Backend: Docker Hub API Integration for Service Catalog

[Sanjeev-Kumar78]

🚀 Feature Request: Docker Hub API Integration for Service Catalog

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Currently, the service catalog lacks direct integration with the Docker Hub API, making it difficult to dynamically fetch and display real container image details such as descriptions, pull counts, and tags.
This limits the catalog’s accuracy and forces reliance on static mock data (frontend/src/mockdata.ts), which can easily become outdated.

Describe the solution you'd like

Integrate Docker Hub’s public API into the backend to fetch metadata for images listed in the service catalog.
The backend should expose an endpoint (e.g., /api/dockerhub/info?image=<name>) that:

• Retrieves image metadata (description, pull count, last updated, etc.) from Docker Hub
• Caches responses to optimize performance and reduce rate limit issues
• Returns structured data matching the current mock data schema for easy frontend integration

Describe alternatives you've considered

• Direct frontend calls to Docker Hub API:
  Causes CORS issues and may expose API keys or hit rate limits from the client side.
• Maintaining static JSON data:
  Non-scalable and quickly becomes outdated as Docker Hub data changes.

Use Case

Provides real-time Docker Hub metadata for each service in the catalog (e.g., image name, description, stars, pulls, last updated), enhancing the accuracy and usability of the catalog while maintaining a consistent data model with existing mock data.

Additional context

• Reference: mockdata.ts
• Repository: ComposeGenie GitHub

Implementation Considerations

• ✅ Add caching to minimize repeated API calls and handle Docker Hub rate limits
• ⚠️ Include fallback behavior for unavailable or private images
• 🧩 Ensure response format matches the current mock data structure
• 🪵 Implement logging and error handling for API communication
• 🔐 Consider optional authentication for extended API rate limits (if needed)