REST API Recipes

Getting Started

1. npm install
2. $ sequelize db:migrate - setup DB structure
3. $ sequelize db:seed:all - to load csv data
4. npm run dev - start service in dev mode with nodemon
5. npm test - run tests

Features

This REST API includes the following:

• Fetch a recipe by id
  • GET /recipes/:recipe_id
  • GET /recipes/:recipe_id?embed=ratings
  • parameters:
    • recipe_id
    • embed=ratings - display embeded (includes) list ratings object
• Fetch all recipes for a specific cuisine with pagination
  • GET /recipes - defaults query params to ?page=0&per_page=10
  • GET /recipes?cuisine=&page=0&per_page=2
  • parameters:
    • page - current page, 0 based index, defaults to 0
    • per_page - number of results per page, defaults to 10
    • cuisine - filter based on recipe_cuisine field
  • pagination:
    • Link headers - this allows metadata to be given for pagination without affecting the API request. Relation Type in the rel Link header is used to represent first, next, prev, or last Url Links.
• Rate an existing recipe between 1 and 5
  • PUT /recipes/rate/:recipe_id
  • parameters:
    • recipe_id
• Update an existing recipe
  • PUT /recipes/:recipe_id
  • parameters:
    • recipe_id
• Store a new recipe
  • POST /recipes
  • mandatory fields:
    • box_type
    • title
    • recipe_cuisine

Technology Stack

Nodejs REST API

1. restify - Node.js web service framework to build RESTful API
2. sqlite - to temporarily store recipes and ratings in lightweight database file with option to store i-memory
3. sequelize - ORM for Node.js to support SQLite queries via object models
4. ava - test runner for unit test and integration tests
5. supertest - integration tests agent for Node.js to test single API endpoint

API consumers

As a RESTful API, clients/consumers will be able to access the above endpoints. Each API consumers should register for an API app_key in order for this service to track and log incoming API requests. Providing an app_key in the header of each API requests is common practice. Example of API consumer can be a mobile app, web app, or another web service or a GraphQL server.

The Pagination feature in the GET /recipes allows mobile apps to provide a scroll feature to dynamically load the next set of recipes list.

Providing the auth_token in the Authorization header allows this service validate the credentials of the end-user request. In this example, we could identify which users have added a rating to a specific recipe and prevent a single user to submit multiple recipe ratings on a single recipe.

Additional Notes

Production notes

In this example, we use mysql as a database instance for production environment. Before starting the service for the first time, please ensure to load the migration files and optionally seeds

1. $ sequelize db:create --env production - create database specified by the configuration under db/config.js
2. $ sequelize db:migrate --env production - run pending migrations, setup DB structure
3. $ sequelize db:seed:all --env production - run seeder file to load csv data
4. npm start - start service

Deployment

As a Nodejs application, it is relatively straight-forward to deploy onto Google Cloud Platform AppEngine using Travis-CI.