Wikipedia Race

This project is a web application that allows users to find the shortest path between two Wikipedia articles. It utilizes the Wikipedia API to scrape articles and build a directed graph representing Wikipedia pages and their hyperlinks. Users can retrieve randomized links from the database or input a starting article and an ending article, and the application calculates the shortest path (in terms of clicks/links) between them.

Features

Graph Construction: Scrapes Wikipedia starting from a specific page and constructs a graph where vertices represent articles and edges represent hyperlinks. Breadth-First Search (BFS) Traversal: Efficiently traverses Wikipedia pages up to a specified depth to build the graph. Shortest Path Calculation: Implements Dijkstra's algorithm to find the shortest path between two articles within the graph. RESTful API Endpoints: Provides endpoints to interact with the application, including fetching the shortest path and checking if a path exists.

Technologies Used

• Python & Django: Backend development and web framework.
• Django REST Framework: Building RESTful APIs.
• Requests: Making HTTP requests to the Wikipedia API.

Installation

• Clone the Repository
• Create a Virtual Environment
• Install Dependencies
• Apply Migrations
• Run the Scraper
• Start the Development Server

Usage

API Endpoints

Get Shortest Path

• URL: /api/shortest-path/
• Method: POST
• Parameters:
  • start_link (string): Title of the starting Wikipedia article.
  • end_link (string): Title of the ending Wikipedia article.
• Description: Calculates the shortest path between the two specified articles.

Check if Path Exists

• URL: /api/path-exists/
• Method: GET
• Parameters:
  • start_link (string): Title of the starting Wikipedia article.
  • end_link (string): Title of the ending Wikipedia article.
• Description: Checks whether a path exists between the two specified articles.

Thank you!