Tarpaulin Course Management API

The Tarpaulin Course Management Tool is a RESTful API built using Python 3 and Google App Engine. It provides role-based access to manage users, courses, enrollments, and profile avatars. The system supports authentication via Auth0 JWTs and uses Google Cloud Datastore and Cloud Storage for persistent data and file storage.

Overview

This project was developed as a cloud application portfolio project for CS 493. It demonstrates a fully functional API deployment on GCP using:

• Google App Engine (GAE)
• Cloud Datastore (NoSQL)
• Cloud Storage for file uploads
• Auth0 for authentication
• Postman and Newman for automated testing

The API supports multiple user roles (admin, instructor, and student) with permissions and access controls enforced at the route level.

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Endpoints

All endpoints are protected via JWT (Bearer token). Routes are scoped by user role, and validation rules ensure proper access and data consistency.

Users

• POST /users
  Create a new user profile.

• GET /users/<user_id>
  Retrieve a specific user's information (restricted by role).

• PATCH /users/<user_id>
  Update a user's role (admin only).

• DELETE /users/<user_id>
  Delete a user (admin only).

Avatars

• POST /users/<user_id>/avatar
  Upload an avatar image (PNG only, 5MB max).

• GET /users/<user_id>/avatar
  Retrieve a user's avatar.

• DELETE /users/<user_id>/avatar
  Remove a user's avatar.

Courses

• POST /courses
  Create a new course (admin or instructor).

• GET /courses/<course_id>
  Get details about a course (restricted by role).

• PATCH /courses/<course_id>
  Update course info (admin or the instructor who owns it).

• DELETE /courses/<course_id>
  Delete a course (admin only).

• PATCH /courses/<course_id>/students
  Enroll or disenroll students (admin or course instructor).

• GET /courses/<course_id>/students
  Get the list of enrolled student IDs (admin or course instructor).

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Testing

The project includes a full Postman collection to validate all API behavior.

Local Testing with Newman

To run the test suite from the command line:

newman run assignment6.postman_collection2.json -e assignment6.postman_environment.json