task-management-api

A task management REST API, built with Express.js.

This API comprises two resources: user and task. Each user can perform CRUD operations on their profile and tasks. MongoDB is used as database. The authentication system is token-based with JWT. Endpoint testing is implemented with Jest. Postman was used as a development tool to easily make requests on the endpoints. The API and database were deployed to Heroku and Atlas, respectively. Please refer to the API reference section below for usage details.

Technologies

• Express.js
• MongoDB, Mongoose
• JWT, jsonwebtoken
• Jest, SuperTest
• bcrypt.js
• Sendgrid, @sendgrid/mail (email notification service)
• Multer (file upload)
• Postman

Local setup

• Clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/TulioMolina/task-management-api.git
• Install dependencies: npm install
• Appropriately configure your development environment by creating and populating the /config/dev.env file with the following environment variables:
  • PORT
  • SENDGRID_API_KEY
  • JWT_SECRET
  • MONGODB_URL
• Run locally on PORT: npm run dev

Deployed API server at this link.

API reference

As previously mentioned, the API consists of two types of resources: user and task. A user is created with an email address and password combination. Once a user is created (or deleted), a salutation email is sent to the registered user email address. A task can only be created and operated by its associated user. The API supports methods to create, read, update, and delete such resources.

This reference explains how to use the API to perform such actions, as well as the authentication mechanism to do so. The API was designed following REST conventions; thus, resources are represented as JSON objects. In the same way, response and request bodies are also JSON data, with minor exceptions (image upload and retrieval) properly explained further on.

This guide is organized with the following sections:

• User resource
• Task resource
• Authentication

User resource

This resource is modeled as the user object with name, email, password, and age properties.

Action	Endpoint	Request Body Properties	Response Body Properties	Description
sign up	POST /users	name: required,email: required, password: required, age: optional, default set to 0	user, token	Creates a new user and issues authentication token, public endpoint.
login	POST /users/login	email: required, password: required	user, token	Issues authentication token, public endpoint.
logout	POST /users/logout	-	-	Invalidates authentication token.
logout all	POST /users/logoutAll	-	-	Invalidates the existing authentication token(s) that belong to a user.
get profile	GET /users/me	-	user	Gets user.
update profile	PATCH /users/me	name: optional,email: optional, password: optional, age: optional	user	Updates user.
delete	DELETE /users/me	-	user	Deletes user and its associated task(s).
upload avatar	POST /users/me/avatar	Special case: Content-Type header must be form-data, and body parameter must be of the form avatar: <image file>	-	Uploads user avatar, expected <image file> extensions are .jpg, .jpeg and .png.
delete avatar	DELETE /users/me	-	-	Deletes user avatar.
get avatar	GET /users/<id>/avatar	-	Special case: <image file>	Gets avatar, in .png extension, of a user with specific <id>, public endpoint.

Task resource

This resource is modeled as the task object with description and completed properties, and it is automatically associated with its respective user, when created.

Action	Endpoint	Request Body Properties	Response Body Properties	Description
create	POST /tasks	description: required, completed: optional, default set to false	task	Creates a task.
get	GET /tasks/<id>	-	task	Gets a task of specific <id>.
get tasks	GET /tasks	-	-	Gets task(s). The following optional query string parameters can be set to filter, limit, paginate, and/or sort the result: completed=<true or false>; limit=<number>; skip=<number>; sortBy=createdAt:<desc or asc>.
update	PATCH /tasks/<id>	description: optional, completed: optional	task	Updates a task of specific <id>.
delete	DELETE /tasks/<id>	-	task	Deletes a task of specific <id>.

URIs are relative to https://tm-task-manager.herokuapp.com (deployed API server) or to your local development server domain.

Authentication

This API employs a token-based authentication mechanism with JWT. These tokens solely contain user identification data as payload and are issued on the response body to a sign up and/or login action request as the token property. Therefore, to authenticate, the Authorization: Bearer <token> header must be included for any other action request, with exception of the get avatar action, which is a public endpoint.