api

backend-api for LENZ-API

Setup Instructions

Technologies and Installations

• Database

  • Postgres SQL
  • PG Admin 4

• Django Version 4.2.4

• Python Version 3.11

Instructions

Install Python Version 3.11

Git Clone project

Setup Python Virtual Environment

• python -m venv ./env
  • this will create a virtual environment within the API directory called env
  • to enact virtual environment run "./env/Scripts/activate" from main API directory
  • note you must be in virtual environment in order to execute/run python and django commands.

pip install requirements.txt

• this will install any dependencies
• if you are adding more dependencies to the project, please update requirements.txt by running the command pip freeze > requirements.txt
• NEW UPDATE:
  • update requirements.txt with the command pipreqs . --force

Create A Database

• assuming postgres is installed correctly, on the command line run createdb <db_name> to create a database within postgres, we will use this database name in the next steps

Create A ".env" Configuration file

• in the main API Directory, create a file called ".env"

• we will use this as configuration for your API

• add the following lines to the file:

  • POSTGRES_DB=<db_name>
  • POSTGRES_USER=postgres
  • POSTGRES_PASSWORD=<db_password>
  • POSTGRES_HOST=127.0.0.1

Run Migrations

• The application will always have migrations to run from previous updates etc, to run migrations run the following command:
  • python manage.py migrate
    • this will update your database and tables, it is very important we do not delete migration files and try to push a single migration per pull request
• to update migrations or add new ones to the application, run the following command:
  • python manage.py makemigrations
• to make migrations for a specific app to your database, run the following command:
  • python manage.py <app_name> makemigrations
• to perform migrations on a specific database, run the following command:
  • python manage.py makemigrations DATABASE=<db_name>

Create A Super User

• a super user acts as an admin for the application as well as for django-admin, to create a super user run the following command:
  • python manage.py createsuperuser
    • follow the prompts to create the super user
    • remember your password! django automatically hashes passwords in the database making it quite difficult to retrieve

Collect Static Files

= command: - python manage.py collectstatic

• what it does:
  • collects all the static files to run some of the various interfaces such as the admin interface

Running Tests

• python manage.py test apps..tests
• this will run the tests located in the tests directory of the app
• all tests must start with the word test in order for Django to discover it
• write tests in this file and in actions we will target them to run