Backend API

Intro

This folder contains the code that:

Fetch and udpate available visa appointment date for both domestic and global embassy/consulate from crawler servers.
Send notification to the users who subscribe via email and other social media platforms
Expose RESTful api to provide data for tuixue global frontend views and other dope developers (a.k.a desperate CS students)

~~This api server should be designed to be extensible to serve as domestic api with another set of secret files. Please review the PR based on this principle :)~~

Deployment and Dependency

Deployment

This section is for setting up the RESTful api server and exposing the routes through NGINX to perform stress test.

It's noteworthy that it's NOT what the backend api server orignally designed to run. In the production the api server and React frontend will be deployed in the same machine and the api server will NOT be exposed to the public until further decision is made.

This code base is developed with Python >= 3.7

Python dependency

pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Visa Status Fetcher

visa_status_fetcher.py is the script for fetching new available visa appointment date from the crawler backend. This script is design to run separated from FastAPI so that the request load of crawler server is controlled under a resasonable level. It comes with a simple command line interface.

$ python3 visa_status_fetcher.py --help
usage: visa_status_fetcher.py [-h] --target {ais,cgi} [--proxy PROXY]
                              [--crawler CRAWLER] [--ais AIS]
                              [--log_dir LOG_DIR] [--log_name LOG_NAME]
                              [--debug]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help           show this help message and exit
  --target {ais,cgi}   targeting system
  --proxy PROXY        local proxy port
  --crawler CRAWLER    crawler api list
  --ais AIS            ais account in json format
  --log_dir LOG_DIR    directory to save logs
  --log_name LOG_NAME  name of log file
  --debug              log debug information

--target specifies the system used by a U.S. embassy/consulate. In order to fetch both AIS and CGI system, one should run two processes of this script separately.

--proxy is a legacy argument from previous version of the fetcher. The functionality and mechanism remains unchanged.

--cralwer requires a text file that contains the address of crawler servers.

--ais requires a JSON file containing the user names and passwords of users in AIS systems. It's needed for crawler server to obtain available Visa appointment date.

--log_dir and --log_name are optional parameters which allow you to specify where to store the log files. It's default to log files ./logs/{target}_visa_fetcher where target is sepcified by --target argument.

--debug is a flag that provides a richer content of logging for development.

Run following command for fetching the CGI system:

python3 visa_status_fetch.py --target cgi --crawler path/to/crawler_file

Run following command for fetching the AIS system:

python3 visa_status_fetch.py --target ais --crawler path/to/crawler_file --ais path/to/ais.json

MongoDB

The newly developed backend uses MongoDB Communitry Edition v4.4 for the database solution. To install the MongoDB in Ubuntu (or other Linux distro, including Amazon Linux 2), see the thorough offical documentation here:

For Ubuntu: Install MongoDB on Ubuntu
For other OS: Install MongoDB Community Edition

P.S. MongoDB runs on port 27017 by default. Seal this port in production server.

MongoDB data migration

Write from scratch with file-based data

Previously, all the fetched data are stored in a folder structured as follow:

- backend
    |-data
        |-{visa_type}
            |-{location}
                |-{YYYY}
                    |-{MM}
                        |-{DD}  # this is a file

Where visa_type is as specified in the global_var.py with the string VISA_TYPES. And location are the Chinese name of a embassy/consulate for cgi system and English name of a embassy/consulate for ais system. YYYY stands for year, MM stands for month and DD stands for day.

To migrate the fetched data from files into the MongoDB, I wrote a script, sync_data.py, to write the data into database. It was originally written for fetching the historic data from production server to local machine for development, so it contains a simple CLI.

$ python3 sync_data.py --help
usage: sync_data.py [-h] --operation {fetch,write,email} [--since SINCE] [--email-path EMAIL_PATH]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --operation {fetch,write,email}, -o {fetch,write,email}
                        Choose what function to run
  --since SINCE, -s SINCE
                        Date string indicating the start date of fetching data
  --email-path EMAIL_PATH, -e EMAIL_PATH
                        The old version email record folder
                        (/var/www/html/asiv/email)

To write the data into MongoDB, run

python3 sync_data.py -o write -s 2020/4/8  # or any other date after the start date

It will write all the data fetched after the given since date till yesterday.

P.S.: You will need to move the data from other places to ./data folder. Or change the value of DATA_PATH variable in global_var.py

Use `mongodump` and `mongorestore` for database backup

Both mongodump and mongorestore are installed when we install MongoDB

Backup tuixue.visa_status

The dev server has been running for a while, the data fetched by visa_status_fetcher.py is proved to be trusted and has a different granularity to microseconds. Therefore a new database initialization method has been written to use with combination of mongodump and mongorestore utilities.

