A File Upload API

An API to to interact with a web server that tracks files and folders that belong to users along with the location of the files on a remote cloud storage server, specifically, Amazon S3. It allows users to add tags to to their files, and organizes the files with a folders-based filesystem.

API end-points

Verb	URI Pattern	Controller#Action
POST	/sign-up	users#signup
POST	/sign-in	users#signin
DELETE	/sign-out/:id	users#signout
PATCH	/change-password/:id	users#changepw
GET	/nodes	nodes#index
GET	/nodes/:id	nodes#show
DELETE	/nodes/:id	nodes#destroy
PATCH	/nodes/:id	nodes#update
POST	/create-file	nodes#createFile
POST	/create-folder	nodes#createFolder

All data returned from API actions is formatted as JSON.

---

User actions

The user actions documentation and programming were provided by Antony Donovan

Summary:

Request			Response
Verb	URI	body	Status	body
POST	`/sign-up`	credentials	201, Created	user
			400 Bad Request	empty
POST	`/sign-in`	credentials	200 OK	user w/token
			401 Unauthorized	empty
DELETE	`/sign-out/:id`	empty	201 Created	empty
			401 Unauthorized	empty
PATCH	`/change-password/:id`	passwords	204 No Content	user w/token
			400 Bad Request	empty

signup

The create action expects a POST of credentials identifying a new user to create, e.g. using getFormFields:

<form>
  <input name="credentials[email]" type="text" value="an@example.email">
  <input name="credentials[password]" type="password" value="an example password">
  <input name="credentials[password_confirmation]" type="password" value="an example password">
</form>

or using JSON:

{
  "credentials": {
    "email": "an@example.email",
    "password": "an example password",
    "password_confirmation": "an example password"
  }
}

The password_confirmation field is optional.

If the request is successful, the response will have an HTTP Status of 201, Created, and the body will be JSON containing the id and email of the new user, e.g.:

{
  "user": {
    "id": 1,
    "email": "an@example.email"
  }
}

If the request is unsuccessful, the response will have an HTTP Status of 400 Bad Request, and the response body will be empty.

signin

The signin action expects a POST with credentials identifying a previously registered user, e.g.:

<form>
  <input name="credentials[email]" type="text" value="an@example.email">
  <input name="credentials[password]" type="password" value="an example password">
</form>

or:

{
  "credentials": {
    "email": "an@example.email",
    "password": "an example password"
  }
}

If the request is successful, the response will have an HTTP Status of 200 OK, and the body will be JSON containing the user's id, email, and the token used to authenticate other requests, e.g.:

{
  "user": {
    "id": 1,
    "email": "an@example.email",
    "token": "an example authentication token"
  }
}

If the request is unsuccessful, the response will have an HTTP Status of 401 Unauthorized, and the response body will be empty.

signout

The signout actions is a DELETE specifying the id of the user so sign out.

If the request is successful the response will have an HTTP status of 204 No Content.

If the request is unsuccessful, the response will have a status of 401 Unauthorized.

changepw

The changepw action expects a PATCH of passwords specifying the old and new.

If the request is successful the response will have an HTTP status of 204 No Content.

If the request is unsuccessful the reponse will have an HTTP status of 400 Bad Request.

---

The sign-out and change-password requests must include a valid HTTP header Authorization: Token token=<token> or they will be rejected with a status of 401 Unauthorized.

Application Actions

All requests must include a valid HTTP header Authorization: Token token=<token> or they will be rejected with a status of 401 Unauthorized.

All of the file actions, follow the RESTful style.

Files and folders (nodes) are associated with users through the _owner key that is assigned at the time of document creation in the database.

index

The index action is a GET that retrieves all the nodes (files/folders) belonging to the currently signed in user.

The response body will contain JSON containing an array of nodes:

{
  "nodes": [
    {
      "_id": "573c85e9f3b8e67c2292fcda",
      "updated_at": "2016-05-18T15:10:33.760Z",
      "created_at": "2016-05-18T15:10:33.760Z",
      "name": "strawberries",
      "path": ",home,fruit,",
      "_owner": "5738961e53fb07cc64327a7d",
      "type": "folder",
      "__v": "0",
      "tags": ["delicious", "tasty", "red"]
    },
    {
      "_id": "573c85f3f3b8e67c2292fcdb",
      "updated_at": "2016-05-18T15:10:43.508Z",
      "created_at": "2016-05-18T15:10:43.508Z",
      "location": "https://cuprous-wdi-11-boston.s3.amazonaws.com/2016-05-18/03eb8fdd10f79906ae5ed5da9657325a.png",
      "_owner": "5738961e53fb07cc64327a7d",
      "name": "tweed.png",
      "type": "file",
      "path": ",home,documents,pictures,fabrics,",
      "__v": "0",
      "tags": []
    },
  ]
}

