IBM Full Stack Software Developer - Express Book Reviews 📚

A complete RESTful API built with Node.js and Express.js for managing a book review system. This project is the final assignment for the Back-End Development module of the IBM Full Stack Software Developer Professional Certificate on Coursera.

📖 Project Overview

This API provides public endpoints to browse a library of books and authenticated endpoints for registered users to manage their book reviews. The server utilizes express-session and jsonwebtoken (JWT) to securely manage authentication and user sessions.

Key Features

• Public Users:

  • View all books available in the shop.
  • Search for books by ISBN.
  • Search for books by Author.
  • Search for books by Title.
  • Read existing book reviews.
  • Register as a new user.

• Authenticated Users:

  • Secure Login with JSON Web Tokens (JWT).
  • Add a new review to a book.
  • Modify a completed review.
  • Delete their own review.
  • Multiple users can review the same book independently.

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🛠️ Architecture and Endpoints

1. General Routes (Public)

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/	Retrieve the entire list of books.
GET	/isbn/:isbn	Retrieve details of a specific book by its ISBN.
GET	/author/:author	Retrieve books written by a specific author.
GET	/title/:title	Retrieve books with a specific title.
GET	/review/:isbn	Retrieve all reviews for a specific book.
POST	/register	Register a new user in the system.

2. Authenticated Routes (Private)

Requires users to be logged in and possess a valid JWT session token.

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/customer/login	Login with username and password to get a token.
PUT	/customer/auth/review/:isbn	Add or update a review for a specific book.
DELETE	/customer/auth/review/:isbn	Delete the logged-in user's review for a book.

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🚀 Setup & Installation

Prerequisites

Make sure you have Node.js installed on your machine.

Installation Steps

1. Clone the project / Navigate to directory:

   cd final_project

2. Install all dependencies:

   npm install

3. Install Axios (Required for Testing Scripts):

   npm install axios

4. Start the Express Server:

   npm start

   The server will start on http://localhost:5000

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🧪 Testing the API

As required by the IBM course rubric, data fetching is demonstrated using Promises and async/await with Axios. The project includes two testing scripts to verify all endpoints are working correctly.

1. Testing Public Endpoints

Run the test_general.js script to test fetching books, authors, and titles:

node test_general.js

2. Testing Authentication Endpoints

Run the test_auth.js script to test user registration and login:

node test_auth.js

Manual Testing with Postman / cURL

You can also test the endpoints manually using Postman.

• Example cURL to get all books:

  curl -s http://localhost:5000/

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💻 Tech Stack

• Backend Framework: Express.js
• Runtime Environment: Node.js
• Authentication: jsonwebtoken (JWT), express-session
• HTTP Client (for testing): Axios

📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.