Task Management REST API

Developer: Krishna Naicker (@KrishnaNaicker)
Date: October 18, 2025

📋 Project Overview

A RESTful API for managing tasks built with Node.js, Express.js, and MongoDB. This API provides full CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations with input validation, error handling, pagination, and sorting capabilities.

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✨ Features

✅ Create new tasks with title, description, and status
✅ Read all tasks or get a specific task by ID
✅ Update task status or description
✅ Delete tasks
✅ Input Validation - Required fields and status enum validation
✅ Error Handling - Invalid IDs, missing fields, not found errors
✅ Pagination - Query parameters for page and limit
✅ Sorting - Automatic sorting by creation date (newest first)

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🛠️ Technologies Used

• Node.js - JavaScript runtime
• Express.js - Web framework
• MongoDB - NoSQL database
• Mongoose - MongoDB ODM
• dotenv - Environment variables management
• cors - Cross-origin resource sharing

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📁 Project Structure

task-management-api/
├── config/
│   └── database.js          # MongoDB connection
├── controllers/
│   └── taskController.js    # Business logic
├── models/
│   └── Task.js              # Task schema
├── routes/
│   └── taskRoutes.js        # API routes
├── .env                     # Environment variables
├── .gitignore               # Git ignore file
├── server.js                # Entry point
├── package.json             # Dependencies
└── README.md                # Documentation

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🚀 Installation & Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v14 or higher)
• MongoDB Atlas account or local MongoDB
• Postman (for testing)

Steps

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/KrishnaNaicker/task-management-api.git
cd task-management-api

2. Install dependencies

npm install

3. Create .env file in root directory

PORT=5000
MONGODB_URI=your_mongodb_connection_string_here

4. Start the server

# Development mode (with auto-restart)
npm run dev

# Production mode
npm start

5. Server should be running

🚀 Server running on port 5000
📍 API Base URL: http://localhost:5000
✅ MongoDB Connected Successfully

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📡 API Endpoints

Base URL

http://localhost:5000

Endpoints Overview

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/	API information
POST	/tasks	Create a new task
GET	/tasks	Get all tasks (with pagination)
GET	/tasks/:id	Get task by ID
PUT	/tasks/:id	Update a task
DELETE	/tasks/:id	Delete a task

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1. Create a Task

Request:

POST /tasks
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "title": "Complete API Assessment",
  "description": "Build Task Management REST API",
  "status": "in-progress"
}

Response (201 Created):

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "_id": "67xxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    "title": "Complete API Assessment",
    "description": "Build Task Management REST API",
    "status": "in-progress",
    "createdAt": "2025-10-18T07:00:00.000Z",
    "__v": 0
  }
}

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2. Get All Tasks

Request:

GET /tasks

With Pagination:

GET /tasks?page=1&limit=5

Response (200 OK):

{
  "success": true,
  "count": 5,
  "total": 10,
  "totalPages": 2,
  "currentPage": 1,
  "data": [
    {
      "_id": "67xxxxx",
      "title": "Complete API Assessment",
      "description": "Build Task Management REST API",
      "status": "in-progress",
      "createdAt": "2025-10-18T07:00:00.000Z",
      "__v": 0
    }
    // ... more tasks
  ]
}

Note: Tasks are automatically sorted by creation date (newest first).

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3. Get Task by ID

Request:

GET /tasks/67xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Response (200 OK):

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "_id": "67xxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    "title": "Complete API Assessment",
    "description": "Build Task Management REST API",
    "status": "in-progress",
    "createdAt": "2025-10-18T07:00:00.000Z",
    "__v": 0
  }
}

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4. Update a Task

Request:

PUT /tasks/67xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "status": "completed",
  "description": "Successfully completed the API!"
}

Response (200 OK):

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "_id": "67xxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    "title": "Complete API Assessment",
    "description": "Successfully completed the API!",
    "status": "completed",
    "createdAt": "2025-10-18T07:00:00.000Z",
    "__v": 0
  }
}

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5. Delete a Task

Request:

DELETE /tasks/67xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Response (200 OK):

{
  "success": true,
  "message": "Task deleted successfully",
  "data": {
    "_id": "67xxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    "title": "Complete API Assessment",
    "description": "Successfully completed the API!",
    "status": "completed",
    "createdAt": "2025-10-18T07:00:00.000Z",
    "__v": 0
  }
}

---

🔍 Task Schema

{
  title: String (required, max 100 characters),
  description: String (optional, max 500 characters),
  status: String (enum: ['pending', 'in-progress', 'completed'], default: 'pending'),
  createdAt: Date (default: current date)
}

---

⚠️ Error Handling

Invalid Task ID

{
  "error": "Invalid task ID format"
}

Task Not Found

{
  "error": "Task not found"
}

Missing Required Field

{
  "error": "Title is required"
}

Invalid Status Value

{
  "error": "Status must be pending, in-progress, or completed"
}

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🧪 Testing with Postman

1. Import the collection or create requests manually
2. Test all endpoints with valid and invalid data
3. Verify error handling works correctly
4. Test pagination with different page and limit values
5. Verify sorting by creation date

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📦 Dependencies

{
  "express": "^4.18.2",
  "mongoose": "^8.0.0",
  "dotenv": "^16.3.1",
  "cors": "^2.8.5"
}

Dev Dependencies:

{
  "nodemon": "^3.0.1"
}

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🎯 Assessment Requirements Completed

✅ MongoDB database named taskmanager
✅ Task model with all required fields
✅ All 5 API routes implemented (POST, GET, GET by ID, PUT, DELETE)
✅ Input validation (title required, status enum)
✅ Error handling (invalid IDs, missing fields, not found)
✅ Tested in Postman with screenshots
✅ BONUS: Pagination implemented
✅ BONUS: Sorting by creation date

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👨‍💻 Author

Krishna Naicker
GitHub: @KrishnaNaicker

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📄 License

This project is for assessment purposes.

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**I am truly grateful for the opportunity to be considered for the next round and look forward to the possibility of contributing to the innovative work at Spydarr Web Technologies.

Thank you once again for this wonderful opportunity! 🙏**