Project summary

• Pip's NC News is my first solo coding project at Northcoders, utilising what I've learned of back-end coding so far! 👩‍💻
• So what is it? 🙋
• It is an API built for the purpose of accessing application data programmatically, mimicking the building of a real world back-end service and providing this information to the front-end architecture.
• ...So what is it? 🤔
• In more everyday terms, it's the behind-the-scenes framework for a message-board style service, such as Reddit, where users can post, delete and upvote/downvote articles and comments.

Hosted version

• You can access the hosted version here.
• The above link shows a list of possible endpoints and examples of inputs and outputs.
• If it looks distinctly un-pretty on your browser, you might need to install an extension to format the JSON file!

GitHub repository

• You can access the GitHub version here.

• If you'd like to try running this repository on your local machine 💻 , you can clone it by entering the following command in your terminal: git clone https://github.com/santashifinn/pips-nc-news.
• Then navigate into the folder using the command cd pips-nc-news.
• After that please install the required dependencies and add the required files using the commands below.

Required dependencies - minimum versions needed to run project

• Node.js - v22.8.0 [Please install using the command npm install]
• Postgres - v8.7.3 [Please install using the command npm install pg]
• DotEnv - v16.0.0 [Please install using the command npm install dotenv]
• Express - v4.21.1 [Please install using the command npm install express]

Required files

Please create the following files in order to connect to the test-data and development-data databases locally:

• .env.test [Please add the text PGDATABASE=nc_news_test to the file.]
• .env.development [Please add the text PGDATABASE=nc_news to the file.]

How to set up the local database

• Please enter the command npm run setup-dbs.

How to seed the local database

• Please enter the command npm run seed.

How to run tests

• Please enter the command npm tests to run all the tests.
• These are the tests that I wrote as part of TDD (Test Driven Development), a way of working which allows software developers to build robust code that their clients can have confidence in.

Endpoints

Please enter the request GET /api to see a list of all available endpoints.

Available requests include:

• getting all articles※
• getting a specific article by its ID
• getting all comments on an article※
• getting a list of users
• getting a list of topics
• posting a new article
• posting a new comment on a specific article
• deleting a comment
• upvoting and downvoting articles and comments

※ When returning all articles or a list of comments on an article, the results are paginated. The default is 10 per page, but this can be increased or decreased as wished.

Queries

• To write a query, add the available query options listed for that request in GET /api.
• For example, /api/articles?topic=coding&sort_by=author&order=desc would return a list of articles with the topic coding sorted in descending order of author.

It was a fun project with which to test my newly acquired developer skills!

It gave me practice at:

• Querying a database.
• Using a TDD approach to cover both the happy and error paths.
• Setting a RESTful API with a number of endpoints which cover CRUD operations.
• Setting up parametric endpoints.
• Handling complex queries.
• Manipulating data to respond to client requirements.
• Hosting a server and DB.

Please check back in the near future to see the linked front-end project! 🔗🔗

This portfolio project was created as part of a Digital Skills Bootcamp in Software Engineering provided by Northcoders

Thank you so much to the wonderful Northcoders staff and my lovely classmates for your support and encouragement!