Recapping the earthquake system

The earthquake monitoring system will be further explained in this chapter. This time, the REST API will be expanded to add new data from another source, and a website will be created in order to provide a user interface for report generation. The API-accepting input opens up a wider variety of data sources, including the generated test data for development environments.

The reports will primarily be in HTML format, all though we will also look at other formats. The Comma-separated Values (CSV) format continues to persist as a user requirement on most systems, simply because it is flexible and easy to use in a spreadsheet and in other applications. Let's take a look at how the API client and reporting fit into the overall system:

This project will have many parts when completed, which is typical of many systems. Not to scare any new programmers, but this is actually a fairly simple system. If you don't believe me, consider a modern social network website that receives text, photographs from many sorts of device, and API clients. Now imagine the number of subsystems and management reports it would require!