Better REST over express.js
Brest is a (relatively) simple REST API library over express.js.
Table of contents
- Migration
- Guide
- Tests
- Changes
- License
Migration
Brest v.0.4 is going to be the last minor version before 1.0 release. The aim of 0.4.x branch is to prepare for the v1.0 release: with bugs fixed, proper tests and documentation covering all aspects of using Brest in production environment.
The backwards compatibility will remain through all 0.4.x releases. The oblosete features will work, but with warnings. Any feature that causes "deprecated" warning will be dropped in Brest 1.0
Guide
1. Install from package manager
In project route
$ npm install brest --save
You don't have to install express.js
separately. It is included into Brest
dependencies. However, you might want to
initialize express.js
outside of Brest
on some occasions.
2 Setup
2.1 Application file
In your application file:
// Require brest library const Brest = ; const brest = ;
If you want to use pre-initialized express.js
and app()
, you provide them as additional parameters to Brest:
// Require brest library const Brest = ; const express = ; const app = ; const brest = express app;
2.2 Brest working directories
By default, Brest uses ./api/
path for the Resource
files. Different path for the Resource
files can be provided in settings apiPath
parameter, or
by calling
brest;
For each path provided, Brest
will go through all .js
files in the folder, attempting to aquire Resource
descriptions.
2.3 Registering paths
The API URL made with Brest
can be separated into the following parts:
[METHOD]
[Host] <Prefix> <Version> [Resource] {Endpoint}
[METHOD]
is HTTP Endpoint, likeGET
orPOST
. You're expected to useGET
for retrieving resources,POST
for creating new resources,PUT
for updating existing resources andDELETE
for deleting them, but that's not a strict rule. You can limit toGET
andPOST
or to any other set of HTTP verbs of your choice[Host]
. It is your server host. Likeexample.com
or127.0.0.1:8080
<Prefix>
. Arbitrary string to precede the rest of your URI. It is empty by default an can be assigned throughapi_url.prefix
setting<Version>
. API version. By default it is/v1/
. It is set throughversion
field inResource
file description and can be switched off viaapi_url.unversioned
setting.[Resource]
. The resource your API exposes access to. Likeuser
orpackage
. For theResource
part of the URI theResource
file name is used. Since 0.4.6 it can be overridden via "noun" Resource description parameter.
API resource are expected to export object files with the following structure:
moduleexports = version: 1 description: 'Resource description' //Description for the possible documentation engines endpoints: //List of the endpoint objects
Here, the version property and the filename define the beginning of the endpoints' URI. For instance, if API object from ./api/persons.js has property version: 1, the URI will start with /v1/user.
Overriding resource name:
moduleexports = version: 1 noun: 'new_name' description: 'Resource description' //Description for the possible documentation engines endpoints: //List of the endpoint objects
After that, the resource objects description is used:
Endpoint object has the following structure (properties placed alphabetically):
const endpoint = allowCORS: false //default: false. Allow CORS for this endpoint description: 'Some description goes here' //Description for the documentation engines disabled: environment: 'dev' //Disable condition. See 2.5 Enable/disable conditions enabled: 'foobar' //Enable condition. See 2.5 Enable/disable conditions /** * Handler function: receives Express JS object and a callback function. * If no handler provided, blank handler will return error */ { ; } method: 'POST' //default: GET. HTTP method required. middle: //Custom middleware for the endpoint noAuth: false //default: false. If true, no authentication is needed for this resource /** * Obsolete endpoint flag * If true, warning message is written to console each time the endpoint is called * Optionally can be a string with proposed new uri */ obsolete: true|"new/uri" reject: 'field1' 'field2' //Unconditionally remove fields from response screen: noAuth: 'some_field' //Remove fields from response. Currently for noAuth only skipApiPathScan: false //If true, Brest will not attempt to scan api directory. stub: false //default: false. If true, resource returns "Not implemented yet" message. upload: {} //Multer settings object (see 3.3 for details) uri: ":fooId" //additional params, if any
2.3.1 Possible response options
Add to the response object for the handler callback
ignoreJSON {Boolean} use res.send() instead of res.json() even if return data is object. Can be useful, if you want to send json, as text/html, for some reason.
code {Number||String} send response with arbitrary code
headers {Object} Set headers from {('key': 'value')}
object.
cookies {Array} Set cookies {name: "name", value: "value", options: {Object}}
file {String} Send file to user.
fileName {String} Provide this file with specific name.
fileCallback {Function} Specify function to call when user has finished downloading.
autoUnlink {Boolean} When true
the file is automatically unlinked after user has finished downloading. Unlink is
called prior to calling fileCallback
, and fileCallback
will receive unlink error if one has occured.
autoMime {Boolean} When true
attempts to assign content-type
to the downloaded file automatically
redirect {String} Redirect user to given URL
2.3.2 Using handlers with Promises
Instead of using callback, you can return Promise from your handler. If you have to use options in this case, include
them into result object with $options
key. $options
will be removed from resulting JSON sent to user.
