TamagotchiAPI

An API that allows a user to create and care for a virtual pet, akin to a Tamagotchi Virtual Pet.

Link to frontend: https://github.com/jbadge/TamagotchiFrontEnd

Link to static implementation of project: https://tamagotchi-reloaded-jb.netlify.app/

How It's Made:

Tech used: ASP.NET CORE, C#, Entity Framework, PostgreSQL

This RESTful API is built using C#. Entity Framework is used to run SQL queries to a PostgreSQL database.

Optimizations:

I added a PUT method in order to make on-the-fly changes to pets for diagnostic purposes. I also have (currently commented out) code in order to run on external devices within a LAN, both in the frontend and backend code. Not only did this help with testing, as I did not deploy the backend codebase, but also allowed my 7 year old to have her own database, resulting in a happy 7 year old.

Lessons Learned:

How to implement a full-stack application by building a backend API. After all was said and done, I was fascinated by the simplicity of the HTTP requests. Seeing it all come together after the frontend was built, with the SQL queries to the database resulting in a fun, interactive pet database, was very satisfying.

API

Please note, the API uses PUT instead of PATCH for updating.

Request methods

Method	Description
GET	Used to retrieve a single pet or all pets in the database.
POST	Used when creating a new pet, or pet action: playtimes, feedings, or scoldings.
PUT	Used to update pet (replaces all fields with new data), e.g. when pet dies
DELETE	Used to delete a pet by id.

Examples

During pet creation, Birthday defaults to the current DateTime, Hunger Level defaults to 0 and Happiness Level defaults to 0. When a pet is updated, the API sets the LastInteractedWithDate to the current time. If LastInteractedWithDate is over three days old, IsDead will return true; otherwise, it will return false.

Method	URL	Description
GET	/api/Pets	Retrieve all pets.
POST	/api/Pets	Create a new pet.
GET	/api/Pets/5	Retrieve pet #id
PUT	/api/Pets/5	Update pet #5 to dead
DELETE	/api/Pets/5	Delete pet #5.
POST	/api/Pets/5/Playtimes	Add a playtime to pet #5, adding 5 to Happiness and 3 to Hunger levels.
POST	/api/Pets/5/Feedings	Add a feeding to pet #5, subtracting 5 from Hunger and adding 3 to Happiness levels.
POST	/api/Pets/5/Scoldings	Add a scolding to post #5, subtracting 5 from Happiness level.