Creating New Management Routes For Prompts And Responses

by Dimemap Team 57 views

Hey guys! Today, we're diving into the exciting world of backend development, specifically focusing on creating and managing routes for user prompts and responses. This is a crucial aspect of building interactive applications, and we're going to break down the process step by step. We'll be covering everything from setting up the routes to ensuring proper validation and structuring the responses for the frontend.

Understanding the Requirements

Before we jump into the code, it's super important to understand the specifications and requirements. We need to refer to the specifications.md file, which acts as our blueprint, and the TACHES_FRONTEND.md file, especially Module 2 concerning the textual prompts system. These documents outline exactly what needs to be built and how it should function.

The core of our task involves creating or completing the backend routes for managing user textual prompts. This includes handling various operations such as creating new prompts, retrieving existing ones, updating answers, and fetching user-specific data. We'll be focusing on these specific routes:

  • PUT /profiles/me/prompt-answers
  • GET /profiles/prompts
  • POST /profiles/me/prompt-answers
  • GET /profiles/me

These routes will form the backbone of our prompt management system. Let's dive deeper into each of them.

Diving Deep into the Routes

Let's break down each of these routes to understand their purpose and how they fit into the overall system. This will help us create a robust and efficient backend.

PUT /profiles/me/prompt-answers

This route is used for updating a user's prompt answers. Think of it like this: a user has already answered some prompts, and they want to go back and change their responses. The PUT method is perfect for this as it's designed to replace existing data. Key considerations for this route include:

  • Authentication: Ensuring only the user can update their own answers. We need to implement proper authentication middleware to verify the user's identity.
  • Data Validation: Validating the incoming data to ensure it meets our requirements. This includes checking the format, length, and content of the answers.
  • Error Handling: Handling potential errors gracefully. What happens if the user tries to update answers that don't exist? We need to have a plan for these scenarios.

GET /profiles/prompts

This route is responsible for retrieving a list of available prompts. This could be a list of questions or scenarios that the user needs to respond to. This route is crucial for the frontend to display the prompts to the user. Important aspects of this route include:

  • Filtering and Sorting: We might want to allow filtering prompts based on categories or sorting them by relevance. This can enhance the user experience.
  • Pagination: If we have a large number of prompts, we'll need to implement pagination to avoid overwhelming the user and improve performance.
  • Caching: Caching frequently accessed prompts can significantly reduce database load and improve response times.

POST /profiles/me/prompt-answers

This route is used for creating new prompt answers for a user. When a user submits their answers for the first time, this route comes into play. Key considerations include:

  • Data Validation: Similar to the PUT route, we need to validate the incoming data to ensure it's in the correct format and meets our requirements.
  • Database Interactions: Properly saving the answers in the database, associating them with the correct user and prompt.
  • Idempotency: Ensuring that multiple identical requests don't result in duplicate entries in the database.

GET /profiles/me

This route is used to retrieve the current user's profile information, which might include their answered prompts. This is a fundamental route for displaying user-specific data on the frontend. Important aspects include:

  • Authentication: Ensuring only the authenticated user can access their own profile.
  • Data Serialization: Formatting the response data in a way that's easy for the frontend to consume.
  • Performance: Optimizing database queries to retrieve user data efficiently.

Implementing the Backend Routes

Now that we've dissected the requirements and understood the purpose of each route, let's talk about the actual implementation. We'll need to choose a backend framework (like Node.js with Express, Python with Flask or Django, etc.) and start coding.

Choosing a Framework

The choice of framework depends on your team's expertise and the project's requirements. However, for this example, let's assume we're using Node.js with Express, a popular and efficient choice for building RESTful APIs.

Setting Up the Routes

In Express, we can define routes using the app object. Here's a basic example of how we might set up the routes:

const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const port = 3000;

app.put('/profiles/me/prompt-answers', (req, res) => {
  // Handle updating prompt answers
  res.send('PUT /profiles/me/prompt-answers');
});

app.get('/profiles/prompts', (req, res) => {
  // Handle retrieving prompts
  res.send('GET /profiles/prompts');
});

app.post('/profiles/me/prompt-answers', (req, res) => {
  // Handle creating prompt answers
  res.send('POST /profiles/me/prompt-answers');
});

app.get('/profiles/me', (req, res) => {
  // Handle retrieving user profile
  res.send('GET /profiles/me');
});

app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Server listening at http://localhost:${port}`);
});

This is a basic skeleton. We'll need to add middleware for authentication, data validation, and database interactions.

