Task Management API

A RESTful Flask api for managing tasks with sorting, searching, and filtering capabilities. First major API app created by author.

Quick Start

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

To instantiate the database I found running the following commands in an interactive python shell to be the easiest approach

# Import app and db from app.py
from app import db, app

# Use app context manager to create database
with app.app_context():
    db.create_all()

The main app.py file has code to start the Flask app API embedded within so it can be ran either way below

# Using flask command(debug mode OFF by default)
flask run

# Using python command(debug mode ON by default)
python app.py

First API Call:

curl -X GET "http://localhost:5000/api/tasks"

Base URL

http://localhost:5000/api/tasks

Authentication

No authentication requirements needed. This is just a small practice project.

Endpoints

Get All Tasks

GET /api/tasks

Query Parameters

• search (string, optional): Filter tasks by name containing search term
• sort (string, optional): Sorts task by field name, due_date, priority, status
• priority (string, optional): Returns tasks with specified priority Low, Medium, High
• status (string, optional): Returns tasks with specified status Pending, In Progress, Completed
• due_date (string, optional): Returns tasks with specified due date. Formatted yyyy-mm-dd

Example Request

curl GET "http://localhost:5000/api/tasks?priority=High&sort=due_date"

Example Response

[
    {
        "due_date": "2025-07-28T00:00:00",
        "id": 2,
        "name": "Complete Flask README.md",
        "priority": "High",
        "status": "In Progress"
    },
    {
        "due_date": "2025-07-30T00:00:00",
        "id": 1,
        "name": "Finish Flask app",
        "priority": "High",
        "status": "In Progress"
    }
]

Create Task

POST /api/tasks

Request Body

{
    "name": "Task name (required)",
    "priority": "Low|Medium|High (optional, defaults to Medium)",
    "status": "Pending|In Progress|Completed (optional, defaults to Pending)",
    "due_date": "YYYY-MM-DD (Optional)"
}

Example Request

curl -X POST "http://localhost:5000/api/tasks" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Implement testing suite",
    "due_date": "2025-07-29"
  }'

Example Response

{
    "due_date": "2025-07-29T00:00:00",
    "id": 3,
    "name": "Implement testing suite",
    "priority": "Medium",
    "status": "Pending"
}

Update Task

PUT /api/tasks/{task_id}

Path Parameters

• {task_id} (integer, required): ID of the task to update

Request Body

Same as the request body for POST requests (all fields optional)

Example Request

curl -X PUT "http://localhost:5000/api/tasks/3" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"status": "In Progress",
       "due_date": "2025-07-31 
    }'

Example Response

{
    "due_date": "2025-07-31T00:00:00",
    "id": 3,
    "name": "Implement testing suite",
    "priority": "Medium",
    "status": "In Progress"
}

Delete Task

DELETE /api/task/{task_id}

Path Parameters

• {task_id} (integer, required): ID of task to be deleted

Example Request

curl -X DELETE "http://localhost:5000/api/tasks/2"

Example Response

{
    "message": "task successfully deleted"
}

Error Responses

All errors return JSON in the following format:

{
    "details": "additional details (optional)",
    "error": "error description",
    "status": "error status code"
}

Error Response Example

{
    "details": {
        "due_date": [
            "Not a valid datetime."
        ],
        "name": [
            "Shorter than minimum length 2."
        ],
        "status": [
            "Must be one of: Completed, In Progress, Pending."
        ]
    },
    "error": "Invalid data",
    "status": 400
}