/loqal-discussion-website

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Team 11 Project: LOQAL - A Localized Q&A Web Application

We receive a vast amount of information about the COVID-19 daily. This information overload makes it difficult to find reliable and relevant information, especially for seniors and other vulnerable groups in our community who are not well versed with querying the search engine and fact checking. The goal of this project is to create a question and answer web application for reliable dissemination of information and knowledge [related to the pandemic] among members of the community.

Team Members

Name GitHub Username
Behrad Ghadiri Bashardoost burtonrider
Tongzhou Li greysky10
Zhifei Song soso-song
Nicole Xin Yue Wang niconicolii

How To Use

Getting Started

There are two ways to use this web application:

  1. Visit our website by going to https://csc309-loqal-team11.herokuapp.com/

  2. These instructions will help you get a copy of our completed assignment up and running on your local machine.

    • Clone this repository on your local machine
    git clone https://github.com/csc309-summer-2020/team11.git
    • Navigate to the cloned folder
    cd team11
    • Run MongoDB
    npm install
mkdir mongo-data
mongod --dbpath ./mongo-data
    • Open a new terminal window to start server
    cd team11
node server.js
    • Visit localhost:5000/ in your browser

Features

Below we have listed the main functionalities associated with each page for regular users. In addition to these functionalities, Admin users have access to additional functionalities through Admin Dashboard which are described further down below in the Admin Users section.

Regular Users

Welcome Page (/)

This page serves as a welcome page. To get started, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Get Started button.

Register or Login (/login)

  • Register by entering all required fields in the left side bar and press the "Register" button to create a new account.

  • Validation is performed to check if the input information are valid

  • Furthermore, backend validation is performed to make sure username and email are unique

  • If successfully registered, it will lead you to a page showing some popular tags that you can subscribe to.

  • Alternatively, use one of the login credentials provided below to log in.

    Email Password Type of Account
    user@user.com user Regular User
    user2@user2.com user2 Regular User
    admin@admin.com admin Admin User

  • By logging in, you will be lead to your user dashboard

🌟 New features:

  • Backend validation for verifying unique username and email
  • Password is encrypted using bcrypt for security reasons

Subscribe to Tags (/subscribe)

  • Subscribing to a tag will allow questions related to this tag to be shown on your webpage.

  • Most popular tags and the tags you are currently following are shown

    • Most popular tags are the tags most followed by other users or most mentioned in questions (:star2: New Feature)

  • Follow/unfollow a tag by clicking on them

  • Type in any tag name to subscribe, a non-existing tag name will be created as a new tag.

    🌟 New Feature: Validation is performed to avoid following/unfollowing the same tag more than once

  • All tags are stored in lowercase, and spaces in any tag will be replaced by dashes(-).

  • Clicking on the "Continue" button will lead you to your user dashboard. If you are editing your tags from profile edit, you will be redirected back to that page.

User Dashboard (/dashboard)

  • Users user will be able to see the newest questions, under the three tabs (:star2: New Feature):

    1. Everyone: newest question from everyone
      • 🌟 New Feature: Pagination: the number of questions displayed per page is currently set to 5 for demonstration purposes
    2. Tags: newest questions with the tags you are following
      • 🌟 New Feature: Based on Phase 1 feedback, you can now filter the questions by selecting or deselecting tags
      • Click on "Edit your tags" button to redirect to Subscribe page to modify tags you are following
    3. Following: newest questions posted by people you are following.

  • Sidebar displays your username and has some nice greetings.

  • Users will be able to see the latest notice posted by the admins.

  • Bottom of the sidebar contains buttons which allow users to ask a new question, or go to their profile page.

