Mini Web Project - Genealogy Explorer

Coursework Description

Your task is to develop the Genealogy Explorer (GE), an online tool for building a family tree and tracking ancestry. This piece of coursework consists of two parts - Part 1 (RESTful Service) and Part 2 (Web Interface). You will need to develop a RESTful web service back-end for searching and editing genealogy records, and to design a web interface for creating and browsing these data.

You may start your work from Part 1 or Part 2 first as you wish. Java domain class templates and a SQL file is provided on Blackboard (see Appendix). You may choose to use them for implementation, and you are allowed to make any changes to them.

Part 1: RESTful Web Service

GE allows users to create and edit a family tree. Your tasks in Part 1 are to implement the following REST Web Service methods (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e).

(a) Adding a person

(1) GET /GE/person/add?key=3&name=RichardIII&dob=14830626&m=1&f=2&g=male

Submit a GET request to this URI to add a person to the database.

Parameter:
key : the unique key of the person (*)
name : full name of the person (*) m : the person's mother's key f : the person's father's key
dob : the person's date of birth (e.g. 19921210 - December 10th 1992)
g : the person's gender

(2) POST /GE/person/addJSON

JSON request

{
"key": "1",
"name": "RichardIII", "dob": "14830626",
"g": "male"
"m": "2",
"f": "3"
}
Successful response in JSON

{"result": "true"}

Unsuccessful response in JSON

{
"result": "false",
"message": "person id already exists (or m/f id does not exist)"
}

Add a new person to the database. This request returns true if the operation is successful, otherwise false is returned. (e.g. a person with the provided id already exists; one of the parent ids does not exist)

Consider the following HTTP GET requests:

GET /GE/person/add?key=1&name=King%20George%20VI
GET /GE/person/add?key=2&name=Queen%20Elizabeth
GET /GE/person/add?key=3&name=Queen%20Elizabeth%20II&m=2&f=1
GET /GE/person/add?key=5&name=Prince%20Philip%20Duke%20of%20Edinburgh
GET /GE/person/add?key=4&name=Princess%20Margaret&m=2&f=1
GET /GE/person/add?key=6&name=Prince%20Charles&m=3&f=5
GET /GE/person/add?key=7&name=Princess%20Diana
GET /GE/person/add?key=8&name=Prince%20William&m=7&f=6
GET /GE/person/add?key=9&name=Prince%20Harry&m=7&f=6
GET /GE/person/add?key=10&name=Catherine%20Duchess%20of%20Cambridge
GET /GE/person/add?key=11&name=Prince%20George&m=10&f=8

The family tree structure below will be created (Note that spaces in URLs are encoded as %20; optional arguments are omitted)

It is also possible to add multiple persons at the same time by posting a JSON array to addJSON. For example, the following JSON will add two people to the database:

{
"list":[
{
"key":"12",
"name":"Princess Charlotte", "dob":"20150502",
"g":"female",
"m":"10",
"f":"8"
},
{
"key":"13",
"name":"Prince Louis", "dob":"14830626",
"g":"male",
"m":"10",
"f":"8"
}
]
}

This request returns true if all people are added successfully, otherwise the operation is cancelled and false is returned.

(b) Deleting a person

GET /GE/person/delete/7

Delete a person with the given key (e.g. key=7) from the Genealogy database. The person's descendants should NOT be deleted from the family tree. The request should return true if the operation is successful, otherwise false is returned. For example, the above HTTP GET request should not delete key=8, 9, 10 or 11 in Figure (1).

Successful response in JSON

Unsuccessful response in JSON

{
"result": "false",
"message": "key X does not exist"
}

(c) Getting information about a specific person

GET /GE/person/get/12
Return the information about a person with the given key in JSON: Successful response in JSON
{
"key": "12",
"name": "Princess Charlotte", "dob": "20150502",
"g": "female",
"m": "10",
"f": "8"
}

Unsuccessful response in JSON

{
"result": "false",
"message": "key X does not exist"
}

(d) Finding someone's ancestors

GET /GE/person/ancestors/6

Return the person's direct-line ancestors (a direct-line ancestor is someone from whom you descend in a direct line - parent to child, grandparent, great-grandparent etc.) as a JSON object. Given the family tree in Figure 1, the GET request above should return all direct-line ancestors of the person (key=6) as a JSON object:

{
"key":"6", "parents":{
"m":{
"key":"3", "parents":{
"m":{
"key":"2"
}, "f":{
"key":"1"
}
}
}, "f":{
"key":"5"
}
}
}

Unsuccessful response in JSON

{
"result": "false",
"message": "key X does not exist"
}

Note: You may include other attributes (e.g. name, gender etc) in the JSON response.

(e) Finding someone's descendants
GET /GE/person/descendants/7

Return all of the person's lineal descendants (a lineal descendant is a blood relative in the direct line of descent - the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc.) as a JSON object. Given the family tree in Figure (1), the GET request above should return all descendants of the person (key=7) as a JSON object:

{
"key":"7", "children":[
{
"key":"8", "children":[
{
"key":"11"
}
]
},
{
"key":"9"
}
]
}

Part 2: Web Interface

Your task in Part 2 is to design and implement a web interface for creating and editing the Genealogy data. You may use any Web Frameworks (MVC, MVP or MVVM) for implementation, including but not limited to:

• Spring MVC
• ASP.NET MVC
• Ruby On Rails
• Laravel PHP
• AngularJS
• Django
• Ember.js

The architecture and good coding practice will also be taken into account when allocating marks. The mark for this piece of coursework will be capped at 65% if the solution does not use any web framework (Please consult with the convenor first if the framework you intend to use is not listed here).

Your tasks in Part 2 are to implement a Web Interface for (f), (g) and (h)

(f) Browsing genealogy records
(g) Adding, deleting and editing persons from the family trees
(h) Searching descendants and ancestors

In addition to the functionality, the website responsiveness (page rendering on a variety of devices and window or screen sizes) will be taken into account when allocating marks.