API

Routes

The API consists of 3 main routes defined in the backend’s app.ts file:

Books

Located at /api/books, this route accepts GET requests with the query parameter of “?name=<username>” where <username> is any username present in the application database.

This route returns the list of books associated with a given username as JSON in the following format:

{
  "results": [
    {
      "isbn": "9781611321456",
      "author": "Author of the Work",
      "title": "Title of the Work",
      "call_no": "AM101.L196",
      "username": "username"
    },
    {
      "isbn": "9781611321456",
      "author": "Author of the Work",
      "title": "Title of the Work",
      "call_no": "AM101.L196",
      "username": "username"
    }
}

Search

Located at /api/search, this route accepts POST requests with the following header parameters:

isbn: a valid ISBN-10 or ISBN-13 code

name: a username present in the application database

Passing a request to this endpoint will result in the requested item being added to the application database. The following JSON will be returned in the case of either:

Success

{"status": "success", "book": item} where item is the book information.

Failure – Database Issue

{"status": "failure", "error": data} where data is the response returned from the OCLC access module.

Failure – Bad Input

{"status": "failure", "error": "Invalid ISBN"}

Remove

Located at /api/remove, this route accepts POST requests with the following header parameter:

name: a username present in the application database

Passing a request to this endpoint will result in all items associated with that username being removed from the database, with the end-user result of clearing the subject user’s list of books. It will return {"Status": "Success"} if the removal was successful, or {"Status": "Failure", "Error": err} in the case of an internal error, where err is any error reported by the database.

Database Interaction

Use of the API requires that the PostgreSQL database connection be active. The Backend will fail to launch if the database connection is configured incorrectly. Refer to Database for more information.