Book API

This Flask application provides endpoints for managing books, including storing books from OpenLibrary, retrieving books, searching books based on criteria, creating new book entries, and deleting books.

Technologies Used

The application is built using the following technologies:

• Flask
• PostgreSQL
• SQLAlchemy

Endpoints

POST /store_openlib_books

Stores books from OpenLibrary.

• Method: POST

• Request Body: JSON object with a list of book codes from OpenLibrary.

• Response: JSON object with information about the added books (those inserted successfully into the database) and skipped books (those skipped because of errors or missing fields).

GET /books

Retrieves all books from the database.

• Method: GET
• Response: JSON object with a list of all the books in the database.

GET /books/search

Searches books based on specified criteria (author, work, number of pages). At least one of the three criteria must be specified.

• Method: GET
• Query Parameters:
  • author: Name of the author to filter the books by.
  • work: Title of the work to filter the books by.
  • min_pages: Minimum number of pages a book should have.
• Response: JSON object with a list of books that match the specified criteria.

POST /books

Creates a new book entry.

Method: POST

• Request Body: JSON object containing the book data.
• Response: JSON object with the status of the book creation.

DELETE /books/<book_id>

This endpoint handles the deletion of a book.

Method: DELETE

• Path Parameter: book_id - ID of the book to be deleted.
• Response: JSON object with the status of the book deletion.

Models

The models below represent the ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) structure of the API. They define the database tables and relationships between entities.

Book Model

Represents a book with an ID, title, and number of pages. Relates to authors and works in a many-to-many relationship.

Author Model

Represents an author with an ID and name. Relates to books in a many-to-many relationship.

Work Model

Represents a work with an ID and title. Relates to books in a many-to-many relationship. These ORM models define the database schema and relationships used by the API to interact with the underlying database.

Dockerized Deployment

The application can be easily deployed using Docker and Docker Compose. The provided docker-compose.yml file sets up a Docker container for the Book API and a Docker container running PostgreSQL as the database.

Running the application

1. To run the application, follow these steps:

2. Make sure you have Docker and Docker Compose installed on your machine.

3. Clone this repository.

4. Rename the provided .env.example file to .env. This file will be used to set the required environment variables for the application. Replace the given values with your desired ones.

5. Open a terminal or command prompt and navigate to the root directory of the application.

6. Run the following command to start the application:

   docker compose up -d

7. Wait for the containers to start up.

8. Access the book API at http://localhost:5000.

9. To stop the application and remove the containers, run:

   docker compose down

Running Unit Tests

You can run unit tests for the API. Follow these steps:

1. Make sure you have the Docker containers up and running by following the instructions in the previous section.

2. Attach a shell to the Flask Book API container.

3. Once inside the container, navigate to the root directory of the application.

4. Run the tests.py file using the following command:

   python tests.py

This will execute the unit tests defined in the tests.py file.

Usage Examples

Here are some examples demonstrating how to hit the API endpoints:

Filling the Database with 10 Books

To fill the database with 10 books, including titles like "1984," "Misery," "The Shining," and others, make a POST request to the /store_openlib_books endpoint with the following request body:

POST /store_openlib_books
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "codes": [
        "OL24382006M",
        "OL20931016M",
        "OL22312685M",
        "OL10426195M",
        "OL24255147M",
        "OL47164721M",
        "OL3685343M",
        "OL6469521M",
        "OL5237526M",
        "OL27170045M"
    ]
}

The API will store the books in the database and return a 200 OK response if the operation is successful.

Retrieving All Books

To retrieve all books from the database, make a GET request to the /books endpoint:

GET /books

The API will respond with a 200 OK status code and return a JSON object containing a list of all books in the database.

Searching Books

To search for books based on specific criteria (author, work, minimum number of pages), make a GET request to the /books/search endpoint with the desired query parameters.

For example, to search for books with an author containing "Steph," a work containing "Mis," and a minimum of 100 pages, make the following request:

GET /books/search?author=Steph&work=Mis&min_pages=100

The API will respond with a 200 OK status code and return a JSON object containing a list of books that match the specified criteria.

Creating a New Book Entry

To create a new book entry in the database, make a POST request to the /books endpoint with the following request body:

POST /books
Content-Type: application/json
{
    "id": "BOOKTEST123M",
    "title": "The Example Book",
    "number_of_pages": 250,
    "authors": [
        {"id": "AUTHOR1A", "name": "John Smith"},
        {"id": "AUTHOR2A", "name": "Jane Doe"}
    ],
    "works": [
        {"id": "WORK1W", "title": "Work A"},
        {"id": "WORK2W", "title": "Work B"}
    ]
}

The API will create a new book entry with the provided details and return a 200 OK response if the operation is successful.

Deleting a Book

To delete a book from the database, make a DELETE request to the /books/<book_id> endpoint, where <book_id> represents the unique identifier of the book you want to delete.

For example, to delete a book with the ID "OL10426195M," make the following request:

DELETE /books/OL10426195M

The API will respond with a 200 OK status code if the book is successfully deleted.