Models

So now we have the films endpoints working, but they don't really do anything nor return any data.

In order to return data we need to create a model for our films.

As we want to share the model between the api and the frontend crates we will use the shared crate for this.

The shared crate is a library crate. This means that it can be used by other crates in the workspace.

Let's import the dependency in the Cargo.toml file of our api-lib crate:

[dependencies]
+ # shared
+ shared = { path = "../../shared" }

Verify that the project is still compiling.

Creating the Film model

We are going to create a new module called models in the shared crate.

Create a new file called models.rs in the shared > src folder and add the following code:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
pub struct Film {
    pub id: uuid::Uuid, // we will be using uuids as ids
    pub title: String,
    pub director: String,
    pub year: u16, // only positive numbers
    pub poster: String, // we will use the url of the poster here
    pub created_at: Option<chrono::DateTime<chrono::Utc>>,
    pub updated_at: Option<chrono::DateTime<chrono::Utc>>,
}
}

We could make it more complicated but for the sake of simplicity we will just use a struct with a small amount of fields.

Now, remove everything from the lib.rs file in the shared crate and add the following code:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
pub mod models;
}

Soon you will notice that the compiler will complain about the chrono and uuid dependencies.

Let's add them:

[dependencies]
+ uuid = { version = "1.3.4", features = ["serde", "v4", "js"] }
+ chrono = { version = "0.4", features = ["serde"] }

Compile the code and check that everything is fine.

Creating a model for the post endpoint

In our POST endpoint we will receive a JSON object with the following structure:

{
  "title": "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring",
  "director": "Peter Jackson",
  "year": 2001,
  "poster": "https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120737/mediaviewer/rm1340569600/",
}

We don't need to pass the id or the created_at and updated_at fields as they will be generated by the API, so let's create a new model for that.

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
pub struct CreateFilm {
    pub title: String,
    pub director: String,
    pub year: u16,
    pub poster: String,
}
}

Compile again just in case and commit your changes:

git add .
git commit -m "add models"