Flask Application for Building A Mind website.

This is a Flask-based web application for managing users, research papers, and authors. It includes features for user sign-up, sign-in, profile management, adding and listing research papers, and adding new authors.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.x
• pip (Python package installer)
• pip install flask-swagger-ui

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd <repository-directory>

2. Create a virtual environment:

   python -m venv venv

3. Activate the virtual environment:

   • On Windows:

     venv\Scripts\activate

   • On macOS/Linux:

     source venv/bin/activate

4. Install the dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

Database Setup

1. Create the database and tables:

   python create_db.py

2. Populate the database with sample data:

   python populate_db.py

Running the Flask App

1. Start the Flask app:

   python app.py

2. Access the application:

   Open your web browser and go to http://127.0.0.1:5000.

API Endpoints

User Endpoints

• Sign Up:

  POST /api/signup

  Request Body:

  {
    "user_email": "string",
    "user_first_name": "string",
    "user_last_name": "string",
    "user_password": "string"
  }

  Expected Response:

  {
    "message": "User created successfully",
    "token": "string"
  }

• Sign In:

  POST /api/signin

  Request Body:

  {
    "user_email": "string",
    "user_password": "string"
  }

  Expected Response:

  {
    "message": "Signed in successfully",
    "token": "string"
  }

• Get Profile:

  GET /api/profile

  Headers:

  Authorization: Bearer <token>

  Expected Response:

  {
    "user_id": "integer",
    "user_email": "string",
    "user_first_name": "string",
    "user_last_name": "string",
    "user_image": "string",
    "user_registration_time": "string",
    "user_access": "string",
    "university": "string",
    "collections_paper_ids": "string"
  }

• Update Profile:

  PUT /api/profile

  Headers:

  Authorization: Bearer <token>

  Request Body:

  {
    "user_first_name": "string",
    "user_last_name": "string",
    "user_image": "string"
  }

  Expected Response:

  {
    "message": "Profile updated successfully"
  }

Research Papers Endpoints

• List Papers:

  GET /api/papers

  Expected Response:

  [
    {
      "paper_id": "integer",
      "paper_created_by_user_id": "integer",
      "short_paper_title": "string",
      "short_description": "string",
      "preview_image": "string",
      "authors": [
        {
          "author_id": "integer",
          "first_name": "string",
          "last_name": "string",
          "image": "string",
          "website": "string"
        }
      ],
      "paper_pdf_link": "string"
    }
  ]

• Get Paper by ID:

  GET /api/papers/<int:paper_id>

  Expected Response:

  {
    "paper_id": "integer",
    "paper_created_by_user_id": "integer",
    "short_paper_title": "string",
    "short_description": "string",
    "preview_image": "string",
    "authors": [
      {
        "author_id": "integer",
        "first_name": "string",
        "last_name": "string",
        "image": "string",
        "website": "string"
      }
    ],
    "paper_pdf_link": "string",
    "paper_description": "string"
  }

• Add Paper:

  POST /api/papers

  Headers:

  Authorization: Bearer <token>

  Request Body:

  {
      "short_paper_title": "string",
      "short_description": "string",
      "preview_image": "string",
      "authors_ids": [list of author ids],
      "paper_pdf_link": "string",
      "paper_description": "string"
  }

  Expected Response:

  {
    "message": "Paper added successfully",
    "paper_id": "integer"
  }

Authors Endpoints

• Add Author:

  POST /api/authors

  Headers:

  Authorization: Bearer <token>

  Request Body:

  {
    "author_first_name": "string",
    "author_last_name": "string",
    "author_image": "string",
    "author_website": "string"
  }

  Expected Response:

  {
    "message": "Author added successfully",
    "author_id": "integer"
  }

Collections Endpoints

• Get User Paper Collections:

  GET /api/collections

  Headers:

  Authorization: Bearer <token>

  Expected Response:

  {
      "collections_paper_ids": [integer]
  }

• Get Papers from Collections:

