Northcoders News API

Link to hosted version on Render:

https://nc-news-836l.onrender.com/api

Project summary

An API for the purpose of accessing application data programmatically. The intention here is to mimic the building of a real world backend service (such as Reddit) which should provide this information to the front end architecture.

Project learning outcomes:

1. Setting up and querying a PostgreSQL database.
2. Using a Test Driven Development approach to cover both the happy and error paths.
3. Setting a RESTful API with a number of endpoints which cover CRUD operations.
4. Setting up parametric endpoints.
5. Handling complex queries.
6. Manipulating data to respond to client requirements.
7. Using Express routing to handle client requests.
8. Hosting the server and database via ElephantSQL and Render.

Instructions for hosting locally

Link to Github repo for cloning locally

https://github.com/swlho/nc-news.git

Step 1

Once the repo is cloned to a local machine, run the following in the terminal:

npm install

This will install all the necessary project dependencies

N.B Ensure installed node version is v20.0.0 or above and Postgres is v8.11.3 or above

Step 2

Create two .env files in the root folder of the project: .env.test and .env.development. Into each, add 'PGDATABASE=' followed with the correct database name for that environment (see /db/setup.sql for the database names).

N.B. Before committing any code, double check that these .env files are included in the .gitignore file.

Step 4

Create the local databases by running the following in the terminal:

npm run setup-dbs

Step 5

Seed the local databases by running the following in the terminal:

npm run seed

Step 6

To run the Jest test suite, run the following command:

npm test app

Step 7

To access the api through a web browser or a platform like Insomnia, first run the following command to initialise the server listener:

node listen.js

If successful, the message "Listening on port 9090!" should appear in the terminal

Then use localhost:9090/api to access the api endpoint documentation to explore the different available endpoints

Thank you for visiting this project!