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Capstone 02 — API Aggregator

Brief

Learn Your Way

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Build a tool that pulls data from 2-3 public APIs, normalizes the results into a common format, and presents a unified dashboard or report.

Requirements

Core (must have)

  • Fetch from multiple APIs: Use at least 2 of these free, no-auth-required APIs (or similar):
  • Weather: Open-Meteo (open-meteo.com/en/docs)
  • News: various free news APIs
  • Quotes: quotable.io or similar
  • Facts: uselessfacts.jsph.pl or similar
  • GitHub: api.github.com (public endpoints)
  • Normalize data: Each API returns different JSON shapes. Transform them into a common schema so they can be displayed together.
  • Unified output: Present all data in a single dashboard (terminal output, formatted text, or simple HTML file).
  • Error handling: If one API is down, the dashboard should still show data from the others (graceful degradation).
  • Caching: Cache API responses so repeated runs within N minutes do not re-fetch (save to a local file).

Stretch (pick at least one)

  • Rate limiting: Respect API rate limits. Implement a simple rate limiter that waits between requests if needed.
  • Async fetching: Use asyncio and aiohttp to fetch from all APIs concurrently.
  • Configuration file: Let the user configure which APIs to use, refresh intervals, and display preferences via a YAML or JSON config file.
  • Historical comparison: Store fetched data over time and show trends (e.g., "temperature this week").

Constraints

  • Python 3.11+. Use requests or urllib for HTTP (or aiohttp for async stretch goal).
  • Must handle network errors without crashing.
  • Must include tests. Mock the API calls in tests so they run without internet.

Deliverables

  • Working application code
  • Tests (python -m pytest tests/)
  • Filled-out notes.md with your design decisions
  • A requirements.txt listing any external packages

Architecture decisions are yours

There is no starter code. You decide how to structure fetchers, normalizers, the cache layer, and the display layer. Fill out notes.md before you start coding.