backend

Backend - Trivia API

Setting up the Backend

Install Dependencies

1. Python 3.7 - Follow instructions to install the latest version of python for your platform in the python docs

2. Virtual Environment - We recommend working within a virtual environment whenever using Python for projects. This keeps your dependencies for each project separate and organized. Instructions for setting up a virual environment for your platform can be found in the python docs

3. PIP Dependencies - Once your virtual environment is setup and running, install the required dependencies by navigating to the /backend directory and running:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Key Pip Dependencies

• Flask is a lightweight backend microservices framework. Flask is required to handle requests and responses.

• SQLAlchemy is the Python SQL toolkit and ORM we'll use to handle the lightweight SQL database. You'll primarily work in app.pyand can reference models.py.

• Flask-CORS is the extension we'll use to handle cross-origin requests from our frontend server.

Set up the Database

With Postgres running, create a trivia database:

createdb trivia

Populate the database using the trivia.psql file provided. From the backend folder in terminal run:

psql trivia < trivia.psql

Run the Server

From within the ./src directory first ensure you are working using your created virtual environment.

To run the server, execute:

flask run --reload

The --reload flag will detect file changes and restart the server automatically.

Documenting your Endpoints

You will need to provide detailed documentation of your API endpoints including the URL, request parameters, and the response body. Use the example below as a reference.

API Documentation

curl -X GET 'http://127.0.0.1:5000/categories'

• Fetches a dictionary of categories in which the keys are the ids and the value is the corresponding string of the category
• Request Arguments: None
• Returns: An object with a single key, categories, that contains an object of id: category_string key: value pairs.

{
  "1": "Science",
  "2": "Art",
  "3": "Geography",
  "4": "History",
  "5": "Entertainment",
  "6": "Sports"
}
"success": true

curl -X GET 'http://127.0.0.1:5000/categories'`

• Fetches a dictionary of questions, categories and return 10 questions per page.

 "categories": {
    "1": "Science", 
    "2": "Art", 
    "3": "Geography", 
    "4": "History", 
    "5": "Entertainment", 
    "6": "Sports"
  }, 
  "currentCategory": "", 
  "questions": [
    {
      "answer": "Jackson Pollock", 
      "category": 2, 
      "difficulty": 2, 
      "id": 19, 
      "question": "Which American artist was a pioneer of Abstract Expressionism, and a leading exponent of action painting?"
    }

curl -X GET '/categories/${id}/questions'

• Fethces questions for a category specified by id request argument.
• Returns an object with question for the specified category

{
  "questions": [
    {
      "answer": "Mona Lisa", 
      "category": 2, 
      "difficulty": 3, 
      "id": 17, 
      "question": "La Giaconda is better known as what?"
    }, 
    {
      "answer": "Jackson Pollock", 
      "category": 2, 
      "difficulty": 2, 
      "id": 19, 
      "question": "Which American artist was a pioneer of Abstract Expressionism, and a leading exponent of action painting?"
    }
  ], 
  "success": true
}

curl -XDELETE '/questions/${id}'

• Delets a question with the specified id
• Return an object with a success message

{
  "success": "DELETED"
}

POST '/questions'

• Sends a post request to add new question
• Returns the id of the created question id, success value, total questions number, and questions list based on current page number to update the frontend

{
    "question":  "Heres a new question string",
    "answer":  "Heres a new answer string",
    "difficulty": 1,
    "category": 3,
}

POST/search

• search for questions using the submitted search term and returns questions that matches the input.

curl http://127.0.0.1:5000/search -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"searchTerm":"who"}'

{
  "questions": [
    {
      "answer": "Maya Angelou", 
      "category": 4, 
      "difficulty": 2, 
      "id": 5, 
      "question": "Whose autobiography is entitled 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'?"
    }, 
    {
      "answer": "George Washington Carver", 
      "category": 4, 
      "difficulty": 2, 
      "id": 12, 
      "question": "Who invented Peanut Butter?"
    }
  ], 
  "success": true, 
  "total_questions": 2
}

POST /quizzes

• sends a post request inorder to get the next question curl http://127.0.0.1:5000/quizzes -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"quiz_category":{"type":"Geography","id":"3"}, "previous_questions":[11]}'

{
  "question": {
    "answer": "Agra", 
    "category": 3, 
    "difficulty": 2, 
    "id": 15, 
    "question": "The Taj Mahal is located in which Indian city?"
  }, 
  "success": true
}