  • The horizontal navigation bar allows searching for questions by keyword, go to user dashboard, ask a question, go to profile page, or logout of their account

⭐ Improvements:

  • Based on Phase 1 feedback: Removed the questions and answers posted by the current user from User Dashboard as User Profile already contains that information

User Profile (/profile)

  • Sidebar shows user's display name, username, profile picture, and tags this user subscribes to.
  • If you are visiting your own profile page, you will see the "Edit Profile" button which leads you to the edit page for your basic account information.
  • If you are visiting someone else's profile page, you will be able to follow or unfollow other users by clicking on the "Follow" or "Unfollow" button.
    • Notice how the follower list and its count is dynamically updated upon following a user
  • Click on the "Report This User" button to report any suspicious activity of this user account.
  • Under "Activity", the questions and answers posted by this user account are listed.
  • The list of followers and followings of this profile are listed under "Followers" and "Following".

Edit Profile (/edit/profile)

  • Users can edit their username, display name and email
  • Users can upload or replace their current profile picture by selecting an image and clicking Upload
    • The old profile picture will be deleted on the server
  • Clicking on "Edit Your Tags" will redirect you to a page where you can follow some popular tags, unfollow current tags, or add a custom tag.
  • Clicking on "Change Password" will redirect you to a page (edit/password) where you can change your password by entering the new password twice to confirm.
    • Passwords will be encrypted.
  • Users can see their status (normal or flagged) and account type (admin or regular user), but they cannot edit it.
  • Validation check is performed to check if information inputted is valid and no duplicating username and email.

Ask/Edit a Question (/ask, /edit/question)

  • Post a new question by clicking on the "Ask a New Question" button on the user dashboard or "Ask" on the main navigation bar.
  • Provide a title, description and at least one related tag and preview your question before posting.
    • Separate tags with commas.
  • Submitting a question will redirect the user to the newly created question page which will show this new posted question and all its corresponding answers.
    • There will be a "Edit Question" button on this redirected page which clicking on it will lead to an edit page for this question.
    • Edit page for the question is very similar to the question posting page.

Question and Answers (/answer, /edit/answer)

  • Contains a single question, showing the title and content of the question, the tags this question is related to, the user who posted this question, and the time this question is posted.
  • The user posting this question can edit this question's title, content, and related tags.
  • Right upper corner of the question information block shows if this question is resolved. Only the user posting this question can see a "Mark Solved" button to mark the question as resolved.
  • Any user can post a reply to questions, and most recent posted answers will be added to the top of the stack of answers, with each answer block showing the content of the answer, the user account posting this answer, and the time this answer was posted.
  • Users can edit their answers' content by clicking on the "Edit Answer" button.
  • The user posting this question can select the best answer by clicking on the "Pick as Best Answer" button. A best answer will be shown in green and only one best answer is allowed.
  • Clicking on the display name or username shown on the question block or any answer block will redirect to that user's profile page.
  • Users can report a question or answer.

Search (/search)

  • Submit a query from any page in the search field provided in the navigation bar.
  • Questions and Answers related to this keyword will be displayed on this page in the following three categories:
    • Question Results: questions with keyword included in the title or content, click on the search result to jump to corresponding question page
    • Answer Results: answers with keyword included in the content
      • 🌟 New Feature: Clicking on the answer result will redirect to the corresponding question page and jump to the answer location.
    • Tag Results: questions with a tag which keyword is the exact name of the tag, click on the search result to jump to corresponding question page

🌟 New Feature: Clicking on a Tag from anywhere (such as the question page) would redirect to the search results page with that tag name as search keyword.

Report (/report)

  • Buttons for reporting questions or answers are provided in the individual question page.
  • Buttons for reporting a user are provided in the user's profile page.
  • Clicking on the report button will direct to a page for giving a reason of reporting this user, question, or answer.
  • Will be redirected back to previous page after submitting the report.

Admin Users

In addition to functionalities above, admin users have access to a variety of other features listed below through Admin Dashboard.

  • A user can only become an admin user by changing the admin status by another admin user.
  • A regular user attempting to visit an admin webpage will be alerted and redirected back to his/her regular dashboard.
  • An admin user also have access to all the features a regular user has.
  • An admin user can visit the admin dashboard by clicking on the "Admin Dashboard" button, showed only for admin users, in the sidebar of their regular dashboard.

