Implement Proposal Creation and Retrieval with Security Enhancements

[nicholas-source]

Description:

This pull request introduces essential features for the EchoVote decentralized voting system, focusing on creating and retrieving proposals. Key additions include the implementation of proposal-related routes, services, and security checks. It also includes a rollback of a previous security change due to identified issues.

Summary of Changes:

1. Initial Setup & Imports:

   • Added basic Express framework initialization and imports.
   • Imported the proposalService to handle proposal-related business logic.
   • Initialized the Express router to handle HTTP requests.
   • Commits: Basic structure and import statements.

2. Proposal Creation (POST /api/proposals):

   • Implemented the POST route for creating proposals.
   • Handled request body and passed it to the createProposal function in proposalService.
   • Added appropriate error handling and returned HTTP status codes:
     • 201 Created on success.
     • 500 Internal Server Error on failure.
   • Commits: Implement createProposal route and service.

3. Proposal Retrieval (GET /api/proposals/:id):

   • Implemented the GET route for fetching proposals by ID.
   • Parsed request parameters and retrieved proposal data using the getProposal function in proposalService.
   • Added error handling and returned HTTP status codes:
     • 200 OK with proposal data on success.
     • 404 Not Found if the proposal does not exist.
     • 500 Internal Server Error on failure.
   • Commits: Implement getProposal route and service.

4. Refactoring & Bug Fixes:

   • Refactored code for improved readability and clarity.
   • Enhanced variable naming and added inline comments to explain logic.
   • Structured the codebase for better maintainability.
   • Fixed bugs related to proposal ID parsing and error handling in both route handlers and services.
   • Commits:
     • Refactor code for readability.
     • Fix bugs in route handlers and service functions.

5. Security Enhancements:

   • Introduced validation checks for request body data.
   • Added authorization logic to ensure that only authorized users can create proposals.
   • Commits: Add security checks.

6. Gitignore & Reversion:

   • Updated .gitignore to include the .env file to protect sensitive information.
   • Reverted the security checks implementation due to issues that need further investigation.
   • Commits:
     • Add .env file to .gitignore.
     • Revert changes.

Testing:

• Manually tested the following routes:
  • POST /api/proposals to create a proposal.
  • GET /api/proposals/:id to retrieve proposals by ID.
• Verified the correctness of response codes and error handling under different scenarios.
• Ensured that security checks do not interfere with the normal functionality of the routes.

Next Steps:

• Revisit and re-implement the reverted security features after fixing the identified issues.
• Add automated tests to cover newly implemented features.

Additional Notes:

This PR lays the foundation for proposal management in EchoVote and is essential for the upcoming voting-related features. The codebase has been refactored for improved maintainability and clarity, and critical security practices have been integrated to ensure the integrity of the platform.