For question 1 I guess this is to some extent a matter of opinion. I personally would pick the second option using the nested structure because the information is more compact and the relations are more visible.
Question 2: You could have a look at google firebase which seems to offer a lot of DB data for free. AFAIK you can even use google docs sheets via a JSON API. If you want a hosted solution something like a cheap VM from someone like Digital Ocean might be a good start.
Question 3: For a start, thinks like json-server (node.js) might be an option. You could use an online service or a little script to convert your spreadsheet via CSV to JSON and let JSON-server just do its thing. It provides a REST API on simple JSON files.
If you want to do more and really need a DB to back your API I'm currently not aware of any good out of the box no-code solution which turns your DB into a REST-API.
I am technical writer. I taught myself Python so I could explore all of the interesting APIs out there. At the moment, I am building a Mahabharat chatbot (API too, hopefully?)
For question 1 I guess this is to some extent a matter of opinion. I personally would pick the second option using the nested structure because the information is more compact and the relations are more visible.
Question 2: You could have a look at google firebase which seems to offer a lot of DB data for free. AFAIK you can even use google docs sheets via a JSON API. If you want a hosted solution something like a cheap VM from someone like Digital Ocean might be a good start.
Question 3: For a start, thinks like json-server (node.js) might be an option. You could use an online service or a little script to convert your spreadsheet via CSV to JSON and let JSON-server just do its thing. It provides a REST API on simple JSON files.
If you want to do more and really need a DB to back your API I'm currently not aware of any good out of the box no-code solution which turns your DB into a REST-API.
Hope that helpes…
Thank you Mark. I'll look at Google firebase and node.js.