Thread Talk API

Description

Thread Talk is my first API project I created during my Software Development Bootcamp at Northcoders. It's got cool features for handling users, creating posts, dropping comments, and even throwing in some votes. It's your go-to spot for all things chatting! 😄

Nortchoders provided the data to work with, and I did the following:

• Created and seeded databases using PostgreSQL and JavaScript, and established connections
• Developed controllers and models, whilst following the MVC design pattern
• Conducted thorough unit and integration testing with Jest and Supertest
• Managed requests and errors efficiently
• Hosted the application with Render

API

You can access it here.

Minimum requirements

• Node: minimum version v20.8.0, you can download Node.js here
• PostgreSQL: v15.4, install PostgreSQL by following the instructions on the official PostgreSQL website
• API Client: Any API client can be used, but Insomnia is recommended for optimal testing and interaction with the Thread Talk API

Steps required to run the code

1. Fork this repo by clicking on the icon in the top right of the page.

2. Clone this repo by clicking the <>Code icon and copying the HTTPS url. Once the url is copied, go into your local terminal and run the following command once you're in the desired save location:

git clone <paste url here>

If you're using Visual Studio Code, you can either open the folder straight from the app by clicking open folder or, you can do this from your terminal, by running the following command:

code <folder name>

3. You will then need to create two .env files in the root folder. These files will be used by Dotenv to establish the connections with the correct databases. You can find the database names in /db/setup.sql.

.env.test
.env.development

There is an example file .env-example, which shows the correct format required in the .env files. Make sure you link the correct databases to the correct .env files.

After creating the .env files, make sure that they appear in the .gitignored.

4. At this point you will need to install some dependencies and devDependencies to get the code running. You can do this by running the following command in your terminal:

npm install

5. Now that everything is installed and ready to go, it's time to run the scripts. Run the following commands in your terminal to set up the environment, seed the database and start the local server:

npm run setup-dbs
npm run seed
npm run start

6. In order to make requests, open the API client and make requests from there. If unsure about the requests you can make, please refer to Thread Talk API for the paths available.

7. To test the code, just run the following command in your terminal:

npm test

If at any point you want to stop your script from running, click on the terminal and just press CTRL+C(Windows) or Command+C(Mac)

8. Happy coding! 😸