Note-Taking API

A RESTful API for a note-taking application built with Node.js, Express, TypeScript, and MongoDB.

Live API

Live API

API Documentation

Full documentation with request/response examples: https://documenter.getpostman.com/view/39328624/2sBXwqrAY6

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The Tasks

Task 11 — Basic REST API

• Set up a basic Express server with TypeScript configuration
• Create proper interfaces for data models
• Use MongoDB's Mongoose to store notes (id, title, content, createdAt, updatedAt)
• Create endpoints for listing, fetching, creating, and deleting notes
• Add basic error handling with typed custom error classes
• Test the API with Postman

Task 12 — Categories & Type Safety

• Create a Category interface and add it to the Note interface
• Add a category field to each note with proper type validation
• Create new endpoints for getting notes by category
• Add validation for the note format using a custom middleware with TypeScript generics
• Create a typed logging middleware to track API requests

Task 13 — User Authentication

• Create User and Auth interfaces for type safety
• Add a user system with registration and login using typed controllers
• Hash passwords using bcrypt during registration
• Implement JWT authentication with typed payloads for protected routes
• Associate notes with specific users using TypeScript type relationships
• Modify existing endpoints to only show/modify notes belonging to the authenticated user
• Add POST /api/auth/register and POST /api/auth/login endpoints
• Create a custom type guard for user authentication

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What I Added Beyond the Tasks

Feature	Why I Added It
Full-text search	?search=keyword searches across note title and content using a MongoDB text index
Pagination	?page=1&limit=10 on note listing so the API scales with large datasets
Sorting	?sort=-createdAt supports any field, prefix with - for descending order
Category filtering	?category=<id> filters notes by category on the main listing endpoint
Soft delete / Archive	Notes are archived instead of permanently deleted, so data is never lost
Restore endpoint	Archived notes can be restored via PUT /api/notes/:id/restore
Archived notes listing	GET /api/notes/archived lets users view and manage their archived notes
Duplicate category check	Prevents a user from creating two categories with the same name
Security: vague login error	Login returns the same error for wrong email or wrong password to avoid exposing registered emails

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Tech Stack

• Runtime: Node.js
• Framework: Express
• Language: TypeScript
• Database: MongoDB + Mongoose
• Auth: JSON Web Tokens (JWT) + bcrypt
• Config: dotenv

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Prerequisites

Make sure you have these installed:

• Node.js
• MongoDB (running locally or a MongoDB Atlas URI)

Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Lichi-fave/Note-taking-api.git
cd Note-taking-api

2. Install dependencies

npm install

3. Set up environment variables

Create a .env file in the root folder:

PORT=
MONGODB_URI=
JWT_SECRET=your_jwt_secret_here
JWT_EXPIRES_IN=1h

4. Run the development server

npm run dev

You should see:

Connected to MongoDB
Server is running on port 3000

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API Endpoints

All /api/notes and /api/categories routes are protected — include your JWT token in the Authorization header:

Authorization: Bearer <your_token>

Auth (Public)

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/api/auth/register	Register a new user
POST	/api/auth/login	Login and receive a JWT token

Notes (Protected)

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/notes	Get all notes (supports search, filter, sort, pagination)
GET	/api/notes/archived	Get all archived notes
GET	/api/notes/category/:categoryId	Get notes by category
GET	/api/notes/:id	Get a specific note by ID
POST	/api/notes	Create a new note
PUT	/api/notes/:id	Update an existing note
PUT	/api/notes/:id/restore	Restore an archived note
DELETE	/api/notes/:id	Archive a note (soft delete)

Query Parameters for GET /api/notes

Parameter	Example	Description
search	?search=first	Full-text search on title and content
category	?category=<id>	Filter by category ID
sort	?sort=-createdAt	Sort by any field; prefix - for descending
page	?page=2	Page number (default: 1)
limit	?limit=10	Results per page (default: 10, max: 20)

Categories (Protected)

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/categories	Get all categories
POST	/api/categories	Create a new category

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Project Structure

Note-taking-api/
├── src/
│   ├── controller/
│   │   ├── authController.ts
│   │   ├── categoryController.ts
│   │   └── noteController.ts
│   ├── middleware/
│   │   ├── auth.ts
│   │   ├── logger.ts
│   │   └── validate.ts
│   ├── model/
│   │   ├── categoryModel.ts
│   │   ├── noteModel.ts
│   │   └── userModel.ts
│   ├── app.ts
│   ├── constants.ts
│   ├── database.ts
│   └── errors.ts
├── .env
├── .env.example
├── .gitignore
├── package.json
├── README.md
└── tsconfig.json

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Validation Rules

Field	Rule
Title	3–100 characters, required
Content	Minimum 5 characters, required
Category name	2–50 characters, required, must be unique per user
Category description	Minimum 5 characters, required
Password	Minimum 8 characters, required
Email	Valid email format, must be unique

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Author

Built by Oluchukwu Anakor as part of a backend development learning program under Genesys Tech Hub.