Admin Dashboard (/admin/dashboard)

  • View all reported users
    • Shows the user being reported, the user submitting this report, the reason for the report, and the time this report was submitted.
    • Click "View User" to see reported user's profile
    • Flag users or deny this report.
  • View all reported questions
    • Shows the question being reported, the user submitting this report, the reason for the report, and the time this report was submitted.
    • Click "View Question" to jump to the question page.
    • Flag questions or deny this report.
  • View all reported answers
    • Shows the question being reported, the user submitting this report, the reason for the report, and the time this report was submitted.
    • Click "View Question" to jump to the question page with this answer.
    • Flag answer or deny this report.
  • Admin's sidebar
    • Option to go back to the admin's dashboard.
    • Option to go back to the regular dashboard.
    • Options for jumping to bookmarks on admin's dashboard to the list of reported users, reported questions or reported answers.
    • Options to redirect to a page for posting new notices, to view past reports, or to look at all existing users, questions, answers or tags.

Post Notice (/admin/notice)

  • An admin user could post important notices that are to be pinned on the sidebar of a regular user dashboard.
  • A notice contains a title and its content.
  • All notices will be shown at the bottom of this page.
  • Admin can edit any notice's title, description, and active status.

🌟 New Feature: Only a notice with an active status will be shown on the regular user dashboard. A newly created notice will set the active status of previous notices to false and will be the only active notice

Past Reports (/admin/pastreport)

🌟 New Feature:

  • Any reviewed reports, which can be both accepted or rejected reports, will be listed in this page.
  • An admin user can delete a report by clicking the "Remove Report" button

All Users (/admin/edituser)

  • An admin could see a list of all registered users.
  • Search a user by his/her exact username or email to see his/her complete account information.
    • Searching a non-existing user will show "No user found".
    • Searching with no keyword input will show all users.
  • An admin user could edit any account's information except for the password and profile photo.
  • An admin user could mark a user as flagged or unflagged, and make the user to become an admin or regular user.
  • The "See Profile" button will lead to this user's profile page.
  • Clicking on the "save" button for editing the user profile will check validation of information inputs and check for duplicate username and email.

All Questions (/admin/editquestion)

  • Admin could see a list of existing questions in a table showing the title, content, posting user, tags, and the time the question is posted, also the admin could see if the question is flagged and if the question is resolved.
  • Admin could edit any question's title, content, and tags, and also could mark questions as flagged or unflagged, resolved or not resolved.
  • Editing a question with an empty title, an empty content, or no tag is invalid.

All Answers (/admin/editanswer)

  • Admin could see a list of all answers in a table showing the which question it is answering to, the user posting the answer, content of the answer, whether it is the best answer, whether it is flagged, and the time posted.
  • Admin could edit any answer's content, whether it is the best answer, and whether it is flagged.
  • Editing an answer's content to be empty is invalid.

All Tags (/admin/edittag)

  • Admin could see a list of all existing tags in a table showing the name of the tags and the number of usage of the tags..
  • Admin could edit the name of any tag.
  • Editing a tag with an empty name is invalid.

Overview of Routes

This application uses Express server to handle requests, and Mongoose to model application data with schema-based objects.

We have a server.js file where the main express app is implemented. Routes are separated into smaller files under /routes for a modular implementation of routes. Each of these files, which we refer to as mini-apps, creates an express Router instance as a module to be required in the main app. Each mini-app handles queries on a specific data type while the main app contains methods to serve HTML pages. Below you can see an overview of our main and mini-apps routes:

Main app (server.js)

Routes in server.js serve HTML pages to the client.

  • sessionCheck - checks for existence of an active user on the session, and redirects to user dashboard if it exists.
  • authenticate - checks for logged in user, will redirect to register/login page otherwise.
  • adminAuthenticate - checks if logged in user is an admin user, will redirect to regular user dashboard otherwise.
Path Middleware Redirects to Required Parameter(s)
/ sessionChecker Landing page
/login sessionChecker Register/Login page
/dashboard User dashboard if a user is logged in, otherwise redirects to register/login page
/profile authenticate Current user profile page if no parameter given; redirects to other user profile page if given parameter user_id.
- Redirects to /404 page if can't find the user with given ID.		 user_id
/edit/profile authenticate Page for editing current user’s profile
/answer authenticate Single question page
- Redirects to /404 page if can't find the question with given ID.		 question_id
/edit/answer authenticate Editing answer page
- Redirects to /404 page if can't find the answer with given ID.		 question_id and answer_id
/ask authenticate Asking a new question page
/edit/question authenticate Editing question page
- Redirects to /404 page if can't find the question
- Redirects to /403 if user attempt to edit someone else's question.		 question_id
/subscribe authenticate Subscribe page
/report authenticate Report page
- Redirects to /404 page if one of the parameters is missing.		 type(=either 'u'(user),'q'(question), or 'a'(answer)), taget_id, user_id, back_url
/search authenticate Search page search_key
/admin/dashboard adminAuthenticate Admin’s dashboard
/admin/editquestion adminAuthenticate Admin's edit question page
/admin/editanswer adminAuthenticate Admin's edit answer page
/admin/edituser adminAuthenticate Admin's edit user page
/admin/edittag adminAuthenticate Admin's edit tag page
/admin/notice adminAuthenticate Admin's post important notices page
/admin/editnotice adminAuthenticate Admin's edit notice page notice_id
/admin/pastreport adminAuthenticate Admin's listing past reports page
/404 authenticate 404 error page
/403 authenticate 403 error page
/500 authenticate 500 error page

Mini-apps

Middleware checkers used in mini-apps:

  • mongoChecker - checks for mongo connection errors, this is implemented in basically every route therefore will not be listed in the table below
  • authenticateAPI - checks for logged in users, will send an error with status code 401 "Unauthorized" otherwise. This will be indicated as "authAPI" in the method tables below.
  • adminAuthenticateAPI - checks if a logged in user is an admin user, will send an error with status code 401 "Unauthorized" otherwise. This will be indicated as "adminAPI" in the method tables below.

User (users.js)

User Schema Explanation

User Scheme contains user information including

  • displayname, username, and email are Strings and requires the minimum length of 1
  • password requires the minimum length of 3 and are stores as encrypted Strings
  • isFlagged, isAdmin are Booleans
  • following, followers are list of User IDs
  • tags are list of Tag IDs
  • image_id, image_url are Strings, default being empty Strings

Routes handling User related requests

Path Method
[middleware]		 Parameters Body Respond Explanations
/users POST { email,
password,
username,
displayname }		 - redirect to /subscribe
- status 400: Bad request
- status 500: Internal server error		 Add a new User to
the User collection.
/users/login POST { email,
password }		 - redirect to /dashboard
- status 400: Bad request
- status 404: Resource not found
- status 500: Internal server error		 Login user by adding
info to session.
/users/logout GET - redirection to /
- status 500: Internal server error		 Log users out by removing
the session.
/users
/current		 GET
[authAPI]		 - (json) User
- status 401: Unauthorized		 Get User object re-
presenting current
logged in user
/users/:id GET
[authAPI]		 User ID - (json) User
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Resource not found
- status 500: Internal server error		 Get the User object
with the given User
ID.
/users GET
[adminAPI]		 - (json) array of Users
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 500: Internal server error		 Get a list of all
existing User from
User collection.
/users
/mapping		 POST
[authAPI]		 {ids:
<ID array>}		 - (json) object mapping ids to Users
- status 404: Can't find Users
- status 500: Internal server error		 Given a list of User
IDs, return an object
that maps User IDs
to Users Objects.
/users PATCH
[authAPI]		 { displayname,
username,
email }		 - redirect to /profile
- status 400: Bad Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: User not found
- status 500: Internal server error		 Modify current user's
displayname, username,
and email; will check
to avoid user changing
other's profiles.
/users/:id PATCH
[adminAPI]		 User ID { displayname,
username,
email,
tags,
isFlagged,
isAdmin }		 - redirect to /profile
- status 400: Bad Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: ID not valid
- status 404: User not found
- status 500: Internal server error		 Edit profile of user
(with given UserID)
by admin user.
/users
/password		 PATCH
[authAPI]		 { password } - redirect to /profile
- status 400: Bad Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: User not found
- status 500: Internal server error		 Modify current user's
password.
/users
/flag/:id		 PATCH
[adminAPI]		 User ID { flag:
Boolean }		 - (json) flagged User
- status 400: Bad Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: ID not valid
-status 404: User not found
- status 500: Internal server error		 Flag user with given
User ID if flag is
true, otherwise
unflag user.
/users/picture POST
[authAPI]
[multipart * ]		 - (json) current User
- status 400: Bad Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
-status 404: User not found
- status 500: Internal server error		 Upload a new profile
photo.
/users
/follow/:id		 POST
[authAPI]		 User ID - (json) current User
-status 400: Already following
- status 400: Bad Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: ID not valid
- status 404: User not found
- status 500: Internal server error		 Add user ID to fol-
lowing list of current
user, will check to
avoid following twice.
/users
/unfollow/:id		 POST
[authAPI]		 User ID - (json) current User
-status 400: Already not following
- status 400: Bad Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: ID not valid
- status 404: User not found
- status 500: Internal server error		 Remove the User ID from
the following list of
current user, will
check to avoid un-
following twice.

