Address issues from beta testing

backend/.eslintrc.cjs

@@ -3,11 +3,7 @@ module.exports = {
     browser: true,
     es2021: true,
   },
-  extends: [
-    "eslint:recommended",
-    "plugin:@typescript-eslint/recommended",
-    "plugin:react/recommended",
-  ],
+  extends: ["eslint:recommended", "plugin:@typescript-eslint/recommended"],
   parser: "@typescript-eslint/parser",
   parserOptions: {
     ecmaVersion: "latest",
@@ -16,7 +12,7 @@ module.exports = {
     tsconfigRootDir: __dirname,
   },
   ignorePatterns: [".eslintrc.cjs"],
-  plugins: ["@typescript-eslint", "react", "no-relative-import-paths"],
+  plugins: ["@typescript-eslint", "no-relative-import-paths"],
   rules: {
     "default-case": "off",
     "no-plusplus": "off",

backend/src/validators/task.ts

@@ -1,27 +1,56 @@
 import { body } from "express-validator";
 
-// establishes a set of rules that the body of the post route must follow
-export const createTask = [
+// more info about validators:
+// https://express-validator.github.io/docs/guides/validation-chain
+// https://github.com/validatorjs/validator.js#validators
+
+const makeIDValidator = () =>
+  body("_id")
+    .exists()
+    .withMessage("_id is required")
+    .bail()
+    .isMongoId()
+    .withMessage("_id must be a MongoDB object ID");
+const makeTitleValidator = () =>
   body("title")
     // title must exist, if not this message will be displayed
     .exists()
-    .withMessage("A title is required.")
+    .withMessage("title is required")
     // bail prevents the remainder of the validation chain for this field from being executed if
     // there was an error
     .bail()
-    .notEmpty()
-    .withMessage("title cannot be empty.")
-    .bail()
     .isString()
-    .withMessage("title must be a string.")
-    // escape replaces potentially-dangerous characters with HTML entities
-    .escape(),
+    .withMessage("title must be a string")
+    .bail()
+    .notEmpty()
+    .withMessage("title cannot be empty");
+const makeDescriptionValidator = () =>
   body("description")
-    // order matters for the validation chain, by marking this field as optional, the subsequent
-    // parts of the chain will only be evaluated if it exists
+    // order matters for the validation chain - by marking this field as optional, the rest of
+    // the chain will only be evaluated if it exists
     .optional()
-    .escape()
     .isString()
-    .withMessage("description must be a string."),
-  body("isChecked").optional().isBoolean().withMessage("isChecked must be a boolean."),
+    .withMessage("description must be a string");
+const makeIsCheckedValidator = () =>
+  body("isChecked").optional().isBoolean().withMessage("isChecked must be a boolean");
+const makeDateCreatedValidator = () =>
+  body("dateCreated").isISO8601().withMessage("dateCreated must be a valid date-time string");
+// assignee is for Part 2.1
+const makeAssigneeValidator = () =>
+  body("assignee").optional().isMongoId().withMessage("assignee must be a MongoDB object ID");
+
+// establishes a set of rules that the body of the task creation route must follow
+export const createTask = [
+  makeTitleValidator(),
+  makeDescriptionValidator(),
+  makeIsCheckedValidator(),
+];
+
+export const updateTask = [
+  makeIDValidator(),
+  makeTitleValidator(),
+  makeDescriptionValidator(),
+  makeIsCheckedValidator(),
+  makeDateCreatedValidator(),
+  makeAssigneeValidator(), // for Part 2.1
 ];