Phase: Final stages of completion

As we are going into the spring break, we want to the update the status of the project. Before diving into the details, a quick introduction of the project.

App4Apis: A one stop solution to access APIs that are designed to take the parameters in the query and return a json object. We have two types of configurations. The first is a list of preset APIs (Geocode, Human Resources Archive, Internet Archive) where we are well aware of the structure of the API and provide a form to update the necessary information for querying. The second is more generic where user provides an example url (including the query parameters) from which we identify the API request pattern. This pattern is then used to query the API with a larger dataset in the next step. We let the user download the results or the results can be sent as an email (helpful for particularly large datasets).

Status: In the last blog post, our to-do list was

1. Finish few pending screens towards our goal.
2. Integrate Geocode API into preset.
3. Develop the functionality to support user to upload a file in the ad hoc query case.
4. Cosmetic changes and make the website visually appealing.
5. End to end exhaustive testing.
6. Deploy!

From that list, we are able to finish the layout of pending screens, completed the integration of Geocode into the preset list, and made the website more visually appealing. We are in the process of end-to-end testing of the preset phase before moving onto the ad hoc query case. The redesigned screens of the website are attached at the end of the blog. Any feedback is welcome.

We are able to send the results to the user through email in the chunks of 1000 results per csv file. This will help the users to submit a task to the system and receive the results at a later point of time, enabling the system to handle large inputs and giving an option to user to not wait for the results.

Current tasks at hand are:

1. Make the email sending process offline: Currently, we can send an email but we are not able to schedule it for a later point of time and allow the user to exit the screen. He can leave the application after submitting the tasks but we are not able to provide it as an option. I am working on taking the input as a task and schedule it for a later point of time.
2. Complete testing of the preset APIs workflow.
3. Complete testing of the ad-hoc requests workflow. 
4. Deploy.

I am expecting to finish the first 3 tasks by this month end so that we can turn our focus on deployment from the start of next month.

Thanks,

Rohit Bharadwaj Gernapudi

The website screens are: