Todo App - Test Driven RESTful JSON API

By the end of this lab you will have built a JSON API with a full set of RESTful endpoints:

RESTful Route	Description	controller#action
POST /todos	Create a new todo record	create
GET /todos	Fetch a list of todos	index
GET /todos/10	Fetch one specific todo	show
PUT /todos/11	Change one specific todo	update
DELETE /todos/11	Remove one specific todo	destroy
GET /todos/search	Bonus: Search todos	search

Getting Started

1. Clone this repo.
2. Follow the instructions to setup your test suite (below)
3. Run the tests, and try to make the red (failing) tests turn green (passing). Then move on to bonuses.

Test Driven Development (TDD)

For this challenge, we'll be testing our JSON API using a testing framework called Mocha and assertion library called Chai.

The tests have already been written for us! Our goal is to try to understand the test output so that we can write server-side code that will make the red (failing) tests turn green (passing).

The tests will help guide our development process, and keep us focused on our end goal: a RESTful, full-CRUD, JSON API.

Setup Your Test Suite

From inside your cloned directory, run:

npm install -g mocha    # globally install the mocha test framework
npm install             # download package.json dependencies for this project

Next, run your server:

node server.js
# or better yet
nodemon server.js
# or just
nodemon

Finally, open a new teminal tab/window, and run the test suite (you'll need to switch back and forth between your server output and your test output a lot):

mocha test/todosTest.js
# or just
mocha

Your server must be running in order for the Mocha tests to be able to make API requests to your API endpoints.

By the end of this assignment you'll hopefully see this glorious output:

Todos API
   GET /api/todos (index)
     ✓ should respond with status 200
     ✓ should respond with a JSON object
     ✓ the JSON should have a key "todos" that points to a list (value) of todos
     ✓ todo objects should have properities: _id, description, task
   GET /api/todos/:id (show)
     ✓ should respond with status 200 - Success
     ✓ should respond with JSON
     ✓ should fetch one specific todo by _id
   POST /api/todos (create)
     ✓ should respond with status 200 - Success
     ✓ should respond with JSON
     ✓ should respond with the new todo object
     ✓ should assign an _id to the new todo object
     ✓ should increment the _id number by one each time a todo is created
   DELETE /api/todos/:id (destroy)
     ✓ should respond with 200 or 204 on success
     ✓ should delete one specific todo from the list of todos
   PUT /api/todos/:id (update)
     ✓ should respond with status 200 - Success
     ✓ should respond with JSON
     ✓ should update the properities of one specific todo
   GET /api/todos/search (search)
     ✓ should list all todos that contain the search term from the query parameter (e.g. `?q=discover`) in the task field

But for starters you'll see output that looks like this:

0 passing (84ms)
9 failing

1) Todos API GET /api/todos (index) should respond with status 200:

    Uncaught AssertionError: expected 404 to equal 200
    + expected - actual

    -404
    +200

You can think of each failing test as being like a trail of breadcrumbs. If you pay close attention to the error messages, it should give you a clue about what to do next!

Why is the server responding with status 404 - Not Found when we try to GET /api/todos?

Take a look at server.js and see if you can figure it out!

Hints

How do you find a specific object by `name` (or `id` or any specific key) in a list of objects? (Click Here)

let fruits = [{name: "apricot"}, {name: "mango"}, {name: "kiwi"}];

// ok (hand-built for loop)
let result;
for(let i=0; i<fruits.length-1; i++)
    if (fruits[i].name === "mango"){
        result = fruits[i];
        break;
    }
});

// good, but filter returns an array no matter what
let result = fruits.filter(function(f){
    return f.name === "mango";
})[0];
// ^ because filter returns an array of all of the matches
// we need to have the index at the end here

// best (new in ES6!)
let result = fruits.find(function(f){
    return f.name === "mango";
});

How do you grab the last element in an array? (Click Here)

let fruits = [{name: "apricot"}, {name: "mango"}, {name: "kiwi"}];
let last = fruits[fruits.length-1];

How do you completely remove an element from an array? (Click Here)

let fruits = [{name: "apricot"}, {name: "mango"}, {name: "kiwi"}];
let apricot_index = 0;
fruits.splice(apricot_index, 1); // remove 1 element (the apricot), starting at a given index (`0`)
fruits; //=> [{name: "mango"}, {name: "kiwi"}]

Bonuses

1. Build a way for a user to search for todos. You'll need:

   • A new html page called views/search.html that's served from your application.
     • Make sure to connect it to styles/main.css and scripts/main.js!
   • Can you consume the /api/search endpoint and display search results on the page? Can you get it to work with queries the user enters into an input field?

2. Build a way for a user to mark a todo as "done". You'll need:

• A styling change on the client to indicate the todo is "done" (this should be persistent if the user refreshes the page)
• A request (AJAX) to mark the todo as done (update it) on the server