Hardware Record Management System with REST Api

         

Create, search, update and delete hardware records in MongoDB database using simple REST Api or Console App.

Table of Contents

• Prerequisites
• Tech
• Documentation
  • Setup MongoDB database
  • Download MongoDB C/C++ drivers
  • Setup build via CMake
  • Execute build
  • Install & setup CROW via vcpkg
  • Run/Debug the project
  • Create from scratch
  • Method to input data
• How to use the project 🔴 Demo✅
  • Add / Insert a new record (document)
  • Update an existing document
  • Search using invoice number
  • Delete document of a hardware
  • Print collection
  • More with API
• Screenshots

Prerequisites

Make sure you have installed all of the following prerequisites on your development machine :

• Visual Studio 2022 - Download & install Desktop development with C++ workload.

• MongoDB Atlas account - Create a MongoDB Atlas account with a cluster. It provides an easy way to host and manage your data in the cloud.

• CMake - Download MSI x64 installer and install CMake. Make sure to add CMake to the system PATH for all users.

• Git - Download and install Git for Windows to clone the vcpkg repo.

Tech

• Crow C++ framework v1.0-5
• Microsoft vcpkg
• Templating (Mustache)
• MongoDB C/C++ drivers v1.23.0|r3.7.0

Documentation

There is a lot of stuff to understand so that you have the application running on the development machine. Following are the steps that explain both general concepts and development process to run the application in debugging mode :

Setup MongoDB database

• Inside MongoDB cluster, create database "HardwareRecords" with collection "HardwareCollection".
• Get the connection string (URI) to the cluster and create a new environment variable with key as MONGODB_URI and value as the connection string (URI).
• Create new user with password and add password to the URI string.
• Whitelist IP address of the development machine.

Download MongoDB C/C++ drivers

• Download and extract seperate release tarball for C & C++ drivers :
  • C driver - extract it to C:\Repos\mongo-c-driver-1.23.0.
  • C++ driver - extract it to C:\Repos\mongo-cxx-driver-r3.7.0.

Setup build via CMake

• C driver - Navigate to C:\Repos\mongo-c-driver-1.23.0\cmake-build and run the below command using CMake in powershell/terminal as an administrator :

  cmake -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 -S "C:\Repos\mongo-c-driver-1.23.0" -B "C:\Repos\mongo-c-driver-1.23.0\cmake-build"

• C++ driver - Navigate to C:\Repos\mongo-cxx-driver-r3.7.0\build and run the below command via CMake in powershell/terminal as an administrator :

  cmake .. -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 -DCMAKE_CXX_STANDARD=17 -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="/Zc:__cplusplus /EHsc" -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=C:\mongo-c-driver -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=C:\mongo-cxx-driver

Execute build

• C driver - Under C:\Repos\mongo-c-driver-1.23.0\cmake-build run the below command in powershell/terminal as an administrator to build and install the driver :

  cmake --build . --config RelWithDebInfo --target install

• C++ driver - Under C:\Repos\mongo-cxx-driver-r3.7.0\build run the below command in powershell/terminal as an administrator to build and install the driver :

  cmake --build . --target install

Install and setup Crow using vcpkg

• Clone the vcpkg repo :

  git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git

• Run the bootstrap script in powershell/terminal as an administrator to build vcpkg :

  .\vcpkg\bootstrap-vcpkg.bat

• Install Crow libraries for the project :

  vcpkg install crow

• Link vcpkg with existing installation of Visual Studio 2022 :

  vcpkg integrate install

Run/Debug the project

• Clone repository or download ConsoleApplication and RestApi .zip files.
• Extract both to open ConsoleApplication.sln and RestApi.sln using Visual Studio.
• Run both projects using Local Windows Debugger.

Create from scratch

• Create a new project in Visual Studio with template Console App.
• Configure your new project with project name ConsoleApplication.
• Open project properties. On the dialog box that appears, in the Configuration Properties, set C/C++ as follows :
  • General - add Additional Include Directories C:\mongo-cxx-driver\include\mongocxx\v_noabi;C:\mongo-cxx-driver\include\bsoncxx\v_noabi;C:\mongo-c-driver\include\libmongoc-1.0;C:\mongo-c-driver\include\libbson-1.0;%(AdditionalIncludeDirectories).
  • Language - change the C++ Language Standard to C++17.
  • Command Line - add /Zc:__cplusplus in the Additional Options field.
• In the Configuration Properties, go to linker input and add the driver libs in Additional Dependencies section - C:\mongo-c-driver\lib\bson-1.0.lib;C:\mongo-c-driver\lib\mongoc-1.0.lib;C:\mongo-cxx-driver\lib\bsoncxx.lib;C:\mongo-cxx-driver\lib\mongocxx.lib;%(AdditionalDependencies).
• In the Configuration Properties, go to Debugging and add Environment path to the driver executables - PATH=C:\mongo-c-driver\bin;C:\mongo-cxx-driver\bin.
• Apply changes to the dialog.
• Add ConsoleApplication.cpp to project with the same file available in repository ConsoleApplication.cpp.
• Add header file to the project from the repository Methods.h.
• Now debug/run the project to view the final build.

Note Follow same process for RestApi project.

Method to input data

The user can input data in 2 ways :

• Using console interface through ConsoleApplication.exe.
• Via RestApi endpoints through Postman.

How to use the project

The functionalities of the project are explained below :

Add / Insert

Create a new document into collection.

• Console - Select 1st option

• API - Endpoint : localhost:18080/api/addNew

Update

The user can modify any document data by passing invoice number.

• Console - Select 2nd option

• API - Endpoint : localhost:18080/api/update/KEY/VALUE

  • KEY : Select key you want to update : brand | dateOfPurchase | unitsSold
  • VALUE : It should not contain any whitespace.

• 

Search

Find the hardware using invoice.

• Console - Select 3rd option

• API - Endpoint : localhost:18080/api/find

Delete

Delete the hardware from collection via invoice.

• Console - Select 4th option

• API - Endpoint : localhost:18080/api/delete

Print

Print all the documents available at once.

• Console - Select 5th option

• API - Endpoint : localhost:18080/api/hardwares

More with API

• By following the route http://localhost:18080/hardwares in the browser, all documents are rendered on screen using Bulma(CSS framework) for a better user experience.

• Use the route http://localhost:18080/hardware/INVOICE in the browser, to search for a document by replacing INVOICE in url with the document invoice number.

Screenshots