Storefront Backend Project

Introduction

This is a REST API simulating an e-commerce backend based on three models: Products, Orders and Users. A detailed list of the endpoints and actions available can be found in the REQUIREMENTS.md file.

Setup

Database config

The API connects to a postgres database. As a first step, it is necessary to create two databases (development and test) on your local machine. Run the command psql postgres in terminal to open the postgres CLI. Then run the following:

CREATE USER store_user WITH PASSWORD 'YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE';
CREATE DATABASE online_store_api;
\c online_store_api;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE online_store_api TO store_user;
CREATE DATABASE online_store_api_test;
\c online_store_api_test;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE online_store_api_test TO store_user;

To make sure the API can connect to the db it is necessary to create a database.json file with the following format

{
  "dev": {
    "driver": "pg",
    "host": "127.0.0.1",
    "database": "online_store_api",
    "user": "store_user",
    "password": "YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE"
  },
  "test": {
    "driver": "pg",
    "host": "127.0.0.1",
    "database": "online_store_api_test",
    "user": "store_user",
    "password": "YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE"
  }
}

Environment variables

The API relies on several environment variables to function. dotenv is already included in the package.jsonfile, so it is only necessary to create a .env file with the following variables:

Name	Value	Notes
POSTGRES_HOST	"127.0.0.1"	Same value as in the database.json file
POSTGRES_DB	online_store_api	Same value as in the database.json file
POSTGRES_TEST_DB	online_store_api_test	Same value as in the database.json file
POSTGRES_USER	store_user	Same value as in the database.json file
POSTGRES_PASSWORD	YOUR_PASSWORD	Same value as in the database.json file
ENV	dev	Used to set the DB environment. The test script automatically sets it to 'test' when running.
PORT	8000	The API will run on http://localhost:3000 by default, but there is the option to select a custom port as an environment variable
SALT_ROUNDS	10	Number of salt rounds the password hashing function of the bcrypt package will be using
PEPPER	YOUR_STRING_HERE	A string of your choice that bcrypt will be adding prior to hashing passwords for an extra layer of security
TOKEN_SECRET	YOUR_STRING_HERE	A string that will be used by jwt to generate authentication tokens. The more complex the better, it should be made of random characters ideally.

Getting Started

Installing dependencies

After cloning the repo, all the project dependencies can be installed using npm:

npm install

Scripts

The following actions can be executed through npm scripts:

Transpiling typescript to javascript

npm run build

Testing

A set of jasmine testing suites and specs can be used to test both the endpoints and the models.

npm run test

This script runs migrations and tests on the test database by setting the ENV variable to test using the cross-env package. The script relies on two "child scripts" npm run jasmineand npm run migrate-and-jasmine. Those script have been broken up for readability, but they should never be run.

NOTE: if the test script is interrupted by an NPM Error, it will not run to the end, thus potentially leaving data in the test database. To fix that it is recommended to reset the test database by running db-migrate reset -e test in the terminal before running again any tests. For this command to work db-migrate should be globally installed on your machine as such: npm i -g db-migrate

Watcher To run the server

This will kick off the watcher library and start running the application on the port specified in server.ts or the .envfile.

npm run watch

Formatting

The code can be automatically formatted using prettier. The formatting options can be customised by editing the .prettierrcfile.

npm run prettier

Linting

The code can ba automatically linted using Elint. Note that Elint will also use prettier to test for incorrect formatting. Rules, plugins and extensions for Elint can be modified through the .eslintrc file.

npm run lint

How to use

The API offers several endpoints to access and manipulate data in the database through both CRUD and custom actions. The details of what is required to successfully send requests to each endpoint, data shapes and db schema can be found in the REQUIREMENTS.md file.

Required Technologies

Your application must make use of the following libraries:

Postgres for the database
Node/Express for the application logic
dotenv from npm for managing environment variables
db-migrate from npm for migrations
jsonwebtoken from npm for working with JWTs
jasmine from npm for testing

GasserKhaled330/store-api