Tracking App Api with Rails

This REST API was built with Ruby on Rails, and Postgres for the databases as the final project at Microverse. With this API, records (measurements) and items (things to measure) can be added, edited, and removed manually interacting with the database in the front-end application.

yocosaka

Ruby

📦 Tracking App API – Ruby on Rails RESTful Backend

A structured REST API that powers the Tracking App — enabling clear, customizable daily habit tracking with secure user management.

screenshot

🧭 About the Project

Tracking App API is the Rails-based backend for the fullstack Tracking App. It provides a RESTful interface to manage users, categories (items), and daily progress records.

Developed as a Microverse capstone, this API was designed to support an intuitive, low-friction UX on the frontend — handling structured data and authentication cleanly to reduce user confusion and support real-world use.

🔗 Frontend repo: Tracking App with React & Redux

🧠 API Design Highlights

RESTful architecture for predictable integration with frontend needs
Secure authentication using JWT to support stateless session handling from React
CORS setup for seamless frontend–backend communication
Defined clear JSON responses to support React + Redux state management
Designed endpoints to minimize client-side data processing and ensure reliable UX flows
Admin mode for managing trackable categories
Structured, relational Postgres database supporting customizable categories and efficient user-specific record retrieval

This project reflects my approach to clarifying data flows and supporting usable interfaces through well-organized backend design.

🚀 Key Features

🔐 User authentication with JWT
👥 Role-based access (user vs admin)
📊 CRUD for daily progress records
🗂 Admin management of tracking categories (items)
🌐 CORS-configured for frontend integration

Frontend app for this API:
🔗 Tracking App with React & Redux

🛠️ Built With

⚙️ Getting Started

To run locally:

git clone https://github.com/yoko-vicky/Tracking-App-Api-with-Rails
cd Tracking-App-Api-with-Rails
bundle install
rails db:setup
rails server

To run tests:

rspec

👥 Usage

As a User

Sign up or log in with your username and password.
Receive a JWT token for secure access.
Use the token in your Authorization headers when sending requests:

Authorization: Bearer {your_token}

View and manage your daily tracking records.

As an Admin

Admin accounts can manage the items (categories to track).
Admin user creation example in Rails console:

User.create(username: 'admin', password: 'admin', admin: true)

By default, running rails db:setup seeds an admin user.

🔗 Frontend Integration

This API is designed to work seamlessly with the frontend React app.
For local development:

Update the puma.rb port if needed (e.g., 3001).
Adjust CORS settings in cors.rb for your frontend origin.

Example CORS configuration:

origins 'http://localhost:3000'

✨ Database Structure

Tables and Models:

Users: username, password_digest, admin (boolean)
Items: title, unit, icon, target
Records: date, result, item_id, user_id

The relational schema was designed to support customizable categories and efficient user-specific record retrieval, enabling clear, filterable history views in the UI.

👤 Author

Yoko Saka
UX-Focused Frontend Developer × Backend Integration

GitHub: @yoko-vicky
LinkedIn: Yoko Saka
Portfolio: View My Work

🤝 Contributing

Fork the repo
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
Open a Pull Request