* multipart meaning the multipart middleware that allows you to access uploaded file from req.file

Example for testing a User route in postman:

Ex. Testing a post /user route:

  • Set method as POST
  • Type in http://localhost:5000/users for request URL
  • In Body text area, choose JSON and input some data. By looking at the table above, we can see that a POST '/users' route requires a body object providing variables email, password, username, and displayname. By looking at the User Schema Explanation, we know that these four variables are all Strings:
{
    "email": "someuser@someuser.com",
    "password": "someuser",
    "username": "someuser",
    "displayname": "displaydisplay"
}
  • After sending the request, subscribe.html should be returned

Tag (tag.js)

Tag Schema Explanation

Tag Schema contains two attributes:

  • name which is name of the tag, with minimum length of 1
  • count with default number 0, this is an indicator of how popular the tag is

Routes handling Tags related requests

Path Method
[middleware]		 Parameters Body Respond Explanations
/tag GET
[authAPI]		 - (json) array of Tags
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get all existing Tags.
/tag
/popular		 GET
[authAPI]		 - (json) array of Tags
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get all existing Tags
sorted by number of usage.
/tag/names POST
[authAPI]		 { ids:
<ID array> }		 - (json) array of Strings
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Can't find all tags
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Input an array of Tag IDs,
return the corresponding
array of tag names.
/tag/info POST
[authAPI]		 { ids:
<ID array> }		 - (json) array of Tags
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Can't find all tags
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Input an array of Tag
IDs, return the corresponding
array of Tags.
/tag POST
[authAPI]		 { name } - (json) new created Tag
- status 400: Bad Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Adding a new Tag to
collection, will check to
avoid duplicate tag names.
/tag/:id PATCH
[adminAPI]		 Tag ID { name } - (json) updated Tag
- status 400: Bad Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Resource not found
- status 404: Tag not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Edit name of tag with given
id, will check to avoid
duplicate tag names.
/tag DELETE
[adminAPI]		 Tag ID - (json) deleted Tag
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Resource not found
- status 404: Tag not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Delete Tag with given ID
from collection.
/tag
/follow
/:id		 PATCH
[authAPI]		 Tag ID - (json) followed Tag
- status 400: Bad Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Invalid Tag ID
- status 404: Tag not found
- status 409: Already following Tag
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Add Tag ID to current
user’s list of following
tags, will check to avoid
following twice.
/tag
/unfollow
/:id		 PATCH
[authAPI]		 Tag ID - (json) unfollowed Tag
- status 400: Bad Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Invalid Tag ID
- status 404: Tag not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Remove Tag ID from current
user’s list of following
tags, will check to avoid
unfollowing twice.
/tag
/increment
/:id		 PATCH
[authAPI]		 Tag ID - (json) updated Tag
- status 400: Bad Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Invalid Tag ID
- status 404: Tag not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Count one more the usage of
Tag with given Tag ID.
/tag/:id GET
[authAPI]		 Tag ID - (json) Tag
- status 400: Bad Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Invalid Tag ID
- status 404: Tag not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get Tag with given Tag ID

