Photos API

A RESTful API for managing photos and photographers with token-based authentication.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Ruby 3.4.7
• SQLite 3.4+
• Bundler

Setup

# Install dependencies
bundle install

# Setup database and import sample photos
rails db:setup
rake import_csv

# Start the server
rails server

The API will be available at http://localhost:3000

API Documentation: http://localhost:3000/api-docs

API Overview

Authentication

All endpoints (except signup/login) require authentication via Bearer token:

# 1. Sign up
curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/v1/signup \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"user": {"name": "John Doe", "email": "john@example.com", "password": "Password123!"}}'

# 2. Use the returned token
curl -X GET http://localhost:3000/api/v1/photos \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN_HERE"

Architecture Decisions

Rails 8 + SQLite

• Rails 8 for rapid API development, SQLite is sufficient for this purpose. Postgres would be my choice for production.

Simple Token Based Authentication

• Simpler implementation for time-constrained challenge, would most likely use OAUTH / JWT in production apps

external_xxx columns

• In the photos and photographers models, I've made a design decision to make this scalable to handle any source. The idea being that the app could house photos from various providers.

JSON Columns for Photo URLs

• Store multiple image sizes efficiently in a single column which makes it easy to add/remove image sizes without migrations. Since urls are most likely not to be a part of any deep searching, seems like a safe bet. In Postgres, which I'd use for a production app, jsonb field are indexable and searchable. So this would be a reporting solution if needed.

Soft Deletes

• Preserve data integrity by marking records as deleted vs hard deletes and allows recovery if needed
• Maintains referential integrity, and audit friendly.

Testing

Run Tests

# All tests
bundle exec rspec

What I'd add if more time was allowed.

• More Search & Filtering - Full-text search,
• Rate Limiting - Prevent API abuse (Rack::Attack)
• Caching - Redis for frequently accessed photos and photographers
• Photo uploads?? using carrier wave and S3
• Background jobs with Sidekiq for uploads
• Counter caching for Photographer Photos

Production Deployment

Rails 8 comes with a Dockerfile and (Kamal) for deployments .

Environment Variables

Create a .env file with:

# Database (for production you'd use PostgreSQL)
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:pass@localhost/photos_api_production

Deploy with Kamal

# Setup (first time)
kamal setup

# Deploy updates
kamal deploy

Import CSV Data

rake import_csv