bookInfoDemonstration.mp4

🏁 Getting Started with the BackEndPernBookInfo API

🤔 What is the BackEndPernBookInfo API?

It is the API that allows you to fetch,update,delete and perform CRUD operations for the PostgreeSQL database used in the project.This is a Restful API for the PostgreeSQL Database so that it can be used with the backend.It is basically used at the front end of Book Info App

🔧 Tools Used

• NodeJS
• ExpressJS
• KnexJS for Migrations And Schema creation
• PostgreeSQL

🧐 Operations that can be performed on the BackEndPernBookInfo API

It performs the following operations for both tables student and book:

• GET — an HTTP request to Read (Used to read an existing resource)
• POST — an HTTP request to Create (Used to create and add a resource)
• PUT —an HTTP request to Update(client sends data that updates the entire resource)(Used to update an entire resource)
• PATCH — HTTP request to Update (client sends partial data that is to be updated without modifying the entire data)(Used to partially update a resource)
• DELETE — HTTP request to Delete (Used to delete an entire resource)

🪀 API Routes

1. The API has the following routes for student table crud:

• GET http://localhost:8080/student — returns a list of all students
• GET http://localhost:8080/student/id — returns a list of a single student by provided id
• POST http://localhost:8080/student/ — to Post a JSON object to create a new student
• PUT http://localhost:8080/student/id — to Update a student by provided id
• DELETE http://localhost:8080/student/id — to Delete a student by provided id

2. The API has the following routes for book table crud:

• GET http://localhost:8080/book — returns a list of all books
• GET http://localhost:8080/book/id — returns a list of a single book by provided id
• POST http://localhost:8080/book/ — to Post a JSON object to create a new book
• PUT http://localhost:8080/book/id — to Update a book by provided id
• DELETE http://localhost:8080/book/id — to Delete a book by provided id

🖥️ How do I use the BackEndPernBookInfo API?

• IMPORTANT:Remember that the backend will never run until you have postgresql installed on your system.

So for getting started you need to have a PostgreeSQL database installed on your system.

Installing PostgreeSQL

To Download PostgreeSQL you can go to their downloads page here : https://www.postgresql.org/download/.You also need to Remember that you need to create database in my case I have used my_database so that we can create tables in it.So lets get started.

Check if PostgreeSQL is installed on your system

• Note that you need to set the environment variables for your postgresql installation location after it is installed.
• To check if PostgreeSQL is installed properly on your system or not run the following command in cmd or terminal

psql --version

It will return you the version of PostgreeSQL installed on your system if installed properly if you dont know how to set the environment variables for postgresql check out this resource. Setting the environment variable for postgresql

Creating The database

• Database can be created from command line or from GUI i.e on pgAdmin.It will be installed when you install postgresql on your windows system.
• We will create our database from command line.So after verifying our database is installed and is working in our system.Lets create it but before that we need to create a user because super user is a user who has access and full access to all operations to postgresql which could be dangerous so that is the reason we need to create a user role. So lets do it.

Creating a user role

• To access PostgreSQL from the terminal, use the command psql with the option -d to select the database you want to access and -U to select the user. If the terminal replies that the psql command is not found, you’ll most likely need to add the Postgres bin/ and lib/ directories into your system path.

psql -d postgres -U postgres

• You will be asked to input your password. Use the password you created earlier. Once you’re logged in, create a new user by adding a login permission with the password root.

CREATE ROLE my_user WITH LOGIN PASSWORD 'root';

• A user is simply a role that has login permission. Now that you have one, give it permission to create databases by issuing the ALTER ROLE [role name] CREATEDB syntax.

ALTER ROLE my_user CREATEDB;

• Log out from your postgres superuser and log in as my_user using the command \q.

psql -d postgres -U my_user 

Now our user named my_user has been created successfully.Its time to create our database

Creating Database

• To create our database run the following command.Note you should be logged in as user role under which you want to create database and I assume you to be logged in as user named my_user that we just created not super user otherwise you might run a command and destroy your core postgres may be It was just for fun but keep attention about that.

CREATE DATABASE my_database;

With that our database my_database is successfully created.

Creating Tables with KnexJS in our database.

Now before we start the project its very much important that we understand the process of creating tables and table schemas using knexjs. So to get started you need to run these commands in the root of the project and follow what I say,

• So there are 2 tables used throughout the backend. These are
• 1. book
• 2. student
• Now to create the schema and tables we will simply use the knexjs
• Its a great tool for managing tables creation and shema management and working with the databases.
• Now to created the tables we have to intiliaze knexJS in our project wit the command

  npx knex init 
  #  You dont need to run this command Remember because I have provided you with knex js file configured for you.If you wanna try this you have to delete that file knexfile.js and create your configuration so for now just follow me

Note: You dont need to run this command Remember because I have provided you with knex js file configured for you.If you wanna try this you have to delete that file knexfile.js and create your configuration so for now just follow me

• Although if you delete knexfile.js and want to create a new one enter the following code in knexfile.js

  // Update with your config settings.
  /**
  * @type { Object.<string, import("knex").Knex.Config> }
  */
  module.exports = {
   development: {
    client: 'pg',
    connection: {
      host:"localhost",
      port: 5432,
      database:"todo", // The name of your database
      user:"my_user", // Your username
      password:"pyarapakistan", // Your password
    },
  },
  production: {
    client: 'postgresql',
    connection: {
      database: 'todo',
      user:     'my_user',
      password: 'pyarapakistan',
    },
    pool: {
      min: 2,
      max: 10
    },
    migrations: {
      tableName: 'knex_migrations'
    }
  }
  };

