Sports API Management System

Project Overview

This project demonstrates building a containerized API management system for querying sports data. It leverages Amazon ECS (Fargate) for running containers, Amazon API Gateway for exposing REST endpoints, and an external Sports API for real-time sports data. The project showcases advanced cloud computing practices, including API management, container orchestration, and secure AWS integrations.

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Features

• Exposes a REST API for querying real-time sports data
• Runs a containerized backend using Amazon ECS with Fargate
• Scalable and serverless architecture
• API management and routing using Amazon API Gateway

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Prerequisites

• Sports API Key: Sign up for a free account and subscription & obtain your API Key at serpapi.com
• AWS Account: Create an AWS Account & have basic understanding of ECS, API Gateway, Docker & Python
• AWS CLI Installed and Configured: Install & configure AWS CLI to programatically interact with AWS
• Serpapi Library: Install Serpapi library in local environment "pip install google-search-results"
• Docker CLI and Desktop Installed: To build & push container images

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Technical Architecture

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Technologies

• Cloud Provider: AWS
• Core Services: Amazon ECS (Fargate), API Gateway, CloudWatch
• Programming Language: Python 3.x
• Containerization: Docker
• IAM Security: Custom least privilege policies for ECS task execution and API Gateway

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Project Structure

sports-api-management/
├── app.py # Flask application for querying sports data
├── Dockerfile # Dockerfile to containerize the Flask app
├── requirements.txt # Python dependencies
├── .gitignore
└── README.md # Project documentation

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Setup Instructions

Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/ifeanyiro9/containerized-sports-api.git
cd containerized-sports-api

Create ECR Repo

aws ecr create-repository --repository-name sports-api --region us-east-1

Authenticate Build and Push the Docker Image

aws ecr get-login-password --region us-east-1 | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin <AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

docker build --platform linux/amd64 -t sports-api .
docker tag sports-api:latest <AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sports-api:sports-api-latest
docker push <AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sports-api:sports-api-latest

Set Up ECS Cluster with Fargate

1. Create an ECS Cluster:

• Go to the ECS Console → Clusters → Create Cluster
• Name your Cluster (sports-api-cluster)
• For Infrastructure, select Fargate, then create Cluster

2. Create a Task Definition:

• Go to Task Definitions → Create New Task Definition
• Name your task definition (sports-api-task)
• For Infrastructure, select Fargate
• Add the container:
  • Name your container (sports-api-container)
  • Image URI: <AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sports-api:sports-api-latest
  • Container Port: 8080
  • Protocol: TCP
  • Port Name: Leave Blank
  • App Protocol: HTTP
• Define Environment Eariables:
  • Key: SPORTS_API_KEY
  • Value: <YOUR_SPORTSDATA.IO_API_KEY>
  • Create task definition

3. Run the Service with an ALB

• Go to Clusters → Select Cluster → Service → Create.
• Capacity provider: Fargate
• Select Deployment configuration family (sports-api-task)
• Name your service (sports-api-service)
• Desired tasks: 2
• Networking: Create new security group
• Networking Configuration:
  • Type: All TCP
  • Source: Anywhere
• Load Balancing: Select Application Load Balancer (ALB).
• ALB Configuration:
• Create a new ALB:
• Name: sports-api-alb
• Target Group health check path: "/sports"
• Create service

4. Test the ALB:

• After deploying the ECS service, note the DNS name of the ALB (e.g., sports-api-alb-<AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com)
• Confirm the API is accessible by visiting the ALB DNS name in your browser and adding /sports at end (e.g, http://sports-api-alb-<AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com/sports)

Configure API Gateway

1. Create a New REST API:

• Go to API Gateway Console → Create API → REST API
• Name the API (e.g., Sports API Gateway)

2. Set Up Integration:

• Create a resource /sports
• Create a GET method
• Choose HTTP Proxy as the integration type
• Enter the DNS name of the ALB that includes "/sports" (e.g. http://sports-api-alb-<AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com/sports

3. Deploy the API:

• Deploy the API to a stage (e.g., prod)
• Note the endpoint URL

Test the System

• Use curl or a browser to test:

curl https://<api-gateway-id>.execute-api.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/prod/sports

What We Learned

Setting up a scalable, containerized application with ECS Creating public APIs using API Gateway.

Future Enhancements

Add caching for frequent API requests using Amazon ElastiCache Add DynamoDB to store user-specific queries and preferences Secure the API Gateway using an API key or IAM-based authentication Implement CI/CD for automating container deployments