NC Board Game Reviews API

Background

This is a back end API. The intention here is to mimick the building of a real world backend service (such as reddit) which provides information to the front end architecture.

The main database is built with PSQL by using node-postgres.

The Live Chat is separate and built with mongoDB cloud database.

I have combined the express server and socketIO server into one single listener.

The hosted version of this backend API is available at:

• https://nc-games-board.herokuapp.com/api

This API provide data to the front end app available at:

• Front End Git Repo:
  • https://github.com/cynthiaswill/nc-board-game-reviews
• Front End hosted version:
  • https://quizzical-bohr-776a6e.netlify.app/reviews

Step 1 - Setting up your project

• Tested minimum version of Node v16.13.1.
• Clone the entire repo into a local folder, type 'npm install' in terminal to install all dependencies before running the app.

$ git clone https://github.com/cynthiaswill/NC_Games_Board.git
$ cd NC_Games_board
$ npm install

• You will need to create two .env files for your project: .env.test and .env.development. Into each, add PGDATABASE=<database_name_here>, with the correct database name for that environment (see /db/setup.sql for the database names). Double check that these .env files are .gitignored.

• You have also been provided with a db folder with some data, a setup.sql file and a seeds folder.

Step 2 - Creating tables and Seeding

• After installed dependencies, you will need to run the following in terminal to setup database

$ npm run setup-dbs

Creating Tables

You need to complete the provided seed function to insert the appropriate data into your database by running following scripts:

npm run seed
npm run seed-test

This will create tables categories, reviews, users and comments.

Each category have:

• slug field which is a unique string that acts as the table's primary key
• description field which is a string giving a brief description of a given category

Each user have:

• username which is the primary key & unique
• avatar_url
• name

Each review have:

• review_id which is the primary key
• title
• review_body
• designer
• review_img_url defaults to https://images.pexels.com/photos/163064/play-stone-network-networked-interactive-163064.jpeg
• votes defaults to 0
• category field which references the slug in the categories table
• owner field that references a user's primary key (username)
• created_at defaults to the current timestamp

Each comment have:

• comment_id which is the primary key
• author field that references a user's primary key (username)
• review_id field that references an review's primary key
• votes defaults to 0
• created_at defaults to the current timestamp
• body

You can then start the server by running:

$ npm start

You can also use

$ npm run dev

to start development server, which will automatically re-seed the data, or typing:

$ npm run test

to run test by jest, which will re-seed a pool of test data automatically.

---

Endpoints

Essential endpoints

GET /api/categories
GET /api/reviews/:review_id
PATCH /api/reviews/:review_id
GET /api/reviews
GET /api/reviews/:review_id/comments
POST /api/reviews/:review_id/comments
DELETE /api/comments/:comment_id
GET /api

GET /api/users
GET /api/users/:username
PATCH /api/comments/:comment_id

---

All endpoints send the responses specified below in an object, with a key name of what it is that being sent. E.g.

{
  "categories": [
    {
      "description": "Abstact games that involve little luck",
      "slug": "Euro games"
    },
    {
      "description": "Players attempt to uncover each other's hidden role",
      "slug": "Social deduction"
    }
  ]
}

---

Essential Routes

---

GET /api

Responds with an overview of the API:

• JSON describing all the available endpoints on your API

---

GET /api/categories

Responds with:

• an array of category objects, each of which should have the following properties:
  • slug
  • description

---

GET /api/reviews/:review_id

Responds with:

• a review object, which should have the following properties:

  • owner which is the username from the users table
  • title
  • review_id
  • review_body
  • designer
  • review_img_url
  • category
  • created_at
  • votes
  • comment_count which is the total count of all the comments with this review_id - you should make use of queries to the database in order to achieve this

---

PATCH /api/reviews/:review_id

Request body accepts:

• an object in the form { inc_votes: newVote }

  • newVote will indicate how much the votes property in the database should be updated by

  e.g.

  { inc_votes : 1 } would increment the current review's vote property by 1

  { inc_votes : -100 } would decrement the current review's vote property by 100

Responds with:

• the updated review

---

GET /api/reviews

Responds with:

• an reviews array of review objects, each of which should have the following properties:
  • owner which is the username from the users table
  • title
  • review_id
  • category
  • review_img_url
  • created_at
  • votes
  • comment_count which is the total count of all the comments with this review_id - you should make use of queries to the database in order to achieve this

Should accept queries:

• sort_by, which sorts the reviews by any valid column (defaults to date)
• order, which can be set to asc or desc for ascending or descending (defaults to descending)
• category, which filters the reviews by the category value specified in the query

---

GET /api/reviews/:review_id/comments

Responds with:

• an array of comments for the given review_id of which each comment should have the following properties:
  • comment_id
  • votes
  • created_at
  • author which is the username from the users table
  • body

---

POST /api/reviews/:review_id/comments

Request body accepts:

• an object with the following properties:
  • username
  • body

Responds with:

• the posted comment

---

DELETE /api/comments/:comment_id

Should:

• delete the given comment by comment_id

Responds with:

• status 204 and no content

---

GET /api/users

Responds with:

• an array of objects, each object should have the following property:
  • username

---

GET /api/users/:username

Responds with:

• a user object which should have the following properties:
  • username
  • avatar_url
  • name

---

PATCH /api/comments/:comment_id

Request body accepts:

• an object in the form { inc_votes: newVote }

  • newVote will indicate how much the votes property in the database should be updated by

  e.g.

  { inc_votes : 1 } would increment the current comment's vote property by 1

  { inc_votes : -1 } would decrement the current comment's vote property by 1

Responds with:

• the updated comment

---

Adding pagination to GET /api/reviews

• Should accepts the following queries:
  • limit, which limits the number of responses (defaults to 10)
  • p, stands for page which specifies the page at which to start (calculated using limit)
• add a total_count property, displaying the total number of reviews (this should display the total number of reviews with any filters applied, discounting the limit)

---

Adding pagination to GET /api/reviews/:review_id/comments

Should accept the following queries:

• limit, which limits the number of responses (defaults to 10)
• p, stands for page which specifies the page at which to start (calculated using limit)

---

POST /api/reviews

Request body accepts:

• an object with the following properties:

  • owner which is the username from the users table
  • title
  • review_body
  • designer
  • category which is a category from the categories table

Responds with:

• the newly added review, with all the above properties as well as:
  • review_id
  • votes
  • created_at
  • comment_count

POST /api/categories

Request body accepts:

• an object in the form:

{
  "slug": "category name here",
  "description": "description here"
}

Responds with:

• a category object containing the newly added category

DELETE /api/reviews/:review_id

Should:

• delete the given review by review_id

Respond with:

• status 204 and no content

Extra Routes

• GET /api/users

• PATCH /api/comments/:comment_id

• Patch: Edit an review body

• Patch: Edit a comment body

• Patch: Edit a user's information

• Get: Search for an review by title

• Post: add a new user

Instant Messenger

• GET /api/messages

  • serves an array of all online users

• PATCH /api/messages

  • update a list of online users

• GET /api/messages/:room

  • serves an array of all messages from a specific chat room

Example of requests:

• There is a file in root of this folder called request.rest which shows example of all requests can be sent to this API. To see the example of responce, please check overview on API route at /api.