55-capstone-project

55 - Full-Stack Task Management API (Capstone Project)

What It Does

A production-grade Task Management REST API built with FastAPI and SQLite, paired with a dynamic Vanilla HTML/CSS/JS frontend. This capstone project brings together everything learned across the previous 54 projects into a single, cohesive full-stack application.

The application provides:

• A responsive, glassmorphic dashboard UI
• Full CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) for tasks via API calls
• Dashboard analytics with aggregate statistics
• Keyword search across task titles and descriptions
• Health monitoring endpoint for uptime and database connectivity
• Pydantic-validated request/response models
• Database seeder for development and demo data
• Comprehensive test suite with pytest

Project Structure

55-capstone-project/
  backend/
    main.py              # Application entry point with factory pattern
    config.py            # Centralized configuration settings
    models.py            # Pydantic data models and enums
    database.py          # SQLite database layer with CRUD operations
    routes.py            # API route handlers (tasks, dashboard, health)
    seed.py              # Database seeder with sample data
    test_api.py          # Pytest test suite for all endpoints
    requirements.txt     # Python dependencies
  frontend/
    index.html           # Main UI structure
    style.css            # Custom CSS styling
    app.js               # Vanilla JS logic interfacing with backend API
  README.md              # This file

Setup and Run

1. Backend Setup

cd backend
pip install -r requirements.txt
python seed.py
uvicorn main:app --reload

2. Frontend Setup

Simply open frontend/index.html in your web browser. Or using a local server:

cd ../frontend
python -m http.server 5500
# Then open http://127.0.0.1:5500 in your browser

4. Open the API documentation

• Swagger UI: http://127.0.0.1:8000/docs
• ReDoc: http://127.0.0.1:8000/redoc

5. Run the test suite

pytest test_api.py -v

API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/	Root endpoint with API metadata
GET	/api/health	Health check (status, uptime, DB connectivity)
GET	/api/dashboard	Aggregate task statistics
POST	/api/tasks	Create a new task
GET	/api/tasks	List all tasks (with filters and pagination)
GET	/api/tasks/{id}	Get a specific task by ID
PUT	/api/tasks/{id}	Update a task (partial updates supported)
DELETE	/api/tasks/{id}	Delete a task
GET	/api/tasks/search/{keyword}	Search tasks by keyword

Query Parameters for GET /api/tasks

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
status	string	null	Filter by status (pending, in_progress, completed, cancelled)
priority	string	null	Filter by priority (low, medium, high, critical)
limit	int	50	Results per page (1-200)
offset	int	0	Number of results to skip

Example: Create a Task

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/tasks \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": "Write documentation", "priority": "high", "assigned_to": "Alice"}'

Example: Get Dashboard Stats

curl http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/dashboard

Response:

{
  "total_tasks": 10,
  "pending_tasks": 6,
  "in_progress_tasks": 2,
  "completed_tasks": 1,
  "cancelled_tasks": 1,
  "high_priority_count": 4,
  "completion_rate": 10.0
}

Example Output

$ python main.py
> System initialized.
> Waiting for user input...
> Process complete.

Core Concepts

• Application Factory Pattern: create_app() builds the FastAPI instance with middleware and routes
• Pydantic Models: Strict request/response validation with BaseModel, Field, and Enum
• SQLite Database Layer: Raw SQL with sqlite3, parameterized queries, and connection management
• API Router: Route separation using APIRouter with prefix and tags
• CORS Middleware: Cross-origin configuration for frontend communication
• Pytest Testing: TestClient for endpoint testing with fixtures and clean database state
• Configuration Management: Centralized settings with a Settings class
• Database Seeding: Reproducible sample data for development and demos
• HTTP Status Codes: Proper 201 (Created), 204 (No Content), 404 (Not Found), 422 (Validation Error)
• Partial Updates: PUT endpoint accepts optional fields, only updating what is provided

What You Will Learn

This capstone project teaches you how to architect a complete backend application from scratch. You will understand how all the concepts from the previous 54 projects come together: classes and data models (from OOP projects), database operations (from the DB migration project), API design (from the FastAPI project), testing patterns (from pytest), configuration management, error handling with custom HTTP responses, and structuring a multi-file Python application for maintainability and scalability.

Technologies Used

Technology	Purpose
FastAPI	Web framework for building the REST API
Pydantic	Data validation and serialization
SQLite	Lightweight embedded database
Uvicorn	ASGI server for running the application
Pytest	Testing framework for endpoint verification
HTTPX	HTTP client used by FastAPI's TestClient

Project Structure

55-capstone-project/
  README.md
  backend/
    config.py
    database.py
    main.py
    models.py
    requirements.txt
    routes.py
    seed.py
    test_api.py