MP #3: APIed Piper

Due: April 1st, 2019, 11.59PM CDT

Table of Contents

1. Assignment
2. Tips
3. Rules
4. Environment Setup Guide
5. Submission Details

Assignment

The Basic Goal : Create an API for a task management / todo list.

The Fun Goal : Imagine your hot new startup, Llama.io, is creating the best todo webapp on the market. You're competing in a crowded space with hot players like Asana, Wunderlist, Google Keep, etc, so your API has to be top-notch.

Task

Implement an API with the following end-points (they would be preceded by something like http://localhost:4000/api/). Your implementation should use Node, Express and Mongoose.

Endpoints	Actions	Intended Outcome
users	GET	Respond with a List of users
	POST	Create a new user. Respond with details of new user
users/:id	GET	Respond with details of specified user or 404 error
	PUT	Replace entire user with supplied user or 404 error
	DELETE	Delete specified user or 404 error
tasks	GET	Respond with a List of tasks
	POST	Create a new task. Respond with details of new task
tasks/:id	GET	Respond with details of specified task or 404 error
	PUT	Replace entire task with supplied task or 404 error
	DELETE	Delete specified user or 404 error

NOTE: In addition, the API has the following JSON encoded query string parameters for the GET requests to the users and tasks endpoints:

Parameter	Description
where	filter results based on JSON query
sort	specify the order in which to sort each specified field (1- ascending; -1 - descending)
select	specify the set of fields to include or exclude in each document (1 - include; 0 - exclude)
skip	specify the number of results to skip in the result set; useful for pagination
limit	specify the number of results to return (default should be 100 for tasks and unlimited for users)
count	if set to true, return the count of documents that match the query (instead of the documents themselves)

Here are some example queries and what they would return:

Query	Description
http://localhost:4000/api/users?where={"_id": "55099652e5993a350458b7b7"}	Returns a list with a single user with the specified ID
http://localhost:4000/api/tasks?where={"completed": true}	Returns a list of completed tasks
http://localhost:4000/api/tasks?where={"_id": {"$in": ["59f930d6b1596b0cb3e82953","5a1b6d7bd72ba9106fe9239c"]}}	Returns a set of tasks
http://localhost:4000/api/users?sort={"name": 1}	Returns a list of users sorted by name
http://localhost:4000/api/users?select={"_id": 0}	Returns a list of users without the _id field
http://localhost:4000/api/users?skip=60&limit=20	Returns user number 61 to 80

The API should be able to handle any combination of those parameters in a single request. For example, the following is a valid GET request:

http://localhost:4000/api/users?sort={"name": 1}&skip=60&limit=20

Here is the User Schema:

1. "name" - String
2. "email" - String
3. "pendingTasks" - [String] - The _id fields of the pending tasks that this user has
4. "dateCreated" - Date - should be set automatically by server

Here is the Task Schema:

1. "name" - String
2. "description" - String
3. "deadline" - Date
4. "completed" - Boolean
5. "assignedUser" - String - The _id field of the user this task is assigned to - default ""
6. "assignedUserName" - String - The name field of the user this task is assigned to - default "unassigned"
7. "dateCreated" - Date - should be set automatically by server to present date

We assume that each task can be assigned only to one user.

Requirements

1. Your database should be on MongoDB Atlas. It should contain at least 20 users and 100 tasks (about half of which should be completed) (We provided scripts for you in the database_scripts folder. Read below how to use these scripts). NOTE: Please add "Allow access from anywhere" to your cluster in the IP Whitelist" (This is usually not a good practice in real use. Here is just easier for us to grade your mp)

2. Responses from your API should be a JSON object with two fields. The first field should be named message and should contain a human readable String. The second field should be named data and should contain the actual JSON response object. For example, here is a valid response:

{
    "message": "OK",
    "data": {
        "_id": "55099652e5993a350458b7b7",
        "email": "khandek2@illinois.edu",
        "name": "Sujay Khandekar"
    }
}

3. Error responses from your API should also also be a JSON object with a message and data fields. Messages have to sensible and human readable so that on the client side it can be displayed to the user. Also, it should be independent of the server side technology that you are using. For example, your API should not return an error message directly from Mongoose to the client. For examples of error messages, take a look at the API reference implementation that we have provided.

4. Your API should respond with appropriate HTTP status codes for both successful and error responses. You should at least have the following codes: 200 (success), 201 (created), 404 (not found), 500 (server error).

5. You should implement the query string functionality by using the methods provided by Mongoose (as opposed to querying Mongoose for all the results and then doing the filtering/sorting/skipping etc. in your Node/Express application code).

6. Have server side validation for:

   • Users cannot be created (or updated) without a name or email. All other fields that the user did not specify should be set to reasonable values.
   • Multiple users with the same email cannot exist.
   • Tasks cannot be created (or updated) without a name or a deadline. All other fields that the user did not specify should be set to reasonable values.

Tips

• Start early!
• Please DO NOT delete the .gitignore file from the project
• Check out Postman to your API
• Free MongoDB - MongoDB Atlas
• You don't need to host anywhere, we will check out your code locally

How to use the DB Scripts

Assuming your API is fully operational (you need to have implement /users and /tasks endpoints for your API), these scripts (in database_scripts/ folder) will populate and clear your database as needed. NOTE: Use Python3 to run following codes

dbClean.py

python3 dbClean.py -u "localhost" -p 4000

You can change "localhost" and the port number to match your own running api server. Leave the quotation marks. DO NOT include "/api/" or "/user" etc.

dbFill.py

python3 dbFill.py -u "localhost" -p 4000 -n 20 -t 100

Once again, change the url and port number to match your own running api server. You can populate your database with X users and Y tasks (in the above case, 20 and 100 respectively). This will randomly generate users with realistic names and emails as well as realistic tasks. Tasks will have a 50% chance of being completed and a 60% chance of being assigned. If num_tasks >> num_users, users will likely have multiple tasks assigned to them. A task will have one assigned user at most.

task.txt

Contains sample task descriptions. Edit if you want, I don't care.

Rules

1. This is an individual assignment. No collaboration is permitted.
2. It is not permitted to copy/paste code that is not your own. You are, however, free to look at different code sources for inspiration and clarity. All sources (code as well as reading material) that you reference to complete this assignment must be declared in the submission.
3. If you think something you’re doing might not be acceptable, please ask on Piazza.

Environment Setup Guide

1. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/uiuc-web-programming/mp3_starter_19.git mp3, then cd mp3
2. Install dependencies: npm install
3. Run the dev server: npm start or nodemon --exec node server.js to automatically restart the server on save.

Submission Details

Submission Form