DJANGO SURVEY API

STACK

language: Python3
Framework: Django
Database: MongoDB
Database connector: Djongo
Infrastructure: Docker and Docker Compose

SOLUTION APPROACH

Code

Django framework is used to build this API. Tests are also done with the Framework's test suite. Used Django models in such a way that creates 2 Mongo DB collections. SurveyQuestion to contain survey questions created and SurveyAnswer to contain answers provided and answers are linked to the questions using ForeignKey. .env is used to store the application database secrets and other application related secrets.

Infrastructure

To achieve the requirement of persistent data solutions, the API and Database are seperated from each other within the same network. The API and database containers use persistent storage volume so Data is intact should the containers restart for any reason. Containers connect to each other using container names. Database secrets have been set variables gotten from environment variables in both the code and Docker compose files. This is to help us achieve some form of security and could be improved on in production environments.

TESTING

In order to run the tests for the application locally run python3 manage.py test. This is also included in the docker build step to ensure only code that passed tests is built.

DEPLOY SOLUTION

Before you deploy, kindly create and fill in the generic details in mongo-init.js and envsetup.sh to have the database details that you want to use from the "copy" format placeholder files.

Using Docker Compose

This solution is deployed using Docker compose. The Docker compose setup includes 2 separate containers which are Mongo DB container and Survey API container.
To deploy solution run ./envsetup.sh to create the environment variables to be used by the Docker Compose file then docker-compose up --build -d to start the application.
To destroy solution run docker-compose down

Using CI - GitHub Actions

test.yml - Pull Requests will Trigger tests
deploy.yml - Merge to Master branch will deploy the API using Docker Compose since on a server.

Running locally

To run the code locally (out of docker)

Test with python3 manage.py test
Start API with python3 manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8080

ACCESS API ENDPOINTS (LOCALLY)

To access the API, you can use PostMan or any other HTTP Client of your choice

To create a survery question - make a POST request to http://localhost:8080/api/survey/createsurvey with the below JSON format as Body

{
    "surveyQuestion": "Survery Question",
}

Where "surveyQuestion" is a string with the Survey question.

To create a survery question options - make a POST request to http://localhost:8080/api/survey/createsurveyoptions with the below JSON format as Body

{
    "surveyQuestion": ID,
    "surveyOptions": ["Option1", "Option2", "...", "Option N"]
}

Where "surveyQuestion" is the ID of the Survey question and "surveyOptions" are the available options to answer the Survey.

To answer a survey - make a POST request to http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/survey/submitanswer with the below JSON format as Body

{
    "surveyAnswer": "Chosen Answer",
    "surveyQuestion": "Survey Question ID"
}

Where "surveyAnswer" is a string with the Survey answer and "surveyQuestion" is the ID referencing the survey question answered.

To retrieve the results of a survey - make a GET request to http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/survey/getanswer/id. Where "id" is the Survey Question ID whose answers are to be revealed. The answers are shown in JSON.
To retrieve all survey questions options and view their ID and Options - make a GET request to http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/survey/getsurveyoptions.
To retrieve all survey questions to view their ID - make a GET request to http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/survey/getsurveyquestions.
Health Check - To continously check the application for uptime, make a GET request to http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/survey/health. This endpoint should return a 200 Status OK to show that the API is healthy.

sysadmin-exe / django-survey-api