We've been put onto a project which is pretty important - managing the coordination of astronauts in outer space.
It's an existing project - there's already a lot of functionality that's been created. Everything we need to retrieve and manage astronaut data exists and has been imported already into app.js.
The requirements of our task are:
- to adhere to the principles of RESTful API design
- to create functionality for each ticket, test it works, and then commit the working code
- to document as you go, making sure you and your colleagues understand what you are trying to do at all times
To get started, enter npm run dev in your console. The server will magically start, and will restart anytime you save changes 🪄
Remember, you can test the routes and request handlers you're creating through tools like Postman. Once you think it's working, you can use npm test to see if your solution passes the acceptance tests.
All of your request handlers should be written in app.js for now - at a later date, we'll look at splitting out routes into different files for better code management. For now, don't worry about that! app.js is the place to be!
When you are handling a request and sending back a response, all responses should contain objects which follow the pattern:
{
"success": boolean,
"payload": returnedData
}Our API will be JSON as a response format, so you'll use the appropriate response method to send back data to the requester.
Good luck! And if in doubt, break it down!
Write a request handler to return the correct response when a GET request is received to /astronauts.
Choose the appropriate function from the imported functions at the top of the app.js to get your data.
Write a request handler to return the correct response and perform the correct action when a POST request is received to /astronauts. Choose the appropriate function from the imported functions at the top of the app.js to perform the action.
Write the request handler to return the data from the function getAstronautById. Have this handler listen to requests at the appropriate path.
Write the request handler to perform the action and return the data from the function replaceAstronautById. Have this handler listen to requests at the appropriate path.
Write the request handler to perform the action and return the data from the function deleteAstronautById. Have this handler listen to requests at the appropriate path.
Write the request handler to perform the action and return the data from the function updateAstronautById. Have this handler listen to requests at the appropriate path.
Modify your program to use a query to handle GET requests is received to /astronauts?name=<name>. Add the functionality to your existing GET request handler.
What would happen if someone tried to request an astronaut not in the database? Start thinking about how you'd handle this in your code in each route.