POST FormQuestions API endpoint

[andlrutt]

Description

Create a POST FormQuestions api endpoint that creates multiple form questions in the database

Technical details

• Create a function in app/api/forms/[formId]/formQuestions/route.ts that looks like export async function POST (request: NextRequest, { params }: { params: { formId: string } }) { ... }

• Get the formId using params.formId

• Connect to the database by calling await dbConnect()

• Get the body of the POST request by calling await request.json()

• make sure that the request body is in the correct format by calling z.array(zCreateFormQuestionRequest).safeParse([//put body here]) and checking the return value

• make sure that the id is in the correct format by calling zObjectId.safeParse([//id]) and checking the return value

• call the createFormQuestions function

• Return an empty array for now by calling return NextResponse.json({}, { status: 201 })

• The API should be able to return multiple status codes:

  • on success: 201
  • on form not found (createFormQuestions returns null): 404
  • on invalid body: 400
  • we will worry about other response codes later

Teachables

• With the function export async function POST (request: NextRequest) { ... }, here is a breakdown of each part:
  • export = "make it so other things in this project have access to this function"
  • async (asynchronous) = "This function will take some time to execute, and I am willing to wait for it to finish before moving on"
  • function = used to specify that we are creating a function
  • POST = the API Method, and the name of the function. If I wanted to make a GET api endpoint, I would call the function GET.
  • NextRequest = a data type (like a Java class) that contains the request body, headers, query parameters, and some extra information
• await dbConnect() establishes a connection to the database. Andrew can explain what this code does if you'd like, but for now it's enough to know that you must first connect to the database before inserting something into it

Testing steps

• Test by making a POST api call using postman with the url localhost:3000/api/forms/[formId]/formQuestions and create a request body with an array of valid form question objects
• Check the database to make sure that the form questions were inserted properly, both into the forms collection and the formQuestions collection
  • Search by _id in the form collection using this query: {_id: ObjectId([id])}
  • Search for the form question in the form collection using this query: {questions: ObjectId("[id]")}

Dependencies

None