Implementing Validation

Validation is a critical step in ensuring data integrity. We need to validate that the user is sending us the correct data format and that it meets our business rules. For example, we need to ensure that:

  • The user provides answers for a maximum of 3 prompts.
  • Each answer doesn't exceed 150 characters.

We can use libraries like joi or express-validator to implement validation middleware. Here's an example using express-validator:

const { body, validationResult } = require('express-validator');

app.post(
  '/profiles/me/prompt-answers',
  [
    body('answers')
      .isArray()
      .withMessage('Answers must be an array'),
    body('answers').isArray({ max: 3 }).withMessage('Maximum 3 answers allowed'),
    body('answers.*.text')
      .isLength({ max: 150 })
      .withMessage('Answer text must be less than 150 characters'),
  ],
  (req, res) => {
    const errors = validationResult(req);
    if (!errors.isEmpty()) {
      return res.status(400).json({ errors: errors.array() });
    }

    // Handle creating prompt answers
    res.send('POST /profiles/me/prompt-answers');
  }
);

This middleware checks if the answers field is an array, if it contains a maximum of 3 items, and if each answer text is less than 150 characters.

Handling Database Interactions

We'll need to interact with a database to store and retrieve prompts and answers. This involves setting up a database connection and writing queries to perform CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations.

Let's assume we're using MongoDB with Mongoose. We'll need to define schemas for our prompts and answers and then use Mongoose models to interact with the database.

Here's a simplified example:

const mongoose = require('mongoose');

mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost:27017/prompt-app', {
  useNewUrlParser: true,
  useUnifiedTopology: true,
});

const promptSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
  text: String,
});

const answerSchema = new mongoose.Schema({
  user: { type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId, ref: 'User' },
  prompt: { type: mongoose.Schema.Types.ObjectId, ref: 'Prompt' },
  text: String,
});

const Prompt = mongoose.model('Prompt', promptSchema);
const Answer = mongoose.model('Answer', answerSchema);

app.post('/profiles/me/prompt-answers', async (req, res) => {
  try {
    const { answers } = req.body;
    // Assuming req.user is populated by authentication middleware
    const userId = req.user._id;

    for (const answerData of answers) {
      const answer = new Answer({
        user: userId,
        prompt: answerData.promptId,
        text: answerData.text,
      });
      await answer.save();
    }

    res.status(201).send('Answers submitted successfully');
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(error);
    res.status(500).send('Error submitting answers');
  }
});

This example demonstrates how to save answers to the database. We'll need to implement similar logic for retrieving and updating answers.

Frontend Considerations

The backend is only half the story. We need to ensure that the data we're sending to the frontend is in the correct format. The TACHES_FRONTEND.md document specifies the expected response structure. We need to adhere to this structure to ensure that the frontend can correctly display the data.

Structuring the Response

For example, the frontend might expect a JSON response with the following structure when retrieving prompts:

[
  {
    "id": "prompt1",
    "text": "What are your hobbies?"
  },
  {
    "id": "prompt2",
    "text": "What are your goals?"
  }
]

We need to format our backend responses to match this structure. This might involve transforming the data we retrieve from the database before sending it to the frontend.

Respecting Validation Rules

We've already discussed backend validation, but it's worth reiterating its importance. We need to enforce the validation rules (3 prompts, 150 characters) on the backend to prevent invalid data from being stored in the database. This helps maintain data integrity and prevents issues on the frontend.

Selecting and Modifying Prompts

Our system should allow users to select and modify prompts. This means we need to implement the necessary logic in our backend routes. For example, when a user updates their answers, we need to find the existing answers and update them in the database.

Testing the Routes

Testing is a crucial step in ensuring that our routes function correctly. We should write unit tests and integration tests to verify that our routes handle different scenarios correctly. This includes testing:

  • Successful requests
  • Error scenarios
  • Data validation
  • Database interactions

Conclusion

Creating new management routes for prompts and responses is a multi-faceted task that involves understanding the requirements, implementing the routes, handling validation, interacting with the database, and structuring the responses for the frontend. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can build a robust and efficient backend system for managing user prompts and responses. Remember to always prioritize data validation, security, and performance to create a great user experience. Happy coding, guys!