getAddress() API Address Printer

Outline

As a tech test, I was given the following outline:

We have a small task for you using the getaddress.io API (see https://getaddress.io/). You can use the language and database of your choice.

• Write a console app that asks for a postcode.
• Check if the postcode already exists in a database and the results are less than 24 hours old.
• If it is not in the database, call the API and get addresses associated with the postcode – cache the results to a database
• Print the addresses to the screen (from the API or the pre-cached data)
• Ask for another postcode

Planning

Tech

Language: Python
Database: MongoDB

I've chosen MongoDB because:

1. Mongo is built for storing JSON docs
2. It has a built in Time To Live feature to delete docs after a specified time, which will be useful for expiring results after 24 hours

Order

The console program will execute as a continuous loop, until the user exits:

1. Console Input: Ask user to provide Postcode to look up, or (q)uit
2. Request Postcode record from DB, if exists:
   • Yes: Send record to Print_Addresses()
   • No:
     • Query getAddress API for current record (format & sorted = true)
     • Store record in DB
     • Send record to Print_Addresses()
3. Print_Addresses() takes a JSON of format: {addresses:[address:[lines]]}
   • for address in addresses
     • for line in address.formatted_address
       • print(line) if not blank
4. Loop back to start

Setup

Environment Vars

The Following EnVars will need setting:

Key	Description
APIKEY	Your getaddress.io API Key (https://getaddress.io/CreateAccount)
MONGODB_URI	MongoDB Atlas connection string

Requirements

Install python dependencies with:

pip3 install -r requirements.txt