Rick and Morty API Wrapper

A FastAPI-based wrapper for the Rick and Morty API with additional filtering capabilities and caching.

Features

• Additional character filtering with combined filters
• Redis caching for improved performance
• Server-side pagination
• Comprehensive error handling
• Full test coverage
• Containerized deployment to AWS Lambda

Tech Stack

• FastAPI: Modern Python web framework
• Redis: In-memory caching
• aiohttp: Async HTTP client for API calls
• pytest: Testing framework
• Docker: Containerization
• AWS Lambda: Serverless deployment
• Amazon ECR: Container registry

Project Structure

rick-morty-backend/
├── src/
│   ├── main.py          # FastAPI application entry point
│   ├── api.py           # Rick and Morty API client
│   ├── cache.py         # Redis cache implementation
│   └── config.py        # Configuration settings
├── tests/
│   ├── test_api.py      # API client tests
│   ├── test_cache.py    # Cache layer tests
│   └── test_main.py     # Endpoint tests
├── deploy_ecr.sh        # AWS ECR deployment script
├── Dockerfile           # Container definition
├── lambda_function.py   # AWS Lambda handler
└── pytest.ini          # Pytest configuration

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9+
• Redis
• Docker
• AWS CLI configured with appropriate permissions

Installation

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/aghwotu/rick-morty-backend.git
cd rick-morty-backend

2. Create and activate virtual environment

# Create virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv

# Activate virtual environment
# On macOS/Linux:
source venv/bin/activate
# On Windows:
.\venv\Scripts\activate

3. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Copy environment template and update variables

cp .env.example .env
# Update .env with your configurations

5. Set up Redis

Redis needs to be installed and running on your system:

# On macOS using Homebrew:
brew services start redis

# On Linux (Ubuntu/Debian):
sudo service redis-server start

# On Windows:
# Redis for Windows requires Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) or Docker
# Please refer to Redis documentation for Windows installation

Note: For detailed Redis installation instructions for your platform, visit the Redis documentation.

Local Development

Run the application locally:

uvicorn src.main:app --reload

Running Tests

pytest -v

Deployment

Prerequisites

• AWS CLI installed and configured
• Docker installed and running
• Appropriate AWS permissions for ECR and Lambda

Deploy to AWS ECR

1. Make the deployment script executable:

chmod +x deploy_ecr.sh

2. Run the deployment script:

./deploy_ecr.sh

This will:

• Create an ECR repository if it doesn't exist
• Build the Docker image
• Push the image to ECR

API Documentation

The API documentation is available at the following endpoints:

• Swagger UI: /docs
• OpenAPI Schema: /openapi.json

Example: If your API is deployed at https://api.example.com/prod, the Swagger UI would be available at https://api.example.com/prod/docs

Endpoints

• GET /health: Health check
• GET /characters: Get characters with filtering
• GET /cache/stats: Get cache statistics
• POST /cache/invalidate: Invalidate cache

Development Notes

• Uses async/await for non-blocking operations
• Implements caching with 1-hour expiration
• Handles Redis connection failures gracefully
• Complete test coverage with mocked dependencies
• AWS Lambda deployment ready

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.