SQL-fun

Your Task

Developers frequently have to create interfaces that allow non-developers to easily view and interact with information stored in databases. These interfaces are called content management systems (CMS). Your assignment this week is to build a command-line application from scratch to manage a company's employee database, using Node.js, Inquirer, and MySQL.

Because this Challenge will require the use of the Inquirer package, ensure that you install and use Inquirer version 8.2.4. To do so, use the following command in your project folder: npm i inquirer@8.2.4.

Because this application won’t be deployed, you’ll also need to create a walkthrough video that demonstrates its functionality and all of the following acceptance criteria being met. You’ll need to submit a link to the video and add it to the README of your project.

User Story

AS A business owner
I WANT to be able to view and manage the departments, roles, and employees in my company
SO THAT I can organize and plan my business

Acceptance Criteria

GIVEN a command-line application that accepts user input
WHEN I start the application
THEN I am presented with the following options: view all departments, view all roles, view all employees, add a department, add a role, add an employee, and update an employee role
WHEN I choose to view all departments
THEN I am presented with a formatted table showing department names and department ids
WHEN I choose to view all roles
THEN I am presented with the job title, role id, the department that role belongs to, and the salary for that role
WHEN I choose to view all employees
THEN I am presented with a formatted table showing employee data, including employee ids, first names, last names, job titles, departments, salaries, and managers that the employees report to
WHEN I choose to add a department
THEN I am prompted to enter the name of the department and that department is added to the database
WHEN I choose to add a role
THEN I am prompted to enter the name, salary, and department for the role and that role is added to the database
WHEN I choose to add an employee
THEN I am prompted to enter the employee’s first name, last name, role, and manager, and that employee is added to the database
WHEN I choose to update an employee role
THEN I am prompted to select an employee to update and their new role and this information is updated in the database 

Mock-Up

The following video shows an example of the application being used from the command line:

Getting Started

This Challenge will require a video submission. Refer to the Fullstack Blog Video Submission Guide for additional guidance on creating a video.

You’ll need to use the MySQL2 package to connect to your MySQL database and perform queries, and the Inquirer package to interact with the user via the command line.

Important: You will be committing a file that contains your database credentials. Make sure that your MySQL password is not used for any other personal accounts, because it will be visible on GitHub. In upcoming lessons, you will learn how to better secure this password, or you can start researching npm packages now that could help you.

You might also want to make your queries asynchronous. MySQL2 exposes a .promise() function on Connections to upgrade an existing non-Promise connection to use Promises. To learn more and make your queries asynchronous, refer to the npm documentation on MySQL2.

Design the database schema as shown in the following image:

As the image illustrates, your schema should contain the following three tables:

• department

  • id: INT PRIMARY KEY

  • name: VARCHAR(30) to hold department name

• role

  • id: INT PRIMARY KEY

  • title: VARCHAR(30) to hold role title

  • salary: DECIMAL to hold role salary

  • department_id: INT to hold reference to department role belongs to

• employee

  • id: INT PRIMARY KEY

  • first_name: VARCHAR(30) to hold employee first name

  • last_name: VARCHAR(30) to hold employee last name

  • role_id: INT to hold reference to employee role

  • manager_id: INT to hold reference to another employee that is the manager of the current employee (null if the employee has no manager)

You might want to use a separate file that contains functions for performing specific SQL queries you'll need to use. A constructor function or class could be helpful for organizing these. You might also want to include a seeds.sql file to pre-populate your database, making the development of individual features much easier.