NHS Query API

Introduction

This application exposes a single REST endpoint that allows users to send natural-language queries

Running the API

1. Ensure the input directory is correct in application.conf. This directory should contain the files from the NHS Website Scraper

2. Ensure you have SBT installed.

3. Navigate to the project in your favourite terminal application and enter sbt run

Using the API

To send a query to the API, send a POST request to http://host:port/query/symptoms containing a JSON body. For example:

{
    "query": "what are the symptoms of cancer?"
}

If the API can not find a match for the query, a 404 response will be returned.

If a match is found, the server will return a URL pointing to a relevant NHS webpage. For example:

{
    "url": "http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cancer?nobeta=true"
}

To stop the application, simply perform an interrupt with Ctrl-C.

Dependencies

• http4s is used to implement the REST API.
• Circe is used for parsing and handling JSON data.
• Apache Lucene is used for indexing and performing document queries.

Potential Improvements

Due to time constraints, there are some improvements that could be made to this application.

• Parameterise the query builder function in LuceneService to enhance flexibility and testability. E.g.

  def executeQuery(userQuery: SymptomQuery)(implicit builder: QueryBuilder): Option[SymptomResponse]

• Add end-to-end tests to cover the entire user journey.

• Add tests for part of the application that use Lucene. I.e. by using lucene-test-framework.