Example for testing a Tag route in postman:

Ex. Testing a get /tag route:

  • By looking at the Method[middleware] column, we can see that all routes are running with either authenticateAPI or adminAuthenticateAPI middleware, so we need to log in before testing, or else you will receive status 401 Unauthorized error.
  • If you are not logged in, you can login using Postman by setting method to POST, with request URL: http://localhost:5000/users/login, with the account we just created in previous example in body and send request.
{
    "email": "someuser@someuser.com",
    "password": "someuser"
}
  • This will return user_dashboard.html to indicate you are logged in.
  • To test a get /tag routes, set method to GET, enter http://localhost:5000/tag, since we can see from the table above that we don't need any other inputs, simply send request.
  • A list of Tag Objects should be returned.

Question (questions.js)

Question Schema Explanation

Question Schema includes:

  • title, content are Strings requiring minimum length of 1
  • user is the User ID of user who posted this question
  • tags is a list of Tag IDs
  • answers is a list of subdocument AnswerSchema
  • isResolved, is Flagged are Booleans
  • time is Date object with default being Date.now at initialization
  • lastUpdated is Date objects that is Date.now for each question update

Routes handling Question related requests

Path Method
[middleware]		 Parameters Body Respond Explanations
/questions POST
[authAPI]		 { title,
content,
tags }		 - redirects to /answer
-status 400 : Bad Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
-status 500: Internal server error		 Add a new Question
to the collection.
/questions GET
[authAPI]		 -(json) array of Questions
-status 500: Internal Server Error
- status 401: Unauthorized		 Get all existing
questions from the
Question collection
/questions
/users/:user		 GET
[authAPI]		 User ID -(json) array of Questions
- status 401: Unauthorized
-status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get all Questions
posted by user with
given User ID
/questions
/following		 GET
[authAPI]		 -(json) array of Questions
- status 401: Unauthorized
-status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get all Questions
posted by users which
the current user is
following.
/questions/tags POST
[authAPI]		 { tag_ids:
<ID array> }		 -(json) array of Questions
- status 401: Unauthorized
-status 500: Internal Server Error		 Given an array of Tag
IDs, get all the
questions that each
contain at least one
tag from the Tag ID
array.
questions
/tags/:tagname		 GET
[authAPI]		 tagname -(json) array of Questions
- status 401: Unauthorized
-status 404: Tag name not found
-status 500: Internal Server Error
 Get all questions
containing a tag with
given tag name.
/question
/search/:keyword		 GET
[authAPI]		 keyword -(json)array of Question
- status 401: Unauthorized
-status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get all questions con-
taining the given
keyword in either the
title or the content
/questions/:id GET
[authAPI]		 Question ID -(json) Question
- status 401: Unauthorized
-status 404: Question not found
-status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get the question with
given ID
/questions
/flag/:id		 PATCH
[adminAPI]		 Question ID { flag:
Boolean }		 -(json) Question
-status 400: Bad request
-status 404: ID not valid
-status 404: Question not found
-status 500: Internal Server Error		 Flag the Question with
given Question ID if
flag is true,
otherwise unflag it.
/questions/:id PATCH
[authAPI]		 Question ID { title,
content,
tags,
isResolved }		 - redirect to /answer
-status 400: Bad request
- status 401: Unauthorized
-status 403: No permission to edit question
-404: Question not found
-status 500: Internal Server Error		 Update information of
the question with
given Question ID,
will check to avoid
user with no per-
mission to edit
question.
/questions
/admin/:id		 PATCH
[adminAPI]		 Question ID { title,
content,
tags,
isResolved,
isFlagged }		 -(json) updated Question
-status 400: Bad request
- status 401: Unauthorized
-status 404: Question not found
-status 404: Invalid question ID
-status 500: INternal Server Error		 Edit a question with
given Question ID by
an admin user.

