Coding Challenge

Title: Laravel Game API Aggregator

Description:

Your task is to create a REST API using Laravel that aggregates game data from an external open API. The API should allow users to search for games, retrieve game details, and manage a list of favorite games. As a bonus, you can secure the application with basic user authentication and enable favorite games functionality only for authenticated users.

Requirements:

1. Set up a new Laravel project using Laravel 8 or above.
2. Use a SQLite database for this project.
3. Register for an API key from an open game database API, such as RAWG (https://rawg.io/apidocs) or IGDB (https://api.igdb.com/).
4. Create a Game model with the following attributes: id, game_id, title, summary, release_date, and cover_url.
5. Create a migration for the Game model and run the migration to create the games table in the database.
6. Create a GameController that handles the following operations:
   1. Search for games using the external API based on a query string.
   2. Retrieve game details from the external API and store them in the local database.
   3. Manage a list of favorite games for authenticated users (optional).
7. Create the following API routes for managing games:
   1. GET /api/games/search?q={query}: Search for games using the external API based on a query string and return the results as JSON.
   2. GET /api/games/{game_id}: Retrieve game details from the external API based on the game_id, store them in the local database, and return the game details as JSON.
   3. GET /api/favorites: Retrieve a list of favorite games for the authenticated user as JSON (optional).
   4. POST /api/favorites: Add a game to the authenticated user's list of favorite games (optional).
   5. DELETE /api/favorites/{game_id}: Remove a game from the authenticated user's list of favorite games (optional).
8. Run php artisan passport:keys to deploying passport.
9. Cache the results of game searches and game details to reduce the number of calls to the external API.

Bonus:

1. Implement basic user authentication using Laravel's built-in authentication system, such as Laravel Passport, to secure the API.
2. Ensure that only authenticated users can add or remove games from their list of favorite games.
3. Implement rate limiting for the API to prevent excessive usage.
4. Add the ability to filter game searches by release date, platform, or genre.
5. Implement a recommendation system that suggests games based on the authenticated user's list of favorite games.

Submission:

Please provide a link to a GitHub or Gitlab repository containing your Laravel project. Make sure your repository is public so we can review your code. Include a README file with instructions on how to set up and use the API, as well as any necessary API key registration information.

Installation

1. Download this repository
2. composer install
3. composer update
4. npm install
5. Rename the .env.example file to .env and add the following configurations:
   • DB_CONNECTION=sqlite
   • DB_DATABASE="C:\\absolute\\path\\to\\game-api\\database\\database.sqlite"
   • RAWG_API_KEY=YOUR-RAWG-API-KEY
   • RAWG_API_HTTP="https://api.rawg.io/api"
6. Create the file database.sqlite in the project-folder database
7. Migrate the database and seed with php artisan migrate --seed
8. Run php artisan passport:keys to deploying passport.
9. Create passport client for testing by using php artisan passport:client --personal and choose 0 when asking [0] users
10. Start the webserver with php artisan serve and use the webserver url to get access to the api.

Authentification

It is recommended to use a software like Postman to make api requests.

Create and get bearer token

use POST /api/login and add following form data:

email : "[email protected]"
password : "password"

The request returns the token, which must be used for future requests.

Use the token to check if the authentification was successful by using: GET /api/user with Bearer-Token, you got in the step before.

How to use API

• Simply get game from RAWG API and cache the result (works without authentication).
  GET /api/games/search?q={query}

• Get game details by id and save it to database. Use also database entry if exist to save api calls (works without authentication).
  GET /api/games/{id}

• Get games by (multiple) filter
  GET /api/user/games/filter?{filter}={value}

  • filter: release_date, value: date format YYYY-MM-DD
  • filter: platform, value: numeric
  • filter: genre, value: numeric

• Get favorite games from authenticated user.
  GET /api/user/games/favorites

• Add favorite game to authenticated user
  POST /api/user/games/favorites?game_id={id}

• Remove favorite game from authenticated user
  DELETE /api/user/games/favorites?game_id={id}

• Rate favorite game from authenticated user from 0 to 10
  PATCH /api/user/games/favorites/rate?game_id={id}&rating={0-10}

• Remove rating of favorite game from authenticated user (set to default)
  PATCH /api/user/games/favorites/rate/remove?game_id={id}

Rate Limiting

All routes that are not authenticated have a 5 hits per minute rate limiter middleware. To change that, edit the $perMinute variable in App\Http\Middleware\SearchGameRequestLimiter and App\Http\Middleware\RetrieveGameDetailsRequestLimiter.