REST CRUD Lab (CodeGrade)

Learning Goals

Build RESTful APIs that are easy to navigate and use in applications.
Develop a Flask API with successful frontend connections via fetch().
Integrate update and delete routes with the associated actions to return the appropriate JSON data.
Repo.

Key Vocab

Representational State Transfer (REST): a convention for developing applications that use HTTP in a consistent, human-readable, machine-readable way.
Application Programming Interface (API): a software application that allows two or more software applications to communicate with one another. Can be standalone or incorporated into a larger product.
HTTP Request Method: assets of HTTP requests that tell the server which actions the client is attempting to perform on the located resource.
GET: the most common HTTP request method. Signifies that the client is attempting to view the located resource.
POST: the second most common HTTP request method. Signifies that the client is attempting to submit a form to create a new resource.
PATCH: an HTTP request method that signifies that the client is attempting to update a resource with new information.
PUT: an HTTP request method that signifies that the client is attempting to update a resource with new information contained in a complete record.
DELETE: an HTTP request method that signifies that the client is attempting to delete a resource.

Introduction

In this lab, we'll continue building an API for the plant store! The code for the frontend React application is done; you can find it in the client directory. Your job is to create the Flask API so that the fetch requests on the frontend work successfully.

Instructions

To set up the frontend and backend dependencies, from the root directory, run:

$ npm install --prefix client
$ pipenv install
$ pipenv shell

In server/, run:

$ flask db upgrade
$ python seed.py

To see how the React application and Flask API are interacting, you can run the Flask application in one terminal by running:

$ python app.py

Then, open another terminal and run React:

$ npm start --prefix client

Each application will run on its own port on localhost:

Deliverables

Routes

Your API should have the following routes as well as the associated controller actions that return the appropriate JSON data:

Update Route

Making a PATCH request to this route with an object in the body should update one plant, and return the updated plant in the response.

Destroy Route

Making a DELETE request to this route should delete one plant from the database. You should return a response of an empty string with the status code 204 (No Content) to indicate a successful deletion.

DELETE /plants/:id

Response Body
------
no content