REST API Technical Specification

API Overview

Base URL: http://localhost:3000/api/v1
Content-Type: application/json
API Version: 1.0.0

Data Models

Task Resource

typescript

interface Task {
  id: number;           // Auto-generated, unique
  title: string;        // Required, task title
  description: string;  // Optional, detailed description
  completed: boolean;   // Default: false
  createdAt: string;    // ISO 8601 timestamp
  updatedAt: string;    // ISO 8601 timestamp
}

Error Response

typescript

interface ErrorResponse {
  error: {
    message: string;    // Human-readable error message
    status: number;     // HTTP status code
    timestamp: string;  // ISO 8601 timestamp
  }
}

API Endpoints

1. Health Check

Endpoint: GET /health
Description: Check if the API is running and healthy
Authentication: None

Response

json

{
  "status": "healthy",
  "timestamp": "2024-01-15T10:30:00.000Z",
  "uptime": 3600,
  "version": "1.0.0"
}

Status Codes:

200 OK: Service is healthy

2. List All Tasks

Endpoint: GET /api/v1/tasks
Description: Retrieve all tasks
Authentication: None

Query Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
completed	boolean	No	Filter by completion status
limit	number	No	Number of results (default: 100)
offset	number	No	Pagination offset (default: 0)

Response

json

{
  "tasks": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "title": "Complete API documentation",
      "description": "Write comprehensive API docs",
      "completed": false,
      "createdAt": "2024-01-15T10:00:00.000Z",
      "updatedAt": "2024-01-15T10:00:00.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "total": 1,
  "limit": 100,
  "offset": 0
}

Status Codes:

200 OK: Success

3. Get Single Task

Endpoint: GET /api/v1/tasks/:id
Description: Retrieve a specific task by ID
Authentication: None

Path Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
id	number	Yes	Task ID

Response

json

{
  "id": 1,
  "title": "Complete API documentation",
  "description": "Write comprehensive API docs",
  "completed": false,
  "createdAt": "2024-01-15T10:00:00.000Z",
  "updatedAt": "2024-01-15T10:00:00.000Z"
}

Status Codes:

200 OK: Success
404 Not Found: Task not found

4. Create Task

Endpoint: POST /api/v1/tasks
Description: Create a new task
Authentication: None

Request Body

json

{
  "title": "New task",
  "description": "Task description (optional)",
  "completed": false
}

Validation Rules

title: Required, string, 1-255 characters
description: Optional, string, max 1000 characters
completed: Optional, boolean, defaults to false

Response

json

{
  "id": 2,
  "title": "New task",
  "description": "Task description",
  "completed": false,
  "createdAt": "2024-01-15T11:00:00.000Z",
  "updatedAt": "2024-01-15T11:00:00.000Z"
}

Status Codes:

201 Created: Success
400 Bad Request: Invalid input

5. Update Task

Endpoint: PUT /api/v1/tasks/:id
Description: Update an existing task
Authentication: None

Path Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
id	number	Yes	Task ID

Request Body

json

{
  "title": "Updated task title",
  "description": "Updated description",
  "completed": true
}

Validation Rules

All fields are optional
If provided, same rules as creation apply

Response

json

{
  "id": 1,
  "title": "Updated task title",
  "description": "Updated description",
  "completed": true,
  "createdAt": "2024-01-15T10:00:00.000Z",
  "updatedAt": "2024-01-15T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Status Codes:

200 OK: Success
400 Bad Request: Invalid input
404 Not Found: Task not found

6. Delete Task

Endpoint: DELETE /api/v1/tasks/:id
Description: Delete a task
Authentication: None

Path Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
id	number	Yes	Task ID

Response

json

{
  "message": "Task deleted successfully",
  "id": 1
}

Status Codes:

200 OK: Success
404 Not Found: Task not found

Common Headers

Request Headers

Header	Required	Description
Content-Type	Yes (for POST/PUT)	Must be `application/json`
Accept	No	Preferred: `application/json`

Response Headers

Header	Description
Content-Type	Always `application/json`
X-Request-ID	Unique request identifier

Error Handling

All errors follow a consistent format:

json

{
  "error": {
    "message": "Descriptive error message",
    "status": 400,
    "timestamp": "2024-01-15T12:00:00.000Z"
  }
}

Common Error Codes

Status Code	Description
400	Bad Request - Invalid input
404	Not Found - Resource doesn't exist
500	Internal Server Error

Rate Limiting

No rate limiting implemented in the simple version.

CORS

Currently allows all origins (*) for development purposes.

Example Usage

Create a Task

bash

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/v1/tasks \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "title": "Learn REST APIs",
    "description": "Build a simple REST API with Express"
  }'

List All Tasks

bash

curl http://localhost:3000/api/v1/tasks

Update a Task

bash

curl -X PUT http://localhost:3000/api/v1/tasks/1 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "completed": true
  }'

Delete a Task

bash

curl -X DELETE http://localhost:3000/api/v1/tasks/1

Testing the API

The API includes a comprehensive test suite using Jest and Supertest. Tests cover:

All endpoints with various scenarios
Error cases and edge conditions
Input validation
Response format verification

Run tests with:

bash

npm test