A project building on the backend module of the Northcoders Software Developer Bootcamp.
The brief was to build an API for the purpose of accessing application data programmatically. The intention here was to mimic the building of a real world backend service (such as Reddit) which should provide this information to the front end architecture.
The database is PostgreSQL (PSQL), and interaction with it is carried out using node-postgres.
The project was separated into tasks that required the building of multiple endpoints that made use of Create Read Update and Delete (CRUD) operations. Endpoints are listed below with the names of the functions passed in as arguments.
- app.get("/api/topics", getAllTopics);
- app.get("/api/articles", getAllArticles);
- app.get("/api/articles/:article_id", getArticleById);
- app.get("/api/articles/:article_id/comments", getCommentsByArticleId);
- app.post("/api/articles/:article_id/comments", postCommentsByArticleId);
- app.patch("/api/articles/:article_id", patchArticleByArticleId);
- app.delete("/api/comments/:comment_id", deleteCommentByCommentId);
- app.get("/api/users", getAllUsers);
The project also reinforced GitHub learning by making use of git branching and pull requests for code reviews. Merging of pull requests into the main branch was also performed.
Link to the hosted version on Render https://northcoders-news-ykvv.onrender.com PostgreSQL database is hosted on ElephantSQL (PostgreSQL as a Service) https://www.elephantsql.com/
Fork the repo in GitHub and clone using the git clone command in your terminal. CD into the file you have created and run the following commands:
install node package manager: install node-postgres: $ npm install pg install jest install supertest
To test run the terminal command: npm test psql \c nc_news OR \c nc_news_test SELECT * from articles/comments/topics/users to check the database connection
Create two .env files in the project root folder: .env.test and .env.development. Add the following line to each file, replacing "your_database_name" with the correct database name:
PGDATABASE=your_database_name
Ensure that these files are added to your .gitignore file to avoid committing sensitive and private information.
The minimum versions required of Node.js and Postgres to run the project: Node.js (v20.1.0), PostgreSQL 16.1 on aarch64-apple-darwin21.6.0, compiled by Apple clang version 14.0.0 (clang-1400.0.29.102), 64-bit