Description

The chat-room-api is an API developed with Django and Django Rest Framework in addition to other libraries and tools. The idea of this project is to serve as a back-end for a Chat Room (front-end web application) with similarities to Discord or similar platforms, in which registered users can join existing chat rooms or create their own and chat with peers. The chat-room-API allows for chat rooms, users, and messages to be filtered or searched by query parameters. The API supports token-based authenticated requests and, it's a must to ensure that all the permission and authorization functionalities are applied to the users based on their roles.

Installation

Docker Containers

Follow the instructions on the branch docker to build the containers to run this project.

Clone The Repository

git clone https://github.com/Eadwulf/chat-room-api

Change Directory

cd chat-room-api

Install The Dependencies And Activate The Virtual Environment

pipenv install && pipenv shell

💡 Make sure to install pipenv on your system

Database Setup

The project uses a PostgreSQL database. Configured as follows

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
	'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
        'NAME': env('DATABASE_NAME'),
        'HOST': env('DATABASE_HOST'),
        'PORT': env('DATABASE_PORT'),
        'USER': env('DATABASE_USER'),
        'PASSWORD': env('DATABASE_PASSWORD'),
    },
}

💡 If you do not have an existing database and user to use with these settings, follow the instructions below and create new ones.

Enter The PostgreSQL Prompt

psql -U postgres -d postgres

Create The Database

CREATE DATABASE <database_name>;

Create The User

CREATE USER <username> WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD '<password>';

Modifying Connection Parameters

ALTER ROLE <database_user> SET client_encoding TO 'utf8';
ALTER ROLE <database_user> SET default_transaction_isolation TO 'read committed';
ALTER ROLE <database_user> SET timezone TO 'UTC';

Grant Permissions To The User

 GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE <database_name> TO <username>;

Exit The Prompt

\q

Environment Variables

Create The Environment Variables File (.env)

In the root directory (chat-room-api/), create the .env file and add to it the following

DEBUG=<boolean_value>
SECRET_KEY=<your_django_api_key>
DATABASE_NAME=<your_database_name>
DATABASE_HOST=<your_database_host>
DATABASE_PORT=<your_database_port>
DATABASE_USER=<your_database_user>
DATABASE_PASSWORD=<your_database_password>

💡 Be aware that django-environ is required. Such dependency should be installed by running pipenv install

Apply the migrations

python manage.py migrate

Tests

I have created a total of 34 tests, that test the app api, chatrooms, and accounts.

Run the tests

python manage.py test

It should return an output such as

Found 34 test(s).
Creating test database for alias 'default'...
System check identified no issues (0 silenced).
..................................
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 34 tests in 13.430s

OK
Destroying test database for alias 'default'...

Tests in api app

A total of 30 tests were included. Each functionality of the endpoints in the API is tested. The requests made in the tests to the API endpoints are token-based authenticated requests.

Tests in the chatrooms app

The tests in the chatrooms app perform CRUD operations on Chatroom and Message models.

Tests in the accounts app

The test in the account app performs CRUD operations in the CustomUser model.

API Endpoints

The project consists of a total of ten (10) endpoints, such endpoints provide functionalities for users, chatrooms, messages and more.

Endpoints list

URL	ALLOWED HTTP METHODS
api/users	GET, POST
api/users/{userId}	GET, PATCH, PUT, DELETE
api/users/{userId}/friends	GET, POST, DELETE
api/messages	GET, POST
api/messages/{messageId}	GET, PATCH, PUT, DELETE
api/chatrooms	GET, POST
api/chatrooms/{chatroomId}	GET, PATCH, PUT, DELETE
api/chatrooms/{chatroomId}/messages	GET, POST
api/chatrooms/{chatroomId}/Admins	GET, POST, DELETE
api/chatrooms/{chatroomId}/participants	GET, POST, DELETE

api/users

HTTP METHOD	REQUIRED DATA	ACTION	STATUS CODE
GET		Retrieves the list of users	200
POST	username, password	Creates a user	201

api/users/{userId}

HTTP METHOD	REQUIRED DATA	ACTION	STATUS CODE
GET		Retrieves the details of the user	200
PATCH	Any field	Partially updates the user data	200
PUT	All fields	Updates the user data	200
DELETE		Deletes the user	204

api/users/{userId}/friends

HTTP METHOD	REQUIRED DATA	ACTION	STATUS CODE
GET		Retrieves the user's friend list	200
POST		Adds a friend to the user's friend list	200
DELETE		Deletes a friend from the user's friend list	200

api/messages

HTTP METHOD	REQUIRED DATA	ACTION	STATUS CODE
GET		Retrieves the list of messages	200
POST	chatroom_id, sender_id, body	Creates a message	201

api/messages/{messageId}

HTTP METHOD	REQUIRED DATA	ACTION	STATUS CODE
GET		Retrieves the details of the message	200
PATCH	Any field	Partially updates the message data	200
PUT	All fields	Updates the message data	200
DELETE		Deletes the message	204

api/chatrooms

HTTP METHOD	REQUIRED DATA	ACTION	STATUS CODE
GET		Retrieves the list of chatrooms	200
POST	name	Creates a chatroom	201

api/chatrooms/{chatroomId}

HTTP METHOD	REQUIRED DATA	ACTION	STATUS CODE
GET		Retrieves the details of the chatroom	200
PATCH	Any field	Partially updates the chatroom data	200
PUT	All fields	Updates the chatroom data	200
DELETE		Deletes the chatroom	204

api/chatrooms/{chatroomId}/messages

HTTP METHOD	REQUIRED DATA	ACTION	STATUS CODE
GET		Retrieves the list of messages associated with the chatroom	200
POST	body	Creates a message and adds it to the chatroom	200

💡 The DELETE method can be called on the message object by using the api/messages/{messageId} endpoint.

api/chatrooms/{chatroomId}/admins

HTTP METHOD	REQUIRED DATA	ACTION	STATUS CODE
GET		Retrieves the list of admins associated with the chatroom	200
POST	id	Adds the admins to the chatroom	200
DELETE	id	Removes the admins from the chatroom	200

api/chatrooms/{chatroomId}/participants

HTTP METHOD	REQUIRED DATA	ACTION	STATUS CODE
GET		Retrieves the list of participants associated with the chatroom	200
POST	id	Adds the participant to the chatroom	200
DELETE	id	Removes the participant from the chatroom	200