Books Management API

A RESTful API built with Express, TypeScript, and MongoDB for managing books, authors, and categories in a digital library system.

Features

• Full CRUD operations for Books, Authors, and Categories
• MongoDB with Mongoose for data persistence
• TypeScript for type safety
• File upload support for book cover images (Multer)
• Advanced filtering for books (by author, categories, title)
• Soft delete functionality for books
• Automatic timestamps (createdAt, updatedAt) on all models
• Request logging with Morgan
• CORS support
• Custom error handling

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v14 or higher)
• MongoDB (local or remote instance)
• npm or yarn

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone <repository-url>
cd Books-Management-API-Coded

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Create a .env file in the root directory:

PORT=3000
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/books-management
NODE_ENV=development

4. Start MongoDB (if running locally)

Running the Application

Development Mode

npm run dev

Production Mode

npm run build
npm start

Type Checking

npm run type-check

The server will start on http://localhost:3000 (or the port specified in .env).

API Endpoints

Base URL

http://localhost:3000/api

Authors

• GET /api/authors - Get all authors (with populated books)
• GET /api/authors/:id - Get author by ID
• POST /api/authors - Create new author
• PUT /api/authors/:id - Update author
• DELETE /api/authors/:id - Delete author

Create Author Example:

{
  "name": "J.K. Rowling",
  "country": "United Kingdom"
}

Categories

• GET /api/categories - Get all categories
• GET /api/categories/:id - Get category by ID
• POST /api/categories - Create new category
• PUT /api/categories/:id - Update category name
• DELETE /api/categories/:id - Delete category

Create Category Example:

{
  "name": "Fantasy"
}

Books

• GET /api/books - Get all books (with filtering options)
• GET /api/books/:id - Get book by ID
• POST /api/books - Create new book (with optional cover image)
• PUT /api/books/:id - Update book (with optional cover image)
• DELETE /api/books/:id - Soft delete book

Create Book Example (JSON):

{
  "title": "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone",
  "author": "author_id_here",
  "categories": ["category_id1", "category_id2"]
}

Create Book with Cover Image: Use multipart/form-data with:

• title (text)
• author (text - author ID)
• categories (text - JSON array string)
• coverImage (file - image file)

Book Filtering

The GET /api/books endpoint supports query parameters:

• ?author=<authorId> - Filter by author ID
• ?categories=<categoryId> - Filter by single category ID
• ?categories=<id1,id2,id3> - Filter by multiple categories (comma-separated)
• ?title=<partialTitle> - Case-insensitive title search
• ?includeDeleted=true - Include soft-deleted books

Examples:

GET /api/books?author=123
GET /api/books?categories=456,789
GET /api/books?title=harry
GET /api/books?author=123&title=harry&categories=456,789
GET /api/books?includeDeleted=true

Data Models

Author

• name (string, required)
• country (string, required)
• books (array of ObjectId references)
• createdAt (Date, automatic)
• updatedAt (Date, automatic)

Category

• name (string, required, unique)
• books (array of ObjectId references)
• createdAt (Date, automatic)
• updatedAt (Date, automatic)

Book

• title (string, required)
• author (ObjectId reference to Author, required)
• categories (array of ObjectId references to Category)
• coverImage (string, optional - filename)
• deleted (boolean, default: false)
• createdAt (Date, automatic)
• updatedAt (Date, automatic)

File Uploads

Book cover images can be uploaded when creating or updating books:

• Supported formats: JPEG, JPG, PNG, GIF
• Maximum file size: 5MB
• Files are stored in the uploads/ directory
• Access uploaded images via: http://localhost:3000/uploads/filename.jpg

Soft Delete

Books support soft delete functionality:

• When a book is deleted, the deleted field is set to true
• Soft-deleted books are excluded from GET queries by default
• Use ?includeDeleted=true to include soft-deleted books in results
• The document is not removed from the database

Error Handling

The API returns consistent error responses:

{
  "success": false,
  "error": "Error message here"
}

Common HTTP status codes:

• 200 - Success
• 201 - Created
• 400 - Bad Request
• 404 - Not Found
• 500 - Internal Server Error

Postman Collection

A Postman collection is included: Books-Management-API.postman_collection.json

Import this file into Postman to test all endpoints with example requests.

Project Structure

Books-Management-API-Coded/
├── src/
│   ├── config/
│   │   └── database.ts
│   ├── controllers/
│   │   ├── authorController.ts
│   │   ├── categoryController.ts
│   │   └── bookController.ts
│   ├── middlewares/
│   │   ├── errorHandler.ts
│   │   ├── notFoundHandler.ts
│   │   └── upload.ts
│   ├── models/
│   │   ├── Author.ts
│   │   ├── Category.ts
│   │   └── Book.ts
│   ├── routes/
│   │   ├── authorRoutes.ts
│   │   ├── categoryRoutes.ts
│   │   ├── bookRoutes.ts
│   │   └── index.ts
│   ├── app.ts
│   └── server.ts
├── uploads/
├── .env.example
├── .gitignore
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
└── README.md

Technologies Used

• Express - Web framework
• TypeScript - Type-safe JavaScript
• MongoDB - Database
• Mongoose - MongoDB ODM
• Morgan - HTTP request logger
• CORS - Cross-origin resource sharing
• Multer - File upload handling
• dotenv - Environment variable management

License

ISC