- Express Routing
- Reading Request data from body and URL parameters
- Sub-routes
- API design and development.
Use Node.js
and Express
to build an API that performs CRUD operations on blog posts
.
- import this repository into your account
- clone your copy of this repository.
- CD into the folder where you cloned the repository.
- Type
npm install
to download all dependencies. - To start the server, type
npm run server
from the root folder (where the package.json file is). The server is configured to restart automatically as you make changes.
The data
folder contains a database populated with test posts
.
Database access will be done using the db.js
file included inside the data
folder.
The db.js
publishes the following methods:
find()
: calling find returns a promise that resolves to an array of all theposts
contained in the database.findById()
: this method expects anid
as it's only parameter and returns the post corresponding to theid
provided or an empty array if no post with thatid
is found.insert()
: calling insert passing it apost
object will add it to the database and return an object with theid
of the inserted post. The object looks like this:{ id: 123 }
.update()
: accepts two arguments, the first is theid
of the post to update and the second is an object with thechanges
to apply. It returns the count of updated records. If the count is 1 it means the record was updated correctly.remove()
: the remove method accepts anid
as its first parameter and upon successfully deleting the post from the database it returns the number of records deleted.findPostComments()
: the findPostComments accepts apostId
as its first parameter and returns all comments on the post associated with the post id.findCommentById()
: accepts anid
and returns the comment associated with that id.insertComment()
: calling insertComment while passing it acomment
object will add it to the database and return an object with theid
of the inserted comment. The object looks like this:{ id: 123 }
. This method will throw an error if thepost_id
field in thecomment
object does not match a valid post id in the database.
Now that we have a way to add, update, remove and retrieve data from the provided database, it is time to work on the API.
A Blog Post in the database has the following structure:
{
title: "The post title", // String, required
contents: "The post contents", // String, required
created_at: Mon Aug 14 2017 12:50:16 GMT-0700 (PDT) // Date, defaults to current date
updated_at: Mon Aug 14 2017 12:50:16 GMT-0700 (PDT) // Date, defaults to current date
}
A Comment in the database has the following structure:
{
text: "The text of the comment", // String, required
post_id: "The id of the associated post", // Integer, required, must match the id of a post entry in the database
created_at: Mon Aug 14 2017 12:50:16 GMT-0700 (PDT) // Date, defaults to current date
updated_at: Mon Aug 14 2017 12:50:16 GMT-0700 (PDT) // Date, defaults to current date
}
- Add the code necessary to implement the endpoints listed below.
- Separate the endpoints that begin with
/api/posts
into a separateExpress Router
.
Configure the API to handle to the following routes:
Method | Endpoint | Description |
---|---|---|
POST | /api/posts | Creates a post using the information sent inside the request body . |
POST | /api/posts/:id/comments | Creates a comment for the post with the specified id using information sent inside of the request body . |
GET | /api/posts | Returns an array of all the post objects contained in the database. |
GET | /api/posts/:id | Returns the post object with the specified id. |
GET | /api/posts/:id/comments | Returns an array of all the comment objects associated with the post with the specified id. |
DELETE | /api/posts/:id | Removes the post with the specified id and returns the deleted post object. You may need to make additional calls to the database in order to satisfy this requirement. |
PUT | /api/posts/:id | Updates the post with the specified id using data from the request body . Returns the modified document, NOT the original. |
When the client makes a POST
request to /api/posts
:
//
-
If the request body is missing the
title
orcontents
property:- cancel the request.
- respond with HTTP status code
400
(Bad Request). - return the following JSON response:
{ errorMessage: "Please provide title and contents for the post." }
.
-
If the information about the post is valid:
- save the new post the the database.
- return HTTP status code
201
(Created). - return the newly created post.
-
If there's an error while saving the post:
- cancel the request.
- respond with HTTP status code
500
(Server Error). - return the following JSON object:
{ error: "There was an error while saving the post to the database" }
.
When the client makes a POST
request to /api/posts/:id/comments
:
-
If the post with the specified
id
is not found:- return HTTP status code
404
(Not Found). - return the following JSON object:
{ message: "The post with the specified ID does not exist." }
.
- return HTTP status code
-
If the request body is missing the
text
property:- cancel the request.
- respond with HTTP status code
400
(Bad Request). - return the following JSON response:
{ errorMessage: "Please provide text for the comment." }
.
-
If the information about the comment is valid:
- save the new comment the the database.
- return HTTP status code
201
(Created). - return the newly created comment.
-
If there's an error while saving the comment:
- cancel the request.
- respond with HTTP status code
500
(Server Error). - return the following JSON object:
{ error: "There was an error while saving the comment to the database" }
.
When the client makes a GET
request to /api/posts
:
//
- If there's an error in retrieving the posts from the database:
- cancel the request.
- respond with HTTP status code
500
. - return the following JSON object:
{ error: "The posts information could not be retrieved." }
.
When the client makes a GET
request to /api/posts/:id
:
//
-
If the post with the specified
id
is not found:- return HTTP status code
404
(Not Found). - return the following JSON object:
{ message: "The post with the specified ID does not exist." }
.
- return HTTP status code
-
If there's an error in retrieving the post from the database:
- cancel the request.
- respond with HTTP status code
500
. - return the following JSON object:
{ error: "The post information could not be retrieved." }
.
When the client makes a GET
request to /api/posts/:id/comments
:
-
If the post with the specified
id
is not found:- return HTTP status code
404
(Not Found). - return the following JSON object:
{ message: "The post with the specified ID does not exist." }
.
- return HTTP status code
-
If there's an error in retrieving the comments from the database:
- cancel the request.
- respond with HTTP status code
500
. - return the following JSON object:
{ error: "The comments information could not be retrieved." }
.
When the client makes a DELETE
request to /api/posts/:id
:
-
If the post with the specified
id
is not found:- return HTTP status code
404
(Not Found). - return the following JSON object:
{ message: "The post with the specified ID does not exist." }
.
- return HTTP status code
-
If there's an error in removing the post from the database:
- cancel the request.
- respond with HTTP status code
500
. - return the following JSON object:
{ error: "The post could not be removed" }
.
When the client makes a PUT
request to /api/posts/:id
:
-
If the post with the specified
id
is not found:- return HTTP status code
404
(Not Found). - return the following JSON object:
{ message: "The post with the specified ID does not exist." }
.
- return HTTP status code
-
If the request body is missing the
title
orcontents
property:- cancel the request.
- respond with HTTP status code
400
(Bad Request). - return the following JSON response:
{ errorMessage: "Please provide title and contents for the post." }
.
-
If there's an error when updating the post:
- cancel the request.
- respond with HTTP status code
500
. - return the following JSON object:
{ error: "The post information could not be modified." }
.
-
If the post is found and the new information is valid:
- update the post document in the database using the new information sent in the
request body
. - return HTTP status code
200
(OK). - return the newly updated post.
- update the post document in the database using the new information sent in the
To work on the stretch problems you'll need to enable the cors
middleware. Follow these steps:
- add the
cors
npm module:npm i cors
. - add
server.use(cors())
afterserver.use(express.json())
.
Create a new React application and connect it to your server:
- Use
create-react-app
to create an application inside the root folder, name itclient
. - From the React application connect to the
/api/posts
endpoint in the API and show the list of posts. - Style the list of posts however you see fit.