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 |
- Clone this repo.
- Follow the instructions to setup your test suite (below)
- Run the tests, and try to make the red (failing) tests turn green (passing). Then move on to bonuses.
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.
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!
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"}]
-
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
andscripts/main.js
!
- Make sure to connect it to
- 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?
- A new html page called
-
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