Example for testing a Question route in Postman:

Ex. Testing a POST /questions route:

  • Same as all the Tag routes, calling a question route requires you to log in from Postman first.
  • To test a POST /question route, according to the table above, we need a body with title, content, tags. By lookin gat the Question Schema Explanation, we know that title and content are Strings, and tags is a list of Tag IDs.
    • You can get a Tag ID by using the POST /tag route to create a new Tag, and the Tag object will be returned so you can get the ID of this Tag under the _id field. Also, you can get a list of Tags by using the GET /tag route if you already have Tags in the database.
  • Set the method to POST, type in http://localhost:5000/questions for request URL, and enter in the body text area something such as:
{
    "title": "Some title for this question",
    "content": "Some content for this question",
    "tags": ["<Tag ID>", "<Tag ID>", "<Tag ID>"]
}
  • After sending the request, answer.html should be returned with paramater question_id being the ID of this new created question.

Answer (answer.js)

Answer Schema Explanation

Answer Schema includes:

  • content is a String requiring minimum length of 1
  • user is a User ID
  • isFlagged, isBest are Booleans
  • time is Date object with default being Date.now at initialization
  • lastUpdated is Date objects that is Date.now for each answer update

Routes handling Answer related requests

Path Method
[middleware]		 Parameters Body Respond Explanations
/answers
/users
/:users		 GET
[authAPI]		 User ID - (json) array of Questions
- status 401: Unauthorize
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get a list of Questions containing
Answer(s) posted by user with given
User ID
/answers
/search
/:keyword		 GET
[authAPI]		 String - (json) array of Questions
- status 401: Unauthorize
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get a list of Questions containing
Answer(s) containing the given
keyword
/answers
/:question_id
/:answer_id		 GET
[authAPI]		 Question ID,
Answer ID		 - (json) Answer
- status 401: Unauthorize
- status 404: Invalid ID
- status 404: Question not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get the answer with given
Answer ID that could be found
in the question with given
Question ID
/answers
/:answer_id		 GET
[authAPI]		 Answer ID - (json) Question, Answer
- status 401: Unauthorize
- status 404: Invalid ID
- status 404: Question not found
- status 404: Answer not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Find answer using given Answer ID
only. This is different from
previous route because this needs
more steps to search into all questions
since Answer is subdocument of Question
/answers
/flag/:id		 PATCH
[adminAPI]		 Answer ID { flag:
Boolean }		 - (json) Question
- status 400: Bad request
- status 401: Unauthorize
- status 404: ID not valid
- status 404: Answer not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Flag the answer with given
Answer ID if flag in body
is true, otherwise unflag it
/answers
/:question_id
/:answer_id		 PATCH
[authAPI]		 Question ID,
Answer ID		 { content } - redirect to /answer
- status 400: Bad request
- status 401: Unauthorize
- status 403: No permission to edit
- status 404: Invalid ID
- status 404: Question not found
- status 404: Answer not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Edit the content of the answer
with given Answer ID that could
be found in the question with
given Question ID
/answers
/admin
/:question_id
/:answer_id		 PATCH
[adminAPI]		 Question ID,
Answer ID		 { content,
isBest,
isFlagged }		 - (json) Question
- status 400: Bad request
- status 401: Unauthorize
- status 404: Invalid ID
- status 404: Question not found
- status 404: Answer not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Edit the information of the
answer with given Answer ID
that could be found in the
question with given Question ID,
by an admin user.
/answers
/best
/:question_id
/:answer_id		 POST
[authAPI]		 Question ID,
Answer ID		 - status 200: Selected as best answer
- status 400: Bad request
- status 401: Unauthorize
- status 403: No permission to edit
- status 404: Invalid ID
- status 404: Question not found
- status 404: Answer not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Edit the answer with given Answer
ID to be the best answer in the
question with given Question ID,
will check to avoid unrelated user
to edit this question
/answers
/:id		 POST
[authAPI]		 Question ID { content } - (json) Answer
- status 400: Bad request
- status 401: Unauthorize
- status 404: question not valid
- status 404: question not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Create a new Answer to be
stored in the array of answers
in the question with given
Question ID

