API template

DESCRIPTION

The models file can be found in the User class which serves as a basic template. It meets all the requirements essential to get started with.
Each user has a public_id which is used as a unique identifier when querying the database to prevent the case when people seek to find out how many users are stored in there and numerous other inconveniences.The values are generated by uuid.uuid4().
@token_required makes sure that before querying the user exist and has a valid token. Each token is encoded using the config['SECRET_KEY'] and has a lifespan of 365 days by default.
The encryption for passwords is done by werkzeug.security module and the algorithm used is sha256
Usually during the development process, even if I know it is not ideal I like to tweak the database schema. To keep track of all those changes flask-migrate comes in handy. Once you update the models.py file run from the root directory.

python migrate.py db migrate
python migrate.py db upgrade

Getting started

First of all we have to establish a connection with the database. To do so fill those fields which can be found inside app/__init__.py

# DATABASE CREDENTIALS
ENGINE = 'mysql'
USERNAME = 'name'
PASSWORD = 'password'
HOST = 'localhost'
PORT = '3306'
DATABASE = 'api'

Then create the tables. Make sure that you run those command from the root folder

python migrate.py db init
python migrate.py db migrate
python migrate.py db upgrade

Endpoints

Each one has a MethodView class file with the name of the model in /api/endpoints
Stand-alone routes are written in endpoints/stand_alone_views
After creating a new endpoint don't forget to import it in __init__.py

Template for new endpoints

class Endpoint(MethodView):

    def get(self, endpoint_id):
        if endpoint_id is None:
            # return a list of endpoints
            pass
        else:
            # expose a single endpoint
            pass

    def post(self):
        # create a new user
        pass

    def delete(self, endpoint_id):
        # delete a single endpoint
        pass

    def put(self, endpoint_id):
        # update a single endpoint
        pass
        
endpoint_view = Endpoint.as_view('endpoint_api')
app.add_url_rule('/endpoint/', defaults={'endpoint_id': None},
                 view_func=endpoint_view, methods=['GET',])
app.add_url_rule('/endpoint/', view_func=endpoint_view, methods=['POST',])
app.add_url_rule('/endpoint/<int:endpoint_id>', view_func=endpoint_view,
                 methods=['GET', 'PUT', 'DELETE'])

Easy to customize content-delivery

For example the endpoint user GET delivers its content as following

current_user = self.get_user_by_token()

if current_user.admin:
    if public_id is None:
        users = User.query.all()
        output = []
        for user in users:
            user_data = {'public_id': user.public_id, 'email': user.email, 'password': user.password,
                         'admin': user.admin}
            output.append(user_data)
        return jsonify({'users': output}), 200
    else:
        user = User.query.filter_by(public_id=public_id).first()
        if not user:
            return jsonify({"message": "No user found!"}), 204

        user_data = {'public_id': user.public_id, 'email': user.email, 'password': user.password,
                     'admin': user.admin}

        return jsonify({"user": user_data}), 200
else:
    if public_id is None:
        return jsonify({"message": "Cannot perform that function!"}), 401
    else:
        if current_user.public_id == public_id:
            user = User.query.filter_by(public_id=public_id).first()
            if not user:
                return jsonify({"message": "No user found!"}), 204

            user_data = {'public_id': user.public_id, 'email': user.email, 'password': user.password,
                         'admin': user.admin}

            return jsonify({"user": user_data}), 200
        else:
            return jsonify({"message": "Cannot perform that function!"}), 401

Response for user Endpoint

RESOURCE	GET	POST	PUT	DELETE
SUCCESS	200	201	401	200
UNAUTHORISED	401	401	401	401
ERROR	404	404	404	404
NOT FOUND	204	204	204	204

Terkea/flask_api_template