MediaComem / comem-webserv

COMEM+ Web Services course

COMEM+ Web Services course

The goal of this course is to teach the generic concept of web service, focusing on RESTful APIs as one way to expose such a service. You will:

• Learn the core principles of the REST architectural style.
• Learn how to implement a RESTful API in JavaScript.
• Learn how to manage your source code on a collaborative platform.
• Learn how to deploy your RESTful API on a cloud application platform.

This course is a COMEM+ web development course taught at HEIG-VD.

• Plan
• What you will need
• Useful links
• Evaluation
  • Delivery

Plan

• Introduction

• Tooling

  • Command line
  • Version control with Git
  • Git branching
  • Collaborating with Git

• Basics

  • JavaScript
  • Node.js JavaScript runtime
  • npm Node.js package manager
  • RESTful APIs

• Creating a web service

  • Express web framework
  • MongoDB document-oriented database
  • Mongoose Object-Document Mapper

• Deploying your web service

  • Heroku cloud application platform

• Enriching your web service

  • RESTful API conventions
  • Express best practices
  • Utilizing Mongoose in Express (filtering, pagination, aggregation)
  • Express Authentication
  • RESTful API documentation with apiDoc

What you will need

• A Unix CLI (Git Bash is included with Git on Windows)
• Git
• A free GitHub account
• Google Chrome (recommended, any browser with developer tools will do)
• Node.js 6+
• Postman (recommended, any tool that makes raw HTTP requests will do)
• MongoDB
• A free Heroku account
• The Heroku CLI

Useful links

• Architecture & source code management diagrams
• Demonstration REST API implemented with Express (documentation)
• Command line cheatsheet
• Git cheatsheet
• Project suggestions

Evaluation

Web Service

Your REST API must be developed with the Express framework and use a MongoDB database. It must provide (at least):

• The API must provide user management:
  • New users must be able to register.
  • Existing users must be able to authenticate (to allow users to log in).
• The API must provide at least 2 other types of resources:
  • Both types must be linked together (e.g. aggregation or composition).
  • At least one of the types must be linked to users.
  • The API must provide minimal CRUD operations to manage and use those types in a mobile application.
• The API must use the knowledge learned during the course:
  • At least one resource must be a paginated list.
  • At least one resource must be a list with optional filters.
  • At least one resource must provide aggregated data from other resources using a MongoDB aggregation pipeline (e.g. the number of items created by a user).
  • The API must be developed as a backend to a mobile application using at least 2 mobile hardware features, for example:
    • At least one resource must be geolocated.
    • At least one resource must have one or multiple pictures (it is sufficient to store a picture URL or URLs in the database).
  • Sensitive operations must be protected by requiring valid authentication.
    • Authentication must be provided in the form of a JWT token or an equivalent mechanism.

Infrastructure

• The source code of your REST API must be in a repository on GitHub.
• Your REST API must be deployed on Heroku.

Documentation

• Your REST API must be documented.

Quality of the implementation

• You must follow REST best practices:
  • Your REST resources must use appropriate HTTP methods, headers and status codes.
  • Your REST resources must have a consistent URL hierarchy and/or naming structure.
• Your asynchronous code must be correct.
• Your Express routes must handle asynchronous operation errors.
• You must avoid excessive code duplication (e.g. using Express middleware).
• Your API must have basic validations on user input (e.g. using Mongoose validations).
• Your API must validate the existence of linked resources (e.g. when creating an item linked to a user).

Delivery

Send an e-mail no later than November 5th 2018 to Simon Oulevay with:

• The list of group members.
• The link to your source code repository on GitHub.
• The to your deployed REST API on Heroku.