From b8fa99c7ebdcea8826b783e138ab79749d2d07bf Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Petru Braha <petrubraha@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2026 11:32:19 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Enhance README with API details and workflows

Expanded README to provide detailed API overview, interaction patterns, workflows, versioning, and future ideas.
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 README.md | 101 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 99 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

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-# InAndOut-API-Modelling
-Module used to create clients (standard data types and classes) for our services and interfaces
+# Overview
+
+Our API is designed around Business Intent rather than database [tables](https://dbdiagram.io/d/InAndOut-693154e7d6676488ba8f6f4d). While the underlying schema is normalized, the API provides high-level abstractions to reduce "integration friction" for our users.
+
+Our users are either:
+
+- Clients (regular physical people)
+- Owners (business/store/brand owner - have more privileges)
+- Admins (system admins, devs, operational teams - have all privileges)
+
+Main entities:
+
+- Store: The physical unit with a brand identity, location, and operating schedule.
+- Article: The brand-specific commercial definition of a product (Price, Currency, Brand).
+- Stand: The bridge between an Article and a physical location (Edge) within a store.
+- Offer: Promotional logic linked to articles or stores.
+
+## API Interaction Patterns
+
+### The Composite Pattern
+
+To support a "one-click" onboarding experience for Owners, we provide Composite Operations.
+
+Internal Automation: When a store registers a new Stand, the system automatically upserts the underlying Product and Article records if they do not already exist.
+
+User Experience: Owners should not be forced to orchestrate three separate POST requests (Product -> Article -> Stand) to stock a shelf.
+
+### The Granular Pattern
+
+To satisfy complex intents - such as de-listing an item from a shelf without deleting it from the brand catalog; we expose Lower-Level APIs.
+
+Persistence: Articles and Products exist independently of Stands. Removing a Stand entry does not destroy the Article record, allowing it to be easily re-placed or utilized by other stores of the same brand.
+
+Advanced Intent: Allows power users to pre-register inventory at the brand level before physical distribution.
+
+## Resource Encapsulation
+
+We strictly enforce Domain Encapsulation to keep the API surface clean:
+
+Brand & Program Management: Users should not interact with `/brands/` or `/operating/` directly. These are managed as sub-resources or nested attributes of a Store.
+
+## Example Workflows
+
+### Scenario A: Quick Onboarding (Composite)
+
+Intent: "I want to put Alpro Almond Milk on Shelf A in Store #101."
+Action: POST /stores/101/stands
+Payload: Includes Product details (Vendor, Category), Price, and Location (edge_id).
+Result: Backend creates/links Product, Article, and Stand in a single atomic transaction.
+
+### Scenario B: Inventory Management (Granular)
+
+Intent: "I want to remove this milk from the shelf but keep it in my brand catalog for later."
+Action: DELETE /stores/101/stands/{id}
+Result: The Stand record is removed. The Article and Product remain in the system for future use.
+
+# Versioning
+
+### User typical workflow
+
+0. selects store
+1. LIST **available** articles in the corresponding store (and then call `LIST offers` - not now, see v3)
+2. uses the search bar
+3. selects products (locally store, on client machine, the ids of the articles)
+4. genereates itinerary (GET/POST the stand ids, solve the TSP)
+
+The MVP implements an algorithm that solves TSP. In the beginning we will use mock data, basically we (the devs) will visit a market and make some measurements of it, populating the database.
+
+The last operation is heavy and generates high costs. We could make a POST and return a job id instead. When the job is done, obviously the client will be able to inspect it further.
+
+#### v0 (MVP - customer APIs):
+
+1. LIST products of stores (paginated)
+2. POST wanted articles
+
+#### v1 (customer & store APIs):
+
+0. GET nearby stores
+1. CRUD for brand, store, floor, edge, node
+2. CRUD for product, article, stand
+
+#### v2 (store APIs):
+
+0. CRUD operating, break, event
+
+#### v3 (store APIs):
+
+0. CRUD - offer, discount, dependency, period
+
+### Future ideas
+
+- store APIs should be available only to signed representatives of those; it means that some sort of authentication needs to be implemented starting with v1 => database schema update to cache client information and registrations.
+- the idea above could be extended to cache for each client his generated itiniraries.
+- actual store navigation could be possible.
+
+### References
+
+- https://smithy.io/2.0/quickstart.html
+- https://github.com/Vldddddd1/InAndOut/issues/6