Getting Started

BACKEND SETUP

Setting up the Backend

Install Dependencies

Python 3.7 - Follow instructions to install the latest version of python for your platform in the python docs
Virtual Environment - We recommend working within a virtual environment whenever using Python for projects. This keeps your dependencies for each project separate and organized. Instructions for setting up a virual environment for your platform can be found in the python docs
PIP Dependencies - Once your virtual environment is setup and running, install the required dependencies by navigating to the /backend directory and running:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Key Pip Dependencies

Flask is a lightweight backend microservices framework. Flask is required to handle requests and responses.
SQLAlchemy is the Python SQL toolkit and ORM we'll use to handle the lightweight SQL database. You'll primarily work in app.pyand can reference models.py.
Flask-CORS is the extension we'll use to handle cross-origin requests from our frontend server.
jose JavaScript Object Signing and Encryption for JWTs. Useful for encoding, decoding, and verifying JWTS.

Running the server

From within the ./backend directory first ensure you are working using your created virtual environment.

Each time you open a new terminal session, run:

export FLASK_APP=api.py;

To run the server, execute:

flask run --reload

The --reload flag will detect file changes and restart the server automatically.

API Reference

Getting Started with the API

Base URL: At present this app can only be run locally and is not hosted as a base URL. The backend app is hosted at the default, http://127.0.0.1:5000/.
Authentication: This version of the application requires jwt authentication. Get access token by visting the domain https://127.0.0.1:5000/token with a valid username and password.

-sample: curl -X POST -u Pascal:Pascal123$ http://127.0.0.1:5000/token

{
    "token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJyb2xlcyI6Im1hbmFnZXIiLCJleHAiOjE2NjY4Nzc4Nzd9.sLPGnmYkJmGgX9aAlKflrol0Rd4cVJX0OedJuifYYds"
}

Error Handling

Errors are returned as JSON objects in the following format:

{
    "success": False, 
    "error": 400,
    "message": "bad request"
}

The API will return Six error types when requests fail:

400: Bad Request
401: Unauthorized Access
404: Resource Not Found
405: Method Not Allowed
422: Not Processable
AuthError: Custom Error Class

Endpoints

GET /questions

Public:
- Returns a list of 10 question objects, success value, and total number of questions
- Results are paginated in groups of 10. Include a request argument to choose page number, starting from 1.
  - Sample: curl http://127.0.0.1:5000/questions?page=2
Sample: curl http://127.0.0.1:5000/questions

{
    "questions": [
        {
            "body": "I am having issues with creating my virtual environment",
            "created_on": "October 24, 2022 | 22:48:29",
            "id": 1,
            "tags": [
                "python",
                "programming"
            ],
            "title": "How to create a python virtual environment",
            "user_id": 13
        },
        {
            "body": "My django project is giving me this error, template does not exist. Please help me!!!",
            "created_on": "October 25, 2022 | 23:06:23",
            "id": 2,
            "tags": [
                "python",
                "django",
                "template"
            ],
            "title": "Django Template does not exit!!!",
            "user_id": 14
        }
    ],
    "success": true
}

GET /users

Private:
- Requires a valid jwt token.
- Authorization token must contain the permission 'patch:drinks'.
- Returns the logged in users token with a list of users with a shortend information about users
Sample: curl http://127.0.0.1:5000/users

{
    "success": true,
    "token": {
        "exp": 1666877877,
        "roles": "manager"
    },
    "users": [
        {
            "first_name": "Ovie",
            "id": 5,
            "last_name": "Ovie",
            "password": "$2b$12$QJMBB4LiJ64xABx2EcoJduhUzIlSw.2V2mtVXgxPTBM39sippHpRa",
            "role": "manager",
            "username": "Ovie"
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Collins",
            "id": 9,
            "last_name": "Collins",
            "password": "$2b$12$YTHuERjqDLp4LOo7GfmPJeQizmbWwTyMLPiLW2GyepJADsBPFz9e2",
            "role": "staff",
            "username": "Collins"
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Marvelous",
            "id": 10,
            "last_name": "Marvelous",
            "password": "$2b$12$I8JivJ8NNIixB5noTUOkiO87EvrQ9fCd/ESWdGMYQCAvNnlQbcN1i",
            "role": "staff",
            "username": "Marvelous"
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Love",
            "id": 12,
            "last_name": "Love",
            "password": "$2b$12$tVfuyvA.kPobQgeCFEKZNOzJRs5tWyXvrdv36rBqz4645VXS2bhHm",
            "role": "manager",
            "username": "Love"
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Pascal",
            "id": 13,
            "last_name": "Pascal",
            "password": "$2b$12$9BhTS0DCrUINWOvVxRZl.uttuQeIPlHO/HfCXU6d3UVvfIQd9p99O",
            "role": "student",
            "username": "Pascal"
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Levi",
            "id": 14,
            "last_name": "Levi",
            "password": "$2b$12$mhSPMxdCwnIoYhuMxoUdLOuiMTb6btIOniHBY4f83/ov.1XqSZ4Se",
            "role": "student",
            "username": "Levi"
        }
    ]
}

/questions?search=gam Note: search string has no quote surrounding it

Giwa-ThankGod/STC