  GET /api/collections/papers

  Headers:

  Authorization: Bearer <token>

  Expected Response:

  [
    {
      "paper_id": "integer",
      "paper_created_by_user_id": "integer",
      "short_paper_title": "string",
      "short_description": "string",
      "preview_image": "string",
      "authors": [
        {
          "author_id": "integer",
          "first_name": "string",
          "last_name": "string",
          "image": "string",
          "website": "string"
        }
      ],
      "paper_pdf_link": "string"
    }
  ]

• Add Paper to Collections:

  POST /api/collections

  Headers:

  Authorization: Bearer <token>

  Request Body:

  {
    "paper_id": "integer"
  }

  Expected Response:

  {
    "message": "Paper added to collections successfully"
  }

• Remove Paper from Collections:

  DELETE /api/collections

  Headers:

  Authorization: Bearer <token>

  Request Body:

  {
    "paper_id": "integer"
  }

  Expected Response:

  {
    "message": "Paper removed from collections successfully"
  }

Database Structure

The database used in this application is bam.db. It contains the following tables:

Users Table

• Table Name: users
• Description: Stores user information.

Column Name	Data Type	Constraints	Description
user_id	INTEGER	PRIMARY KEY, AUTOINCREMENT	Unique identifier for each user.
user_email	TEXT	NOT NULL, UNIQUE	User's email address.
user_first_name	TEXT	NOT NULL	User's first name.
user_last_name	TEXT	NOT NULL	User's last name.
user_password	TEXT	NOT NULL	User's hashed password.
user_image	TEXT		URL or path to user's profile image.
user_registration_time	TIMESTAMP	DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP	Timestamp of user registration.
user_access	TEXT	CHECK(user_access IN ('user', 'team', 'admin')), NOT NULL	User's access level (user, team, admin).
university	TEXT		Name of the university the user is associated with.
collections_paper_ids	TEXT		Comma-separated list of paper IDs in the user's collection.

Research Papers Table

• Table Name: research_papers
• Description: Stores information about research papers.

Column Name	Data Type	Constraints	Description
paper_id	INTEGER	PRIMARY KEY, AUTOINCREMENT	Unique identifier for each paper.
paper_created_by_user_id	INTEGER	NOT NULL, FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES users(user_id)	User who created the paper.
short_paper_title	TEXT	NOT NULL	Short title of the paper.
short_description	TEXT	NOT NULL	Short description of the paper.
preview_image	TEXT		URL or path to the paper's preview image.
authors_ids	TEXT	NOT NULL	Comma-separated list of author IDs.
paper_pdf_link	TEXT	NOT NULL	URL link to the paper's PDF.
paper_description	TEXT	NOT NULL	Full description of the paper.

Authors Table

• Table Name: authors
• Description: Stores information about authors.

Column Name	Data Type	Constraints	Description
author_id	INTEGER	PRIMARY KEY, AUTOINCREMENT	Unique identifier for each author.
author_first_name	TEXT	NOT NULL	Author's first name.
author_last_name	TEXT	NOT NULL	Author's last name.
author_image	TEXT		URL or path to author's image.
author_website	TEXT		URL to the author's personal website.

Deployment

• Vercel URL: https://bam-backend-git-main-params-projects-b290fccc.vercel.app/
• Pythonanywhere URL: https://buildingamind.pythonanywhere.com/

Notes for database setup

• Ensure that user_email is unique in the users table.
• paper_created_by_user_id in research_papers references user_id in the users table.
• authors_ids in research_papers is a comma-separated list of author_id values from the authors table.

General Notes

• Ensure that you update the SECRET_KEY in app.py to a secure value.
• Replace <repository-url> and <repository-directory> with the actual URL and directory name of your repository.

References

• Flask Deployment on pythonanywhere

Issues / Enhancements

• Add Publication date to the research papers table
• Add update paper method.
• Write and endpoint to delete an existing user.
• Write test for each endpopint in postman.
• Update the documentation in readme file.