Northcoders News API

Background

The NC News API is an easy-to-use REST API which which allows you to search and retrieve JSON metadata for a number of topics, articles, users, and comments.

Follow this link to the API hosted on heroku: NC NEWS API

Link to Front End project: NC NEWS FE

Prerequisites

• MongoDB - Install MongoDB Community Edition — MongoDB Manual
• Node.js (v. 9.11.1 and above) - Installing Node.js Tutorial: Using nvm on macOS and Ubuntu
• NPM (v. 6.1.0 and above) - gets installed with Node

Installation

Fork this repository and clone it onto your computer using the following terminal command:

git clone <repo url>

Then, cd into the API directory and run npm install, or npm i for short, in you terminal to install all modules listed in the package.json. This will make the following packages available to your code:

• Body-parser (v. 1.18.3) - used to process POST requests.
• Express (v. 4.16.3) - used to set up your server and routers.
• Mongoose (v. 5.2.4) - a MongoDB library that you may find extremely useful when seeding raw data into your database.
• EJS (v. 4.16.3) - helps to embed JS finctionality into HTML files.
• Chai (v. 4.1.2) - a BDD/TDD assertion library for node and the browser.
• Mocha (v. 5.2.0) - a super easy to use test-suite framework.
• Supertest (v. 3.1.0 and above) - a SuperAgent-driven library for testing HTTP servers which "listens" for you so you an carry out tests on your controllers
• Nodemon (v. 1.18.3) - simple monitor script which automatically restarts listening on a PORT when you make (and save) changes in your code

Running the tests

In the package.json file, you'll find a list of scripts that make it easier to run certain commands.

npm run seed:dev It is important to run this command first in order to seed your database with the raw data provided before using any of the other scripts. Mongod would have to be running in the background prior to seeding (i.e. type mongod in the command line before npm run seed:dev).

npm test or just npm t will run your Mocha tests and will also seed the test data provided into a test database.

npm run start This script will execute the command node index.js (index.js should contain your server listening functionality e.g. app.listen()). This, however, won't be needed during development and testing but will be needed for the production phase e.g. if you want to push your code onto Heroku.

npm run dev This script will execute the command nodemon index.js which is perfect for when you are using e.g. Postman to test out various server requests.

Setting up your config file

In the root of the API directory, create a config directory using mkdir config and inside it create a config file by typing touch config.js into your terminal.

Your config file will contain sensitive information e.g. your Mlab database username and password, and so it is important that you include it in your .gitignore file.

The config file should look something like this:

process.env.NODE_ENV = process.env.NODE_ENV || "dev";

const config = {
  dev: { DB_URL: "mongodb://localhost:27017/<database>" },
  test: { DB_URL: "mongodb://localhost:27017/<test_database>" },
  production: {
    DB_URL: "mongodb://<dbusername>:<dbpassword>@<host>:<port>/<database>"
  }
};

module.exports = config[process.env.NODE_ENV];

API Endpoints

GET /api

Serves an HTML page with documentation for all the available endpoints

GET /api/topics

Get all the topics

GET /api/topics/:topic_slug/articles

Return all the articles for a certain topic, e.g: /api/topics/football/articles

POST /api/topics/:topic_slug/articles

Add a new article to a topic. This route requires a JSON body with title and body key value pairs e.g: { "title": "new article", "body": "This is my new article content"}

GET /api/articles

Returns all the articles

GET /api/articles/:article_id

Get an individual article

GET /api/articles/:article_id/comments

Get all the comments for a individual article

POST /api/articles/:article_id/comments

Add a new comment to an article. This route requires a JSON body with body and created_by key value pairs e.g: {"body": "This is my new comment", "created_by": <mongo id for a user>}

PUT /api/articles/:article_id

Increment or Decrement the votes of an article by one. This route requires a vote query of 'up' or 'down' e.g: /api/articles/:article_id?vote=up

PUT /api/comments/:comment_id

Increment or Decrement the votes of a comment by one. This route requires a vote query of 'up' or 'down' e.g: /api/comments/:comment_id?vote=down

DELETE /api/comments/:comment_id

Deletes a comment

GET /api/users

Returns all users

GET /api/users/:username

e.g: /api/users/mitch123

Returns a JSON object with the profile data for the specified user.

Hosting

Before pushing your app onto Heroku, ensure you have set up your database on Mlab.

• Mlab - Setting up a free MongoDB database on mLab and connecting to it with Node.js
• Creating a Heroku remote and deploying - Deploying with Git | Heroku Dev Center