mahamshahid18 / valet-app-v2-backend

This is the backend implementation (REST API) for an application which aims to automate the general flow of valet parking systems by handling the ticket generation, payment, and verification of payment digitally.

Valet Ticketing Application 🚙🅿🎫

You can view details about this application here. This document only discusses the backend implementation for the application.

Backend Implementation 👩‍💻

I decided to make the backend as a REST API, implemented using Node.js and Express. The database that I used in the first version was MySQL but I switched to MongoDB in this version due to its flexibility - which was suitable for this case. For the ticket propagation, I decided to use Twilio SMS API.

App Structure 📂

The backend app has been split into various logically related parts, to practice separation of concerns. The express application uses middleware for related endpoints. The app contains the following parts/modules:

• auth: contains an AuthController which acts as middleware for authentication related endpoints. There is also a TokenCheck module available which is for validating tokens sent by the client (authorization)
• db: contains a module which deals with database connection
• error: contains a module which acts as a generic error handler. It is used as error handling middleware in the whole application
• qrcode: contains the QrCodeController which groups together endpoints for generating qrcode for ticket verification
• ticket: contains a module which groups together the endpoint for generating a valet ticket, as well as the functionality for sending out text messages
• user: contains a User file which defines the structure for a user object (to be stored in the db), i.e it defines a schema for usage with mongooge. There is also a UserController which acts as middleware for all endpoints related to the user actions
• valet: contains a Valet file which defines the structure for a valet object (to be stored in the db), i.e it defines a schema for usage with mongooge. There is also a ValetController which acts as middleware for all endpoints related to the valet

REST API Testing 🌧️

Endpoints exposed in the REST API were tested using Postman Client.

Backend Deployment ☁️

The backend is deployed on Heroku cloud.