DBK Redux API

The open-source RESTful API for retrieving article and other content published by The Diamondback Newspaper, powering the DBK News.

Environment Variables

Environment variables are primarily loaded through a .env file, but can also be specified through the command line. Command line variables take higher priority.

Variables are indicated whether or not they are necessary for development (and consequently production).

Variable	Description	Development?
PORT	Port for server to listen to (default is 8080)	true
PRIVATE_KEY_PATH	Path to a private key for an SSL certificate	false
CERTIFICATE_PATH	Path to a certificate file for an SSL certificate	false
REDIS_HOST	Host for a Redis database	false
REDIS_PORT	Port for the Redis database	false
REDIS_PASSWORD	Password for accessing the Redis database	false
DB_HOST	Hostname for a MySQL instance (for salary data)	true
DB_PORT	Port the MySQL instance is listening on	true
DB_NAME	Name of the database on the MySQL instance to access	true
DB_USER	Username for logging onto the MySQL instance	true
DB_PASSWORD	Password for logging onto the MySQL instance	true

SSL Certificate

Since we want HTTPS enabled in production, we provide paths to our SSL certificate files. The https module allows us to create a server with a certificate and our Express application.

HTTPS is not necessary for development purposes, but you can provide your own SSL certificate if you choose to.

MySQL

Since the MySQL variables are development variables, you'll have to connect to your own MySQL database; either remotely, such as AWS RDS, or locally through MySQL Community Server.

Table Structure

Every table in the database should follow the name format YYYYData, and has the following fields:

Field	Type	Null	Default
Employee	varchar	YES	NULL
Department	varchar	YES	NULL
Division	varchar	YES	NULL
Title	varchar	YES	NULL
Salary	varchar	YES	NULL

Redis

We use Redis in production for caching queries. For example, the front page of our news site fetches a lot of article data by hitting this API's endpoints. Having the API cache those common queries allows us to server content much quicker to our readers.

Each cached result expires after a set amount of time (in seconds), and the expiration timer depends on what the request was. For example, a featured article will be cached for 60 seconds, while a normal article for 30 seconds.

Because Redis is strictly used for caching, it is not necessary for development purposes and thus disabled. If you wish to use Redis in development, you will have to provide your own Redis configuration through environment variables (hostname, port, and password). If any of the variables for Redis configuration/authentication are missing, then the Redis client will be (loosely) mocked.

Development

Run npm run dev, which will start the server, with environment variables imported from the .env file.

Documentation

REST endpoints are documented via Swagger UI and are provided by the /docs endpoint when the server is running. (The / endpoint will also redirect to the documentation).