Logically speaking, the only data worth for backing up is the successful fetched result of visa status, namely the MongoDB collection tuixue.visa_status, the other collection tuixue.overview is essentially computed from the data in tuixue.visa_status. To dump the data from database into a BSON file, run the following command.

mongodump --db tuixue --collection visa_status --out path/to/empty/dir

This command will export all the data in tuixue.visa_status collection to the empty directory given in the option --out.

To restore the data from dumped directory into the database. We can use mongorestore command as follow:

mongorestore --db tuixue path/to/empty/dir/tuixue --drop

This command restore the database tuixue from the backup.

P.S: path/to/empty/dir needs to be empty. In the dev server the path/to/empty/dir is set to /root/mongodb_backup

Restore tuixue.overview

A new class method, restore_overview, is added into the class tuixue_mongodb.VisaStatus. After restoring the tuixue.visa_status as instructed above, run a single line of python command:

python3 -c "import tuixue_mongodb as DB; DB.VisaStatus.restore_overview();"

And it will read and compute the tuixue.overview collection (with a bunch of printed info on the screen ;-)

Nginx proxy and run the api server with `uvicorn`

The api server is developed with FastAPI, which is said to be one of the most performant api framework in Python, better than Flask and Django. Personally I find it more pythonic (than Django) and better documented (than Flask).

The FastAPI use the uvicorn as ASGI server. But first let's look at Nginx.

With the help of official documentation, I inserts the following block in my http context in nginx.conf

server {
        listen       443 default_server;
        listen       [::]:443 default_server;
        server_name  _ 127.0.0.1;
        ssl_certificate /path/to/fullchain.pem;
        ssl_certificate_key /path/to/privkey.pem;
        location = /status {
                stub_status on;
        }

        location /ws/ {  # The trailing slash MATTERS!!
                proxy_http_version 1.1;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
                proxy_set_header Connection "Upgrade";
                proxy_set_header Host $host;
                proxy_buffering off;
                proxy_pass http://uvicorn_ws/;  # The trailing slash MATTERS!!
        }

        location / {
                proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
                proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
                proxy_redirect off;
                proxy_buffering off;
                proxy_pass http://uvicorn_http;
        }
}

upstream uvicorn_ws {
        server unix:/tmp/uvicorn_ws.sock;
}

upstream uvicorn_http {
        server unix:/tmp/uvicorn_http.sock;
}

Important Note: You must notice here we have two upstream block which essentially are two Uvicorn server running two FastAPI, One for HTTP RESTful API and another one for WebSocket connection.. And the location / and /ws/ proxy the requests to these two servers accordingly. This is because mixing the code of RESTful API and WebSocket and proxying on in route doesn't work in FastAPI, the request headers setting for HTTP and WS protocol are different and will result in malfunction of the server.

After update the Nginx configuration file, reload the Nginx

sudo nginx -s reload

And run the uvicorn in two tmux windows (didn't use the process manager or anything, just make it run then detach the session) with following commands:

HTTP server

python3 -m uvicorn api_http:app --uds /tmp/uvicorn_http.sock --proxy-headers --forwarded-allow-ips '*'

WebSocket server

python3 -m uvicorn api_websocket:app --uds /tmp/uvicorn_ws.sock --proxy-headers --forwarded-allow-ips '*' --ws websockets

Configuration Files

The necessary configuration files for accessing the crawler servers and scrape data from the embassy/consulate website is held privately by the developers. For detail on HOWTO please contact us.

API Reference

Handshake - test connection

GET /

Parameters

No Parameter

Responses

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

{
    "statusCode": 200,
    "msg": "OK"
}

Visa Status Metadata

GET /visastatus/meta

This endpoint serve the metadata including filtering methods and embassy attributes to the frontend for building filtering of display of visa status. Frontend doesn't hold and global/static variable storing this data, so that it's kept up to date with the backend.

Parameters

No Parameter

Responses

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

{
    "region": [
        {"region": "DOMESTIC", "embassy_code_lst": ["bj", "sh", "cd", "gz", "sy", "hk", "tp"]},
        {"region":"SOUTH_EAST_ASIA", "embassy_code_lst": ["pp","sg","ktm","bkk","cnx"]}
    ],
    "embassy": [
        ["北京", "Beijing", "bj", "cgi", "DOMESTIC", "ASIA", "CHN"],
        ["金边", "Phnom Penh", "pp", "cgi", "SOUTH_EAST_ASIA", "ASIA", "KHM"],
        ["伦敦", "London", "lcy", "ais", "WEST_EUROPE", "EUROPE", "GBR"]
    ]
}

Get overview of Visa appointment date

GET /visastatus/overview

Return the overview: earliest and latest available appointment date for any given date of a visa type and embassy/consulate. The endpoint will return the earliest dates of given (visa_type, embassy_code) permutation grouped by write date. Note that all (visa_type, embassy_code) combo results, if exist, will be mixed together by write date. It's frontend's job to decide how to use them.

