omidkk / guardian_interview

Flask RESTful API with SQLAlchemy and Redis Integration

This is a sample README for a Flask application that demonstrates how to create a RESTful API using Flask, integrate SQLAlchemy for database operations, and use Redis for caching.

Table of Contents

• Project Description
• Features
• Prerequisites
• Installation
• Getting Started
• API Endpoints
• Creating Database Migrations
• Running the Application
• Testing the API
• Swagger Documentation
• Project Description

This Flask application serves as a template for creating a RESTful API with features such as token-based authentication, database operations using SQLAlchemy, and data caching with Redis.

Features

Flask RESTful API: Build a RESTful API using Flask to handle various HTTP requests.

SQLAlchemy Integration: Use SQLAlchemy for working with the database, creating models, and performing database operations.

Token-Based Authentication: Implement token-based authentication to secure API endpoints.

Redis Caching: Store and retrieve data in Redis for improved performance and reduced database load.

Database Migrations: Manage database schema changes and versioning using Alembic.

Swagger Documentation: Automatically generate API documentation using Flask-RESTx.

Unit Testing: Implement unit tests for your API endpoints.

Prerequisites

Before you start, ensure you have the following prerequisites installed:

• Python 3.10
• Flask
• Flask-RESTx
• SQLAlchemy
• Redis
• Alembic (for database migrations)
• Any other project-specific dependencies

Installation

• Python version >= 3.10

• Clone the repository:

• Create a virtual environment (recommended) and activate it:

  python -m venv venv
  venv/bin/activate
  

• Install the project dependencies:

  pip install -r requirements.txt

• Database Setup

  Create your database and update the database URL in your configuration file. in this project we used postgreSQL. SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI=postgresql://<username>:<password>@localhost/<database name>

• Redis Setup

  Configure Redis settings, including the Redis server host and port, in your configuration file. Adding Token Authentication

• Create tables
  flask db init after initializing db, add your models address to env.py file inside migrations directory then run flask db migrate and then flask db upgrade for building tables inside your database.

API Endpoints

• Home or Health checker By calling this api you can check the health of server and connection

  /

• User Management
  
  

  Create User: Create a new user account.
  POST /api/users
  
  Login: Authenticate a user and generate an access token.

  POST /api/login

• Card Management
  
  Create Card: Create a new card for a user.

  POST /api/cards
  
  Update Card: Update card details.

  PUT /api/cards
  
  List Cards: Get a list of all user cards.

  GET /api/list_cards
  
  Delete card: Delete a specific card

  DELETE /delete_card/<int:card_id>

• Transactions
  
  Create transaction: Create and add a new transaction for user.

  POST /create_transaction
  
  

  List transactions: List transactions in both 'detailed by description' and 'summary' options

  POST /list_transactions

Running the Application

Start the Flask development server:

flask run

Your Flask application will be accessible at http://localhost:5001.

Swagger Documentation

Access the Swagger documentation for your API by visiting /v1/doc in your web browser.

How to add additional API endpoints?

To add more API endpoints, create new resources and namespaces using Flask-RESTx. Define the route, request/response models, and business logic for each endpoint.

How do I customize the Swagger documentation?

You can customize the Swagger documentation by adding documentation strings and security definitions to your endpoints and models. Use the @quiz_namespace.doc and @quiz_namespace.expect decorators for this purpose.

How do I handle database schema changes?

Use Alembic to manage database schema changes. Create and apply migrations to update your database schema as needed.