time-tracker/refactor_plan.md

Refactoring Plan for backend/internal/api/handlers

Goal

Refactor the code in backend/internal/api/handlers to reduce repetition and create helper functions for boilerplate operations, utilizing functions from backend/internal/api/utils/handler_utils.go and creating new ones if necessary.

Analysis

The following common patterns were identified in the handler files:

1. Error Handling: Each handler function repeats the same error handling pattern.
2. DTO Binding: Parsing the request body and handling potential errors.
3. ID Parsing: Parsing the ID from the URL and handling potential errors.
4. DTO Conversion: Converting between DTOs and models.
5. Success Responses: Calling responses.SuccessResponse with the appropriate HTTP status code and data.
6. Not Found Responses: Checking if a record exists and calling responses.NotFoundResponse if it doesn't.

The Update handler is the most complex and has the most potential for refactoring.

Plan

1. Implement a generic HandleUpdate function in handler_utils.go: This function will encapsulate the common logic for updating entities, including parsing the ID, binding the JSON, converting the DTO to a model, calling the update function, and handling errors and not found cases. The function will also handle nullable fields correctly.
2. Modify the existing handlers to use the new HandleUpdate function: This will involve removing the duplicated code from each handler and calling the generic function instead.
3. Create new helper functions in handler_utils.go if needed: If there are any specific operations that are not covered by the existing utility functions, I will create new ones to handle them.