Parameters

Param	Type	Description
`visa_type`	`list`	Required. List of types of visa for the returning visa status. One of `['B', 'F', 'H', 'O', 'L']`.
`embassy_code`	`list`	Required. List of codes of embassy/consulate for returning visa status. One of `['bj', 'sh', 'cd', 'gz', 'sy', 'hk', 'tp', 'pp', 'sg', 'sel', 'mel', 'per', 'syd', 'brn', 'fuk', 'itm', 'oka', 'cts', 'hnd', 'ktm', 'bkk', 'cnx', 'bfs', 'lcy', 'yyc', 'yhz', 'yul', 'yow', 'yqb', 'yyz', 'yvr', 'auh', 'dxb', 'beg', 'cdg', 'gye', 'uio', 'esb', 'ist', 'ath', 'bog', 'bgi', 'cjs', 'gdl', 'hmo', 'cvj', 'mex', 'mty', 'ols', 'nld', 'tij']`
`since`	`string`	Default to 15 days before today. The endpoint will return the data after `since` date. The string MUST in the format of a UTC time string, e.g. `2020-10-17T22:13:54.617098`.
`to`	`string`	Default to today. The endpoint will return the data before `to` date. The string MUST in the format of a UTC time string, e.g. `2020-11-01T22:13:54.617110`.

Responses

Success:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

{
    "visa_type": ["F", "H"],
    "embassy_code": ["pp", "bkk"],
    "since": "2020-10-17T00:00:00",
    "to": "2020-11-01T00:00:00",
    "visa_status": [
        {
            "date": "YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00",
            "overview": [
                {"visa_type": "F", "embassy_code": "pp", "earliest_date": "YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00", "latest_date": "YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00"},
                {"visa_type": "H", "embassy_code": "bkk", "earliest_date": "YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00", "latest_date": "YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00"},
            ]
        },
    ]
}

Get latest fetched visa status record

GET /visastatus/latest

Return the latest fetch record of all given Visa types and embassy codes. Return the (visa_type, embassy_code) pair's latest fetched result, including the failed fetch.

Parameters

Param	Type	Description
`visa_type`	`list`	Required. List of types of visa for the returning visa status. One of `['B', 'F', 'H', 'O', 'L']`.
`embassy_code`	`list`	Required. List of codes of embassy/consulate for returning visa status. One of `['bj', 'sh', 'cd', 'gz', 'sy', 'hk', 'tp', 'pp', 'sg', 'sel', 'mel', 'per', 'syd', 'brn', 'fuk', 'itm', 'oka', 'cts', 'hnd', 'ktm', 'bkk', 'cnx', 'bfs', 'lcy', 'yyc', 'yhz', 'yul', 'yow', 'yqb', 'yyz', 'yvr', 'auh', 'dxb', 'beg', 'cdg', 'gye', 'uio', 'esb', 'ist', 'ath', 'bog', 'bgi', 'cjs', 'gdl', 'hmo', 'cvj', 'mex', 'mty', 'ols', 'nld', 'tij']`

Responses

Success:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

[
    {"visa_type": "F", "embassy_code": "pp", "write_time": "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS", "available_date": null},
    {"visa_type": "F", "embassy_code": "bj", "write_time": "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS", "available_date": "YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00"}
]

Email Subscription

POST /subscribe/email/{step}

Post email subscription data to the backend. This endpoint is supposed to be pinged twice for a successful subscription. The endpoint is still in the middle of develoment.

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Backend API

Intro

Deployment and Dependency

Deployment

Python dependency

Visa Status Fetcher

MongoDB

MongoDB data migration

Write from scratch with file-based data

Use mongodump and mongorestore for database backup

Nginx proxy and run the api server with uvicorn

Configuration Files

API Reference

Handshake - test connection

Parameters

Responses

Visa Status Metadata

Parameters

Responses

Get overview of Visa appointment date

Parameters

Responses

Get latest fetched visa status record

Parameters

Responses

Email Subscription

Use `mongodump` and `mongorestore` for database backup

Nginx proxy and run the api server with `uvicorn`