If the user does not currently own any files or folders, an empty array of nodes will be returned to them:

{
  "nodes": []
}

createFolder

The createFolder action expects a POST with a JSON body If the request is successful, the response will have an HTTP Status of 201 Created, and the body will contain JSON of the created folder:

{
  "node":
    {
      "name": "Mangosteen",
      "path": ",Home,User,Documents,Pictures,Fruit Pictures,"
    }
}

If the request is unsuccessful, the response will most likely produce a 500 internal server error since the server has not yet been configured to return a more informative error status.

createFile

The creatFile is almost exactly the same as the createFolder action, except that it expects a body in the request that includes a file object.

show

The show action is a GET request that is used to request all of the immediate, i.e., first generation, children of the final node specified in the id of the GET request. For instance, to obtain the contents of the documents folder that is located at a hypothetical file path of /users/me/home/documents, you would send a GET request to server/nodes/users,me,home,documents, and the response would be an array of nodes

{
  "nodes": [
    {
      "_id": "573c85e9f3b8e67c2292fcda",
      "updated_at": "2016-05-18T15:10:33.760Z",
      "created_at": "2016-05-18T15:10:33.760Z",
      "name": "strawberries",
      "path": ",users,me,home,documents,",
      "_owner": "5738961e53fb07cc64327a7d",
      "type": "folder",
      "__v": "0",
      "tags": ["delicious", "tasty", "red"]
    },
    {
      "_id": "573c85f3f3b8e67c2292fcdb",
      "updated_at": "2016-05-18T15:10:43.508Z",
      "created_at": "2016-05-18T15:10:43.508Z",
      "location": "https://cuprous-wdi-11-boston.s3.amazonaws.com/2016-05-18/03eb8fdd10f79906ae5ed5da9657325a.png",
      "_owner": "5738961e53fb07cc64327a7d",
      "name": "tweed.png",
      "type": "file",
      "path": ",users,me,home,documents,",
      "__v": "0",
      "tags": []
    },
  ]
}

If no node is found with the path that has been passed in the GET request, an empty array of nodes will be returned:

{
  "nodes": []
}

update

This update action expects a JSON PATCH to the /nodes/:id path with a single string associated with the tags field of a node. A properly formed JSON PATCH request will look similar to the following example:

{
    "node": {
        "tags": "sweet!"
    }
}

This will append the string, "sweet!" to the tags field of the node with the id provided in the url of the PATCH request.

If the request is successful, the response will have an HTTP Status of 200 OK.

A request for an ID that is not found or that includes an invalid field in the JSON request body found will result in a JSON response of

{
  "error": {
    "message": "404 Not Found",
    "error": {
      "name": "HttpError",
      "status": 404,
      "message": "404 Not Found"
    }
  }
}

and a request that does not include a valid id will result in a JSON response of

{
  "error": {
    "message": "Cast to ObjectId failed for value \"573c98e5a3a2a905313c5a\" at path \"_id\"",
    "error": {
      "message": "Cast to ObjectId failed for value \"573c98e5a3a2a905313c5a\" at path \"_id\"",
      "name": "CastError",
      "kind": "ObjectId",
      "value": "573c98e5a3a2a905313c5a",
      "path": "_id"
    }
  }
}

destroy

The destroy action expects a DELETE to the /nodes/:id path, where the id corresponds to the _id of the node you wish to delete.

A request for an ID that is not found will result in a JSON response of

{
  "error": {
    "message": "404 Not Found",
    "error": {
      "name": "HttpError",
      "status": 404,
      "message": "404 Not Found"
    }
  }
}

and a request that does not include a valid id will result in a JSON response of

{
  "error": {
    "message": "Cast to ObjectId failed for value \"573c98e5a3a2a905313c5a\" at path \"_id\"",
    "error": {
      "message": "Cast to ObjectId failed for value \"573c98e5a3a2a905313c5a\" at path \"_id\"",
      "name": "CastError",
      "kind": "ObjectId",
      "value": "573c98e5a3a2a905313c5a",
      "path": "_id"
    }
  }
}

If the request is successful, the response will have an HTTP Status of 200 OK.

The Front End

The front end repository for the web application that consumes this API can be found here.

The Team

Ben Adamski	Natalie Djerf	Roberto DelValle	Zachary Simpson

Authored and maintained by Ben Adamski | Natalie Djerf | Roberto DelValle | Zachary Simpson and with help from contributors.

License

Source code distributed under the MIT license. Text and other assets copyright General Assembly, Inc., all rights reserved.