Scene Locally

Backend API Overview

The be-scene-locally API serves as the backend for a community-focused events platform. It provides the necessary endpoints to manage event data, user authentication, and related functionalities, enabling local organisations to promote their events and connect with the community.

Key Features:

• User Authentication: The API handles user login via a secure authentication system. Users can log in by providing their name and password, which are then verified using bcrypt for password hashing. Upon successful login, the API issues a JSON Web Token (JWT) that can be used to authenticate subsequent requests and access user-specific data (e.g., via the /api/users/me endpoint). User registration is not yet available.

• Event Management: The API supports full CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations on events. This allows for comprehensive management of event data, including creation, retrieval, modification, and deletion.

• Organisation and Category Management: The API provides read-only access to organisation, category, and subcategory data. This enables the frontend to display event listings with relevant organisational and categorical information.

• Attendee Management: The API manages event sign-ups and cancellations through the creation and deletion of attendee records. This allows users to register for and unregister from events.

• User Data Retrieval: The API allows retrieval of user records.

• Data Validation: Data integrity is maintained through validation within the SQL queries/commands.

• Design Considerations: This API was designed to provide a more community-focused and feature-rich events platform than existing public alternatives. It prioritises:

  • Enhanced Event Filtering: The API offers flexible filtering options to cater to diverse event types, including recurring events and events that may not require sign-ups.

  • Increased User Interaction: The API is built to support future features such as reviews, FAQs, and Q&A sections, fostering greater interaction between users and event organisers.

  • Local Organisation Focus: The API aims to provide local organisations with increased visibility and promotion opportunities.

Base URL:

The base URL for the API is: https://scene-locally.onrender.com/api

Future Features:

The database is currently seeded with tables to support the following features, which are planned for future implementation:

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

• User Questions and Organizer Answers

• Event Ratings and Reviews

Backend Local Development Setup

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed:

• Node.js: (A recommended compatible version is v22.14.0). You can download it from https://nodejs.org/
• npm or Yarn:
  • npm: Usually comes bundled with Node.js. Check your version with npm -v.
  • Yarn: Installation instructions: https://yarnpkg.com/getting-started
• PostgreSQL: (Recommended ^8.7.3). You can find installation instructions here: https://www.postgresql.org/download/

Follow these steps to set up your local backend environment:

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/kwildeDev/be-scene-locally.git
   cd be-scene-locally
   

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   # or
   yarn install
   

3. Database Setup:

   • Install PostgreSQL: If you haven't already, install PostgreSQL on your local machine.
   • Run database setup script: Execute the following command to create the necessary databases:

   npm run setup-dbs
   # or
   yarn run setup-dbs
   

   This command will run the SQL script located at ./db/setup.sql.

4. Environment Variables:

   • Create two .env file in the root of the project.

       .env.test
       .env.development
   

   In each file enter the line PGDATABASE=database_name_here, replacing database_name_here with the test database for .env.test, and with the development database for .env.development.

5. Seed the database: To fill the local database with initial data enter the command:

   npm run seed
   # or
   yarn run seed
   

   This command will execute the script at ./db/seeds/run-seed.js, and will populate the databases with development data which can be found at db/data/development-data.

6. Run the backend server:

   npm start
   # or
   yarn start
   

   This will start the backend server using node ./src/listen.js.

7. Testing:

   To run the automated Jest tests for the backend part of this project enter the command npm test.

   The test files use dedicated test data which is recreated every time the tests are run. This data can be found at db/data/test-data

   Backend unit tests can be found in the __tests__ directory in these files:

   app.test.js
   api-structure.test.js
   categories.test.js
   events.test.js
   organisations.test.js
   seeding.test.js
   users.test.js
   venues.test.js
   

Optional Development Tools

• For automatic server restarts during development, you can install and use Nodemon:

  npm install -g nodemon
  # or
  yarn global add nodemon

  Then, you can run the server with:

  nodemon ./src/listen.js

Deployment

This project has been deployed with Supabase and Render.