Example for testing an Answers route in Postman:

Ex. Testing a POST /answers route:

  • We can see from the table above that calling an answers route requires you to log in from Postman first.
  • To test a POST /answers route, according to the table above, we need a body with a content field, and we need a Question ID as parameter. By lookin gat the Answer Schema Explanation, we know that content is a Strings.
    • You can get Question IDs by querying as list of questions by using the GET /questions route if you already have Questions in the database and look at the _id field.
  • Set the method to POST, type in http://localhost:5000/answers/<Quesiton ID> for request URL, and enter in the body text area something such as:
{
    "content": "Some content of this answer"
}
  • After sending the request, a new created Answer object with the given content will be returned to you.

Report (reports.js)

Report Schema Explanation

  • type: String belongs to [u,q,a] representing User, Question and Answer
  • targetId is ObjectId, could be ID of User, Questions, or Answer
  • reason: String
  • user is User ID of user submitting report
  • reviewer is User ID of admin reviewing report
  • time is Date object with default being Date.now at initialization
  • lastUpdated is Date objects that is Date.now for each report update

Routes handling Report related requests

Path Method
[middleware]		 Parameters Body Respond Explanations
/reports POST
[authAPI]		 {type,
targetId,
reason,
user}		 - (json)Report
- status 400: Bad Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Creating a new report
/reports GET
[adminAPI]		 - (json)array of Report
- status 401: Unauthorized
-status 500: Internal Server Error		 Getting all existing reports
/reports
/type/user		 GET
[adminAPI]		 - (json)array of Report
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Reported user not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get all reports with the type of 'u'.
/reports
/type/question		 GET
[adminAPI]		 - (json)array of Report
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Reported user not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get all reports with type 'q'.
/reports
/type/answer		 GET
[adminAPI]		 - (json)array of Report
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Reported user not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get all reports with type 'a'.
/reports/:id GET
[adminAPI]		 Report ID - (json)Report
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Invalid Report ID
- status 404: Report not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get report by given report id.
/reports/:id PATCH
[adminAPI]		 Report ID {reviewer,
isReviewed}		 - (json) updated Report
- status 400: Bed Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Invalid Report ID
- status 404: Report not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Edit state of report with given report id.

Example for testing a Report route in Postman:

Ex. Testing a get /reports route:

  • By looking at the Method[middleware] column, we can see that most /reports routes runs with the adminAuthenticateAPI middleware, so we need to log in with an admin account before testing, or else you will receive status 401 Unauthorized error.
    • The very first admin user is setted by changing the isAdmin field of a User from the database.
  • To test a get /reports routes, set method to GET, enter http://localhost:5000/reports, since we can see from the table above that we don't need any other inputs, simply send request.
  • A list of Report Objects will be returned.

Notice (notice.js)

Notice Schema Explanation

Notice Schema includes attributes:

  • title and content are Strings requiring minimum length of 1
  • time is Date object of posted time
  • user is User ID of user who posted this notice
  • isShowing is a Boolean states whether to show notice or not

Routes handling Notice related requests

Path Method
[middleware]		 Parameters Body Respond Explanations
/notice POST
[adminAPI]		 {title,
content,
user}		 - (json)Notice
- status 400: Bad Request
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Creating a notice
/notice
/current		 GET
[authAPI]		 - (json)Notice
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Bad Request
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get an notice with isShowing set to true
/notice GET
[adminAPI]		 - (json)array of Notice
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get all notice
/notice/:id GET
[adminAPI]		 Notice ID - (json)Notice
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Invalid Notice ID
- status 404: Notice not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Get the notice by given notice id
/notice/:id PATCH
[adminAPI]		 Notice ID {title,
content,
isShowing(opt)}		 - (json)updated Notice
- status 400: Bad request.
- status 401: Unauthorized
- status 404: Invalid Notice ID
- status 404: Notice not found
- status 500: Internal Server Error		 Manually edit notice from admin dashboard

* An example of testing a /notice route would be similar to the previous examples.