• Now lets start migrating. To migrate the database or create table in database, the command to start migration and create table is npx knex migrate:make create_[YourTableNameHere]_table So Remember we have to create two tables so first we will create student* table

  npx knex migrate:make create_student_table

  You will see that a folder called migrations and this will be the location of your Student table’s first migration and all the future migrations for the table.
• Now paste the following code in your first migration

  /**
   * @param { import("knex").Knex } knex
   * @returns { Promise<void> }
   */
  exports.up = function (knex) {
    return knex.schema.createTable('student', (table) => {
        table.increments('id')
        table.string('first_name').notNullable();
        table.string('last_name').notNullable();
        table.string('profile_picture');
    });
  };
  
  /**
  * @param { import("knex").Knex } knex
  * @returns { Promise<void> }
  */
  exports.down = function (knex) {
    return knex.schema.dropTable('student');
  };

• Now lets send some data using seed file and it will populate our student table

  npx knex seed:make 01_seed
  

  You will see a folder called ‘seeds’ and this will be the location of your Student table’s first seed file and all the future seeds for the table.
• Now add the following code to the seed file named 01_seed.js

  /**
  * @param { import("knex").Knex } knex
  * @returns { Promise<void> } 
  */
  exports.seed = async function (knex) {
  // Deletes ALL existing entries
  await knex('student').del();
  
  await knex('student').insert([
    { id: 1, first_name: 'Muhammad', last_name: 'Ali', profile_picture: 'https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Muhammad_Ali_NYWTS.jpg/800px-Muhammad_Ali_NYWTS.jpg' },
    { id: 2, first_name: 'Muhammad', last_name: 'Bilal', profile_picture: 'https://media-exp2.licdn.com/dms/image/D4D35AQGUZHpq5EnnVA/profile-framedphoto-shrink_200_200/0/1656647188500?e=1657785600&v=beta&t=fOq6rhFvJsvuEMjuECoetJe5sDnmBCIzcSSGmyPIVgI' },
    { id: 3, first_name: 'Ammar', last_name: 'Mohib', profile_picture: 'https://media-exp2.licdn.com/dms/image/C4E03AQHfkSjT0tOhTQ/profile-displayphoto-shrink_200_200/0/1619987742513?e=1662595200&v=beta&t=NmG0JCAhLl51qgg1UULhDJniczduFykDLx3fK1rFL-M' }
   ]);
  };

• Now lets add them to the database table student using the command

  npx knex seed:run

  You will see the student table updated in your gui pgAdmin4 or other tool. 👏 Congratulations Great Work Till Now.
• Now lets create migration for table book.The command is as below as previously described

  npx knex migrate:make create_book_table

  Add the following code to the book table migration in migration folder

  /**
  * @param { import("knex").Knex } knex
  * @returns { Promise<void> }
  */
  exports.up = function (knex) {
    return knex.schema.createTable('book', (table) => {
        table.increments('id')
        table.string('book_name').notNullable();
        table.string('author').notNullable();
        table.string('borrowed_by');
        table.string('borrowed_date').notNullable();
        table.string('return_date').notNullable();
    });
  };
  
  /**
  * @param { import("knex").Knex } knex
  * @returns { Promise<void> }
  */
  exports.down = function (knex) {
    return knex.schema.dropTable('book');
  };

  Once you have created your schema, you can now migrate your table to pgAdmin4 by running:

  npx knex migrate:latest

• Now lets create second see file that is

  npx knex seed:make 02_seed

  It will migrate all the migrations in migraton folder to the database which you can view in PostgreeSQL pgAdmin4 tool for GUI View means our database. Paste the following code to the 02_seed.js

  /**
  * @param { import("knex").Knex } knex
  * @returns { Promise<void> } 
  */
  exports.seed = async function (knex) {
  // Deletes ALL existing entries
  await knex('book').del();
  
  await knex('book').insert([
    { id: 1, book_name: 'Programmer Handy Notes', author: 'Sam Francisco', borrowed_by: 'bilal mohib', borrowed_date: '2020-07-21', return_date: '2022-10-01' },
    { id: 2, book_name: 'Starting Out With C++ From Control Strucutes through Objects', author: 'Tonny Gaddis', borrowed_by: 'Ammar Khan', borrowed_date: '2019-12-15', return_date: '2023-01-25' },
    { id: 3, book_name: 'Starting Out With Java From Control Strucutes through Objects', author: 'Tonny Gaddis', borrowed_by: 'Asfand Yar Khan', borrowed_date: '2017-05-20', return_date: '2025-10-15' },
  ]);
  };

• Lets run this command again to migrate finally.

  npx knex seed:run

  With this the book table will be filled up with data

📋 Tables Created in the Database

• student ——> This table contains the first_name,last_name and profile_photo in its columns.
• book ——> This table creates the columns for the book name, author, borrowed by (student name) or empty, date of borrow, expected date of return

🏃🏾 Starting the project

• Download the repository and run npm install. The node modules will be installed that are essential for running the project.
• In the root of the project run node index.js or if you have nodemon installed nodemon index.js
• If PostgreeSQL is installed on your system the backend will be started on port 8080 at http://localhost:8080/ successfully.
• 😀 Congratulations. You definately did great if you followed till now.
• Now you can use the apis along with frontend

Find Me

• Follow me on Linkedin for useful updates regarding development
• My Github Profile

Resources

Blogs are much faster than videos so I mostly consult blogs but you can consult video tutorials if you want to

• https://blog.logrocket.com/getting-started-with-postgres-in-your-react-app/
• https://medium.com/@yasirahboyce/node-express-knex-postgresql-22e10daf0817
• https://youtu.be/J01rYl9T3BU