is dynamically fetched from PostgreSQL on each request, ensuring the webpage always reflects the latest database state.

Don't let caching issues or server restarts hinder your application's performance! Implement this straightforward solution to keep your data fresh and your users happy.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need further assistance with this implementation.