Task List API Backend

A backend RESTful API built with Flask to manage tasks and goals in a full-stack project. The API is integrated with a PostgreSQL database and provides endpoints for creating, reading, updating, and deleting tasks and goals.

About the Project

This backend application is part of a full-stack project created to practice and strengthen skills in backend development, API design, and database integration. It serves as the server-side component of the TaskList application.

Deployed Application

• Backend Deployment: Deployed Backend on Render
• Frontend Deployment: Deployed Frontend on GitHub Pages

Features

Tasks

• Create Tasks: Add new tasks.
• Delete Tasks: Remove tasks from the list.
• Read Tasks: Retrieve all tasks or a single task.
• Update Tasks: Update task information.
• Mark Tasks as Completed/Incompleted: Change the task status.
• Slack Notifications: Notify a Slack channel when a task is marked as completed.

Goals

• Create Goals: Add new goals.
• Delete Goals: Remove goals from the list.
• Read Goals: Retrieve all goals or a single goal.
• Update Goals: Update goal information.
• Assign Tasks to Goals: Link multiple tasks to specific goals.

Technologies Used

• Flask: Lightweight web framework for Python.
• SQLAlchemy: ORM for database management.
• Alembic: Database migration tool.
• PostgreSQL: Relational database for storing tasks and goals.
• Flask-CORS: Manage Cross-Origin Resource Sharing for API.
• Python-dotenv: Manage environment variables using a .env file.

API Endpoints

Tasks Routes

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/tasks	Retrieve all tasks.
POST	/tasks	Create a new task.
GET	/tasks/<task_id>	Retrieve a specific task by ID.
PUT	/tasks/<task_id>	Update a specific task by ID.
DELETE	/tasks/<task_id>	Delete a specific task by ID.
PATCH	/tasks/<task_id>/mark_complete	Mark a task as completed.
PATCH	/tasks/<task_id>/mark_incomplete	Mark a task as incomplete.

Goals Routes

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/goals	Retrieve all goals.
POST	/goals	Create a new goal.
GET	/goals/<goal_id>	Retrieve a specific goal by ID.
PUT	/goals/<goal_id>	Update a specific goal by ID.
DELETE	/goals/<goal_id>	Delete a specific goal by ID.
POST	/goals/<goal_id>/tasks	Assign multiple tasks to a specific goal.
GET	/goals/<goal_id>/tasks	Retrieve all tasks associated with a goal.

Setup Instructions

Prerequisites

• Python 3.12 or higher
• PostgreSQL

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Nerpassevera/task-list-api.git
   cd task-list-api

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

   python3 -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate  # On Linux/macOS
   venv\Scripts\activate   # On Windows

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Set up environment variables:

   cp .env.example .env

   Update .env with your database URL and Slack API key:

   SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI=<your_database_url>
   SLACK_API_KEY=<your_slack_api_key>
   

5. Run database migrations:

   flask db upgrade

6. Start the development server:

   flask run

Future Plans

• Create a meta route with information of endpoints available
• Allow users to dynamically change the Slack channel for notifications.
• Create user accounts

Author

• Tatiana Trofimova

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.