The Office API

A REST API providing information about episodes and seasons from the TV show "The Office", designed to demonstrate the Richardson Maturity Model for RESTful API design.

Overview

The Office API is an educational project that implements all four levels of the Richardson Maturity Model, showing the evolution from basic RPC-style APIs (Level 0) to fully RESTful, HATEOAS-compliant APIs (Level 3). Each implementation level is available simultaneously, allowing direct comparison of different API design approaches.

Features

• Four Richardson Maturity Levels: Complete implementations of Levels 0-3
• Episode Data: Information about all 9 seasons of "The Office"
• Interactive Documentation: Swagger UI for all API versions
• Multiple Deployment Options: Local, Docker, and Railway support
• .NET 9.0: Built with the latest .NET framework
• Educational Resource: Perfect for learning REST API design principles

Richardson Maturity Model Levels

Level 0: The Swamp of POX

• Single endpoint with all operations
• POST-only requests with action in payload
• RPC-style communication

Level 1: Resources

• Multiple resource-based endpoints
• Still POST-only but URI represents resources
• Beginning of RESTful thinking

Level 2: HTTP Verbs

• Proper use of HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE)
• Correct HTTP status codes
• Standard REST practices

Level 3: HATEOAS

• Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State
• Responses include links to related resources
• Self-documenting API with discoverability

For detailed information about each level, see Documentation/RichardsonMaturityModelOverview.md.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• .NET 9.0 SDK
• Docker (optional, for containerized deployment)

Running Locally

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/fszymaniak/TheOfficeAPI.git
   cd TheOfficeAPI

2. Run the application

   dotnet run --project src/TheOfficeAPI

3. Access the API

   • Application: http://localhost:5000
   • Swagger UI: http://localhost:5000/swagger
   • Health Check: http://localhost:5000/health

Running with Docker

Using Docker Compose (Recommended)

# Build and run
docker-compose up -d --build

# View logs
docker-compose logs -f theofficeapi-level0

# Stop
docker-compose down

Using Docker directly

# Build the image
docker build -t theoffice-api:latest .

# Run the container
docker run -d \
  --name theoffice-api \
  -p 5000:8080 \
  -e ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Development \
  theoffice-api:latest

Access the application at http://localhost:5000

API Endpoints

All four API versions are available simultaneously through Swagger UI at /swagger.

Level 0: Single Endpoint

POST /api/theOffice
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "action": "getAllSeasons"
}

Level 1: Resource-Based URIs

POST /api/seasons
POST /api/seasons/{seasonNumber}/episodes
POST /api/seasons/{seasonNumber}/episodes/{episodeNumber}

Level 2: HTTP Verbs

GET /api/seasons
GET /api/seasons/{seasonNumber}/episodes
GET /api/seasons/{seasonNumber}/episodes/{episodeNumber}

Level 3: HATEOAS

GET /api/seasons
GET /api/seasons/{seasonNumber}/episodes
GET /api/episodes/{seasonNumber}/{episodeNumber}

Responses include hypermedia links to related resources:

{
  "season": 2,
  "episodeNumber": 1,
  "title": "The Dundies",
  "releasedDate": "2005-09-20",
  "_links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "/api/episodes/2/1"
    },
    "season": {
      "href": "/api/seasons/2/episodes"
    },
    "allSeasons": {
      "href": "/api/seasons"
    }
  }
}

Configuration

Environment Variables

Configure which maturity level to run using environment variables:

# Run specific maturity level
export MATURITY_LEVEL=Level0  # Level0, Level1, Level2, or Level3
dotnet run --project src/TheOfficeAPI

# Or run all levels simultaneously (default)
dotnet run --project src/TheOfficeAPI

Application Settings

Configuration is managed through appsettings.json:

{
  "Server": {
    "DefaultUrl": "http://localhost:5000"
  },
  "Environment": {
    "MaturityLevelVariable": "MATURITY_LEVEL"
  }
}

Project Structure

TheOfficeAPI/
├── src/
│   └── TheOfficeAPI/
│       ├── Level0/          # Richardson Level 0 implementation
│       ├── Level1/          # Richardson Level 1 implementation
│       ├── Level2/          # Richardson Level 2 implementation
│       ├── Level3/          # Richardson Level 3 implementation
│       ├── Common/          # Shared models and data
│       ├── Configuration/   # App configuration
│       └── Program.cs       # Application entry point
├── tests/                   # Test projects
├── Documentation/           # Additional documentation
├── scripts/                 # Utility scripts
├── Dockerfile              # Docker configuration
├── docker-compose.yaml     # Docker Compose configuration
└── README.md

Development

Build

dotnet build

Test

dotnet test

Run Specific Maturity Level

# Level 0
MATURITY_LEVEL=Level0 dotnet run --project src/TheOfficeAPI

# Level 1
MATURITY_LEVEL=Level1 dotnet run --project src/TheOfficeAPI

# Level 2
MATURITY_LEVEL=Level2 dotnet run --project src/TheOfficeAPI

# Level 3 (HATEOAS)
MATURITY_LEVEL=Level3 dotnet run --project src/TheOfficeAPI

Deployment

Railway

The application is configured for deployment on Railway. It automatically:

• Detects the PORT environment variable
• Binds to 0.0.0.0 for external access
• Configures proper health checks

For deployment instructions, see Documentation/RailwayDeployment.md.

Docker Deployment

See Documentation/DockerSetup.md for detailed Docker deployment instructions.

Learning Resources

This project is ideal for:

• Understanding RESTful API design principles
• Learning the Richardson Maturity Model
• Comparing different API architectural styles
• Teaching REST best practices

Recommended Learning Path

1. Start with Level 0 to understand basic HTTP APIs
2. Move to Level 1 to learn resource-based design
3. Progress to Level 2 to master HTTP verbs and status codes
4. Finish with Level 3 to understand HATEOAS and hypermedia

API Data

The API contains information about all 9 seasons of "The Office" including:

• Season numbers and episode counts
• Episode titles and release dates
• Episode numbers within seasons

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues or pull requests.

License

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

Acknowledgments

• Richardson Maturity Model: Leonard Richardson
• The Office: NBC Universal
• Built with .NET 9.0 and ASP.NET Core

Contact

For questions or feedback, please open an issue on the GitHub repository.