britneyparkerson / bp-web-sprint-challenge-build-a-web-api-9.11.2020

Sprint Challenge Instructions

Read these instructions carefully. Understand exactly what is expected before starting this Sprint Challenge.

This challenge allows you to practice the concepts and techniques learned over the past sprint and apply them in a concrete project. This sprint explored how to build web services based on the REST (REpresentational State Transfer) architectural style. During this sprint, you studied Node.js and Express, server side routing, how to write Express middleware and how to deploy an API to Heroku. In your challenge this week, you will demonstrate your mastery of these skills by designing and creating a web API to manage the following resources: Projects and Actions.

This is an individual assessment. All work must be your own. Your challenge score is a measure of your ability to work independently using the material covered through this sprint. You need to demonstrate proficiency in the concepts and objectives introduced and practiced in preceding days.

You are not allowed to collaborate during the sprint challenge. However, you are encouraged to follow the twenty-minute rule and seek support from your TL if you need direction.

You have three hours to complete this challenge. Plan your time accordingly.

Introduction

In meeting the minimum viable product (MVP) specifications listed below, your project should provide an API that has Create, Read, Update and Delete (CRUD) functionality for both projects and actions.

Database Schemas

The description of the structure and extra information about each resource stored in the included database (./data/lambda.db3) is listed below.

Projects

Field	Data Type	Metadata
id	number	no need to provide it when creating projects, the database will generate it
name	string	required.
description	string	required.
completed	boolean	used to indicate if the project has been completed, not required

Actions

Field	Data Type	Metadata
id	number	no need to provide it when creating posts, the database will automatically generate it.
project_id	number	required, must be the id of an existing project.
description	string	up to 128 characters long, required.
notes	string	no size limit, required. Used to record additional notes or requirements to complete the action.
completed	boolean	used to indicate if the action has been completed, not required

Database Persistence Helpers

The /data/helpers folder includes files you can use to manage the persistence of project and action data. These files are projectModel.js and actionModel.js. Both files publish the following api, which you can use to store, modify and retrieve each resource:

All these helper methods return a promise. Remember to use .then().catch() or async/await.

• get(): resolves to an array of all the resources contained in the database. If you pass an id to this method it will return the resource with that id if one is found.
• insert(): calling insert passing it a resource object will add it to the database and return the newly created resource.
• update(): accepts two arguments, the first is the id of the resource to update, and the second is an object with the changes to apply. It returns the updated resource. If a resource with the provided id is not found, the method returns null.
• remove(): the remove method accepts an id as it's first parameter and, upon successfully deleting the resource from the database, returns the number of records deleted.

The projectModel.js helper includes an extra method called getProjectActions() that takes a project id as it's only argument and returns a list of all the actions for the project.

We have provided test data for all the resources.

Commits

Commit your code regularly and meaningfully. This helps both you (in case you ever need to return to old code for any number of reasons) and your team lead as the evaluate your solution.

Interview Questions

Be prepared to demonstrate your understanding of this week's concepts by answering questions on the following topics. You might prepare by writing down your own answers before hand.

1. The core features of Node.js and Express and why they are useful.

   • One of the core feautres of Node.js is asynchronous programming, which means that the APIs in the Node.js library are non-blocking. The means that the server doesn't have to wait for an API to respond before moving on to the next API.
   • One core feature of Express is that it is a form of rapid server-side programming. Since it is a framework of Node.js, it helps to create extra functionality and simpler API.

2. Understand and explain the use of Middleware?

   • Middleware is functions that you use between different layers of software to connect them to other layers within the framework. They each have access to the HTTP req and res along the path the developer attaches them to. With Express Middleware you can add many different features and functions to your Express applications.

3. The basic principles of the REST architectural style.

   • REST is not specific to any particular protocol even though most people tend to think refer to is as REST over HTTP. REST is also cacheable, which means that the client and server can cache the resources for an improved performance within the application. Since all components follow the same guidelines, the uniform interface provided by REST makes the architecture simpler for developers.

4. Understand and explain the use of Express Routers.

   • Express Routers allow us to create a sort of map for out incoming CRUD requests and link them to the correct handlers based on the URL and HTTP Method we use. It helps to make it simple to build RESTful APIs.

5. Describe tooling used to manually test the correctness of an API.

   • There are a couple of different tools that can be used to test the API. The 2 popular tools we use at Lambda are Postman or Insomnia. These tools allow us to test our CRUD requests, HTTP status codes, response payload and headers, etc so that we are able to verify that our code is written properly and works as it should.

You are expected to be able to answer questions in these areas. Your responses contribute to your Sprint Challenge grade.

Instructions

Task 1: Project Set Up

• Create a forked copy of this project
• Add your team lead as collaborator on Github
• Clone your OWN version of the repository (Not Lambda's by mistake!)
• Create a new branch: git checkout -b <firstName-lastName>.
• Implement the project on your newly created <firstName-lastName> branch, committing changes regularly
• Push commits: git push origin <firstName-lastName>

Task 2: Project Requirements

Your finished project must include all of the following requirements:

NPM Scripts

• An npm script named "server" that uses nodemonto run the API server.
• Use nodemon as a development time dependency only that is not deployed to production.
• An npm script named "start" that uses node to run the API server.

Build an API

• Design and build endpoints for performing CRUD operations on projects and actions. When adding an action, make sure the project_id provided belongs to an existing project. If you try to add an action with an id of 3 and there is no project with that id the database will return an error.
• Add an endpoint for retrieving the list of actions for a project.
• Use an HTTP client like postman or insomnia to test the API's endpoints.
• Use Express Routers to organize the API's code.

In your solution, it is essential that you follow best practices and produce clean and professional results. You will be scored on your adherence to proper code style and good organization. Schedule time to review, refine, and assess your work and perform basic professional polishing including spell-checking and grammar-checking on your work. It is better to submit a challenge that meets MVP than one that attempts too much and does not.

Task 3: Stretch Goals

After finishing your required elements, you can push your work further. These goals may or may not be things you have learned in this module but they build on the material you just studied. Time allowing, stretch your limits and see if you can deliver on the following optional goals:

• Deploy the API to Heroku.
• Configure the API to support environment variables.
• Use middleware for validation of incoming data.

Submission format

Follow these steps for completing your project.

• [] Submit a Pull-Request to merge Branch into master (student's Repo). Please don't merge your own pull request
• Add your team lead as a reviewer on the pull-request
• Your team lead will count the project as complete after receiving your pull-request