Recipe API

About the Project

I developed this API as part of my Software Engineering capstone project in April 2025. The goal was to build a backend that manages recipes, tracks ingredients across multiple recipes, and handles inventory changes when recipes are made.

The API was built to work with an Android application and uses PostgreSQL to store recipes, ingredients, users, and their relationships.

Tech Stack

• TypeScript - Programming language
• Fastify - Backend API framework
• PostgreSQL - Relational database
• TypeORM - Database management and entity relationships
• JWT - User authentication
• Docker - Containerization
• Vitest - Unit testing

Features

• User Authentication: Register, log in, log out, and manage user sessions using JWT.
• Recipe Management: Create, view, update, delete, and search recipes.
• Ingredient Management: Create, view, update, and delete ingredients.
• Recipe Ingredients: Associate multiple ingredients with recipes and manage the quantity needed for each recipe.
• Inventory Tracking: Keep track of available ingredients when recipes are made.
• Grocery List: Generate a grocery list based on ingredient inventory.
• Activity Logs: View ingredient activity and inventory changes.

API Endpoints

All API endpoints use the /v1 prefix.

Authentication

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/v1/auth/register	Register a user
POST	/v1/auth/login	Log in
POST	/v1/auth/logout	Log out
POST	/v1/auth/refresh-token	Refresh authentication token
GET	/v1/auth/whoami	Get authenticated user

Recipes

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/v1/recipes	Get all recipes
GET	/v1/recipes/:id	Get a recipe
POST	/v1/recipes	Create a recipe
PUT	/v1/recipes/:id	Update a recipe
DELETE	/v1/recipes/:id	Delete a recipe
GET	/v1/recipes/search	Search recipes
POST	/v1/recipes/:recipeId/make	Make a recipe

Recipe Ingredients

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/v1/recipes/:recipeId/ingredients	Get ingredients associated with a recipe
GET	/v1/recipes/:recipeId/ingredients/:ingredientId	Get a specific recipe ingredient
POST	/v1/recipes/:recipeId/ingredients/:ingredientId	Associate an ingredient with a recipe
PUT	/v1/recipes/:recipeId/ingredients/:ingredientId	Update a recipe ingredient
DELETE	/v1/recipes/:recipeId/ingredients/:ingredientId	Remove an ingredient from a recipe

Ingredients

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/v1/ingredients	Get all ingredients
GET	/v1/ingredients/:id	Get an ingredient
POST	/v1/ingredients	Create an ingredient
PUT	/v1/ingredients/:id	Update an ingredient
DELETE	/v1/ingredients/:id	Delete an ingredient
GET	/v1/ingredients/:recipeId/available	Get ingredients not associated with a recipe
GET	/v1/ingredients/logs	Get ingredient activity logs
GET	/v1/ingredients/grocery	Generate a grocery list

All recipe and ingredient endpoints require authentication.

Getting Started

Requirements

• Node.js
• PostgreSQL
• npm
• Docker (optional)

Installation

Clone the repository and navigate to the API directory.

cd api

Install the dependencies.

npm install

Create a .env file using .env.example and configure your database and authentication settings.

PORT=8081
INTERFACE=localhost

JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret
COOKIE_SECRET=your_cookie_secret
SESSION_SECRET=your_session_secret

DB_NAME=recipe_app
DB_USER=postgres
DB_PASS=your_database_password
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=5432

Make sure PostgreSQL is running and the database credentials are configured correctly.

Start the development server.

npm run dev

Available Commands

Command	Description
npm run dev	Start development server
npm run build	Compile TypeScript
npm start	Start compiled application
npm test	Run unit tests
npm run lint	Run linting and formatting

Diagram

The following diagram shows the structure and relationships between users, recipes, ingredients, and other related entities.

Project Structure

api/
├── src/
│   ├── controllers/
│   ├── models/
│   ├── repositories/
│   ├── routes/
│   │   └── v1/
│   ├── services/
│   ├── utils/
│   ├── __test__/
│   └── index.ts
├── scripts/
├── .env.example
├── docker-compose.yml
├── Dockerfile
└── package.json

The API is organized into controllers, services, and repositories to separate request handling, business logic, and database operations.