CS457 Final Project - Car Database Manager

A simple web app for managing a car database with full CRUD operations. Built with Flask and PostgreSQL.

What It Does

This app lets you manage a car database through a web interface. You can add, view, edit, delete, and search records across 5 different tables. It also imports car data from a CSV file.

Database Schema

The database has 5 tables in Third Normal Form:

• companies - Car manufacturers (Ferrari, Toyota, etc.)
• fuel_types - Types of fuel (Petrol, Diesel, Hybrid, etc.)
• engines - Engine specs (type, CC, horsepower, torque)
• cars - Main car info with foreign keys to company, engine, and fuel type
• performance - Performance metrics (top speed, 0-100 acceleration)

Setup

1. Install PostgreSQL (if not already installed)

   # macOS
   brew install postgresql
   brew services start postgresql
   
   # Ubuntu
   sudo apt install postgresql
   sudo systemctl start postgresql

2. Create database and user

   sudo -u postgres psql
   CREATE DATABASE db;
   CREATE USER p4ris WITH PASSWORD 'p4ris';
   GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE db TO p4ris;
   \q

3. Install Python dependencies

   python3 -m venv env
   source env/bin/activate
   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Set up environment variables

   Create a .env file (already exists):

   DATABASE_URL="postgresql://p4ris:p4ris@localhost:5432/db"
   

5. Run the app

   flask run

6. Open in browser

   Go to http://127.0.0.1:5000

Features

• View all records in any table
• Add new records with a form
• Edit existing records
• Delete records
• Search by name/type
• Import CSV data from data/CarsDatasets2025.csv

Tech Stack

• Backend: Flask (Python)
• Database: PostgreSQL
• Frontend: HTML, TailwindCSS, Vanilla JavaScript
• ORM: SQLAlchemy

Project Structure

.
├── app.py              # Flask app setup
├── models.py           # Database models (5 tables)
├── views.py            # API routes and frontend route
├── controller.py       # CSV import logic
├── templates/
│   └── index.html      # Frontend UI
├── data/
│   └── CarsDatasets2025.csv
└── requirements.txt

API Endpoints

Each table has full CRUD endpoints:

• GET /api/{table} - Get all records
• GET /api/{table}/<id> - Get one record
• POST /api/{table} - Create record
• PUT /api/{table}/<id> - Update record
• DELETE /api/{table}/<id> - Delete record
• GET /api/{table}/search?q=query - Search records

Tables: companies, fuel_types, engines, cars, performance

Notes

• The database is normalized to Third Normal Form (3NF)
• Foreign key relationships maintain data integrity
• CSV import parses messy data (e.g., "$1,100,000" → 1100000)
• All CRUD operations have error handling