API Monitoring Dashboard

A Django + Django REST Framework application for registering API endpoints, running automated health checks, storing results, and viewing a live dashboard with uptime percentages and response-time history.

Tech Stack

• Django & Django REST Framework
• PostgreSQL
• requests for HTTP checks
• django-environ for environment configuration
• Django templates + Chart.js for the dashboard UI

Setup

1. Clone the repository

   git clone <your-repo-url>
   cd DjangoAPI

2. Create and activate a virtual environment

   python -m venv venv
   # Windows
   .\venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
   # macOS/Linux
   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Configure environment variables

   Copy .env.example to .env and fill in real values:

   copy .env.example .env   # Windows
   cp .env.example .env     # macOS/Linux

   Required variables:

   • DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, DB_HOST, DB_PORT — PostgreSQL connection
   • SECRET_KEY — Django secret key
   • RUN_CHECKS_SECRET_KEY — secret for the external cron trigger endpoint

5. Create the PostgreSQL database

   Ensure PostgreSQL is running and create a database matching DB_NAME (default: api_db).

6. Run migrations

   python manage.py migrate

7. Create a superuser (required for admin and API write access)

   python manage.py createsuperuser

8. Start the development server

   python manage.py runserver

   • Dashboard: http://127.0.0.1:8000/
   • Admin: http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/
   • API root: http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/

Running Checks Manually

python manage.py check_endpoints

This checks all active endpoints and prints a summary to stdout.

External Cron Scheduling (/api/run-checks/)

The POST /api/run-checks/ endpoint runs the same logic as the management command. It is protected by the X-RUNNER-KEY header, which must match RUN_CHECKS_SECRET_KEY in your .env.

Example request:

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/run-checks/ \
  -H "X-RUNNER-KEY: your-run-checks-secret-key-here"

Successful response:

{"checked": 3}

Using cron-job.org (free)

1. Deploy the app so it is reachable on the public internet.
2. Create a free account at cron-job.org.
3. Add a new cron job:
   • URL: https://your-domain.com/api/run-checks/
   • Method: POST
   • Schedule: e.g. every 5 minutes
   • Custom header: X-RUNNER-KEY: <your RUN_CHECKS_SECRET_KEY value>
4. Save and enable the job.

API Overview

Endpoint	Methods	Auth
/api/endpoints/	GET (public), POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE (staff)	Staff for writes
/api/endpoints/{id}/stats/	GET (public)	None
/api/checks/	GET (public)	None
/api/run-checks/	POST	X-RUNNER-KEY header only

Screenshot

Assumptions

• Single-user / single-tenant: no visitor login or multi-project support.
• Checks use a 10-second timeout and compare the HTTP status code to expected_status_code.
• Uptime percentage is calculated over the last 50 checks per endpoint.
• Chart.js is loaded from the jsDelivr CDN (requires internet access in the browser).