Node Express Last.fm API

Abstract

This project provides a simple Node.js REST API application to forward API calls to the Last.fm API. It utilizes its search.artist method. The user provides a search string, to which the API responds with the search result from the Last.fm API. The user then has the possibility to let Node write and save the received search result as a CSV file by calling on another API endpoint.

The request to build this application was given as a coding challenge for a job interview.

Requirements

• Search for an artist by name based on the following endpoint artist.search, return all the results for this artist.
• Writes the result to a user-supplied CSV filename.
• The CSV file should include the following information (name, mbid, url, image_small, image)
• ⇒ If no results returned from the artist.search endpoint, retrieve random artist names from a JSON dictionary source file for example: [‘artistName1’, ‘artistName2’, ‘artistName3’]
• Repeat as necessary until you have gathered a list of artists.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node
• git

Choose a Project Directory

Use your terminal of choice and navigate to the directory where you want to create the project folder. Clone the project into the chosen directory by running

git clone https://github.com/MrFootwork/node-express-last_fm_api

Node Server Installation

After successfully cloning the repository, you find two folders. Navigate to the api folder.

cd api

Install the node modules from inside node-express-last_fm_api/api by running

npm install

Web Frontend Installation (optional)

The following installation steps are not necessary to run the Node API application. But it's always nice to see the results on an UI while testing it. If you agree, follow the following installation steps. If you only need the server up running and access the api endpoints, continue with Set Environment Variables.

Navigate to the client folder.

cd -
cd client

Install node modules inside node-express-last_fm_api/client.

npm install

Create the production build.

npm run build

Set Environment Variables

Navigate to the project folder and open it in any preferred code editor or IDE. You will need to provide a valid api key. Please go to node-express-last_fm_api/api/config/ in your editor. You should find a file named .env.example. Rename this file to .env. This file holds the following two environment variables.

API_KEY=YOUR_LAST-FM_API_KEY
PORT=4000

Replace YOUR_LAST-FM_API_KEY with your own key from last.FM. If necessary you have to register for one, first. The default port number is 4000. Feel free to change it in your environment variables. Running the Node application locally will use this port.

Run Server

Navigate to the server directory in node-express-last_fm_api/api/ and start the server with

node index.js

If you built a production build of the client side Vue app, you can access the web app from http://localhost:4000. Without the frontend build the server will still serve to this port.

API endpoints

Endpoint	Response
/search?artist=ARTIST	matching artists as array of artists
/save?filename=FILENAME	matching artists as text/CSV