Book Search

This cleverly named application is a Ruby on Rails API built to search and filter books using the OpenLibrary.org API.

The app is currently hosted on Heroku: https://sheltered-fjord-62597.herokuapp.com - In postman/browser/similar app you can use the aforementioned URL + endpoint + desired parameters. See below for examples.

Usage

Param	Required?	Input	Example	Note
title	yes*	string	/api/v1/search?title=american+gods
author	yes*	string	/api/v1/search?author=gaiman
sort_by	no	'title' or 'author'	/api/v1/search?author=gaiman&sort_by=title	if not entered, results will sort by title
order_by	no	'asc' or 'desc'	/api/v1/search?author=gaiman&sort_by=title&order_by=desc	if not entered, results will sort by ascending (asc)

*Either title or author has to be used in the search, otherwise you will receive a 400 error code. Both can be used, but at least one must be specified

Returned Values

The returned JSON returns basic search results. The following keys are returned:

"is_search_unique": this key returns a boolean and informs the user if the combined search params for author and title are previously unsearched. Future development will see this value used for response caching.

"books": this key returns an array of the searched results. Nested objects include the title of the found work ('title': 'American Gods') and an array of authors (author: ['Neil Gaiman'])

Examples

https://sheltered-fjord-62597.herokuapp.com/api/v1/search?title=american+gods returns:

{
    "is_search_unique": true,
    "books": [
        {
            "title": "\"African American Men Struggle to Seek God\"",
            "author": [
                "Melba Eldridge-Lewis"
            ]
        },
        {
            "title": "\"From American Dream to God's Destiny\"",
            "author": [
                "Robert, Louis Huber"
            ]
        }...

https://sheltered-fjord-62597.herokuapp.com/api/v1/search?title=american+gods&author=gaiman returns:

{
    "is_search_unique": false,
    "books": [
        {
            "title": "American Gods",
            "author": [
                "Neil Gaiman"
            ]
        },
        {
            "title": "American Gods",
            "author": [
                "Neil Gaiman"
            ]
        }...

https://sheltered-fjord-62597.herokuapp.com/api/v1/search?author=gaiman&sort_by=title returns:

{
    "is_search_unique": false,
    "books": [
        {
            "title": "A Game of You",
            "author": [
                "Neil Gaiman"
            ]
        },
        {
            "title": "Absolute Sandman Vol. 5.",
            "author": [
                "Neil Gaiman"
            ]
        }...

https://sheltered-fjord-62597.herokuapp.com/api/v1/search?author=gaiman&sort_by=title&order_by=desc returns:

{
    "is_search_unique": false,
    "books": [
        {
            "title": "Zerbrechliche Dinge",
            "author": [
                "Neil Gaiman"
            ]
        },
        {
            "title": "Worlds' End",
            "author": [
                "Neil Gaiman"
            ]
        }...

Getting Started in Development

See below to get started.

Prerequisites

Note: Book Search is built using Rails 5.2.4 and Ruby 2.6.3. To ensure you have these versions installed, run:

$ ruby -v

You should see a response similar to:

ruby 2.6.3

and if running

$ rails -v

response:

Rails 5.2.4

If neither are installed, this tutorial is an excellent source to get you up and running on macOS.

Installing

Fork and then clone this repository to your local machine

$ git clone https://github.com/mdevoe12/book_search.git

Change directories to the newly cloned down repo

$ cd book_search

Once in the directory, bundle: (this may take a bit of time)

$ bundle

Create the database (Postgres is used for Book Search):

$ rake db:create

Migrate the database:

$ rake db:migrate

To launch this application in development, run:

$ rails s

When using development, you can use the above described endpoints. However, instead of using the Heroku URL, use localhost:3000.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

Please make sure to update tests as appropriate.

License

MIT

mdevoe12 / book_search