RATIONALE

This repository implements a basic REST api and db for managing automobile makers. It consists of a CRUD backend application for automobile cataloging, as well as an API consumer frontend. The backend application was implemented in Python and Django, and provides a RESTful API automobile/model/automaker, and a frontend, developed in Angular 5 and TypeScript, providing a very simple CRUD api consumer.

I have remarked, at the end of this document, ways to improve and complement the application.

SETUP:

Backend

1. Setup a virtualenv with python 3.6 or greater
2. Install the project dependencies
3. pip install -r requirements.txt
4. Migrate the database
5. python manage.py migrate
6. Fill the local database (SQLite) with fake data, for testing
7. python manage.py populate_fake_data
8. Run the django local server
9. python manage.py runserver 8000

Frontend

1. Install Node.js and NPM
2. Install Angular CLI
3. npm install -g @angular/cli

USAGE:

API

The API is a very simple REST interface, with 3 resources:

• /api/vehicles/ - for accessing Vehicle objects
• /api/vehiclemodels - for accessing VehicleModel objects
• /api/automakers/ - for accessing Automaker objects

You can browse the API via the integrated Django-REST-Framework API browser, by going to the following address in your browser:

http://localhost:8000/api/

NOTE: Endpoint documentation is available under docs/.

FROTEND

1. Run the local server
2. cd frontend
3. npm start

Access the UI:

http://localhost:4200/

API DOCUMENTATION

API Documentation for this project is available in two forms:

• The Django REST Framework Browseable API

Go to http://localhost:8000/api/.

• API Blueprint doc.

The API Blueprint is a format for specifying APIs, available as a superset of markdown. Any markdown rendered should be able to read the doc, but for best results use the NPM package aglio.

A pre-rendered version is also available as HTML (docs/docs.html).

CODING, FRAMEWORK AND STYLE NOTES:

• I have configured my editor's PEP to a line width of 150 (vs the default 80).
• Python 3.6 and Django 2.0 were chosen, as they are the most up-to-date releases.
• Django-REST-Framework was chosen as the API lib.
• django-filters was chosen to allow filtering of the endpoints, and seamless integration with DRF.
• API Blueprint was chosen as the documentation format for API.
• Angular 5 + TypeScript was chosen for the frontend, as it is the most up-to-date version.

FIXTURE (FAKE DATA) GENERATION

A simple random approach was used for data generation. Most names are either random words (generated via a random word generator), or combination of substantives and adjectives (for the automakers's names). By default, 10 Automakers, 50 VehicleModels, and 200 Vehicles will be generated

RUNNING THE TEST SUITE AND COVERAGE REPORT

python manage.py test

The above command will execute the test suite, and also print a coverage report.

IMPROVEMENTS (NOT IMPLEMENTED IN THIS POC)

• Pagination of API results, and infinite scroll on frontend
• Never return sequential PKs to client. Use a UUID or other random-generated alphanumeric string as main identifier.
• Expand test suite to cover more corner cases and authentication.
• Cache common results, and signal for expiry, as needed.
• Create a Makefile for automatic docs generation, and automatic test running.
• Create a Dockerfile and integrate Docker for build reproducibility and dev ease of use.
• Implement/enable image upload for VehicleModel.stock_photo and Vehicle.vanity_photo
• Improve UI/UX: Better styles, display images, grid displays (instead of lists)
• Separate repos into frontend and backend