2.3.3 Asyncronous Resource initialization
When resource file contains async
property it is expected to be the asyncrohous function that takes callback as a single
parameter and returns description with callback.
const resource_data = endpoints: //... ; const resource = { ; }
2.4 Settings
Certain default settings may be overridden by providing user settings. Settings object is passed to the brest() as the second parameter.
const settings = application: "%app_name%" // Application name apiPath: './api' // Path or paths to resource folder ['./api', './additionalApi'] apiUrl: prefix: 'api/' // Prepend url with leading string. unversioned: true // Don't include API version into the URL (default false) basePath: '%base_app_path%' // Override default require.main.filename base path. Might be // usable with something like github.electron cors: {} //cors settings //see https://github.com/expressjs/cors#configuration-options environment: "dev" // Environmen type server: port: 8080 // Listed on port defaultHTML: 'path/to/default/html/file' static: public: "public" // Public folder path index: "index.html" // Default file mountPath: "static/" // Path prefix for the static options: {} // See https://github.com/expressjs/serve-static options version: 1 // API default version //Startup hooks {} //Function to be called before static route is setup {} //Function to be called after static route is setup
2.5 Enable/disable conditions
Path objects can be enabled or disabled by certain settings conditions.
enabled property defines which settings are required for the path to be used. ALL conditions must be met in order for path to be used.
disabled property is responsible for switching off the path. ANY condition must be met for the path to be disabled.
First enabled conditions are checked, and then disabled conditions are checked. Which means, if settings meet both conditions, the path will be disabled disregarding 'enabled' condition.
2.5.1 Conditions setup
The following formats are possible (appliable for "disabled" as well):
enabled: true|false;
If condition is Boolean it does what it means. Disable or enable path depending on boolean value.
enabled: 'stringCondition';
If condition is String, settings value for 'stringCondition' key is required to be true for condition to fire. It is possible to use dot to check nested settings key. For instance:
enabled: 'property_pingable.foobar';
will check brest settings object for
const settings = //... property_pingable: foobar: true //...
Missing settings are treated as if they had false value
enabled: ['stringCondition1', 'stringCondition2'];
If condition is Array, it should contain strings, that will be cheched in the same manner as single string. For condition to be met it is required for all settings, described in array to be true
enabled: {environment: 'dev', enable_selected_paths: true};
If condition is Object, for each object property the value should be equal (non strict, ==) to one in the settings. Nested settings are described same as in previous options. I.e.
enabled: {'property_pingable.foobar': true}; //CORRECT
enabled: {property_pingable: { //INCORRECT
foobar': true
}
};
3 Serving requests
3.1 Supported methods
The following methods are being supported by Brest:
GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS, HEAD, PATCH, TRACE
If the request is send to existing URI with undefined method (say, you have GET
/v1/kittens
and POST
/v1/kittens
, but
you try to DELETE
/v1/kittens
) Brest will respond with 405
error code and response header will contain Allow: GET, POST
.
3.2 Request URL parameters
3.2.1 Basic handling
Request parameters can be passed both as a part of the path and the query string. Path parameters are described in "uri" property of resource description object:
uri: '/floor/:floorId/room/:roomId'
Here :floorId
and :roomId
are path parameters and they would be accessible in req.params
object as req.params.floorId
and req.params.roomId
respectively.
3.2.2 Filtering
Query strings are supposed to be described in filters property:
{
method: GET.
description: "Get car list",
noAuth: true,
filters: {
"manufacturer": "Filter by manufacturer",
"yom": "Filter by the year of manufacture",
"color": "Filter by color",
}
}
Filter values are stored in req.filters property as key:value.
3.2.3 Complex filter descriptions
These properties description are used by documentation creation scripts to create detailed description of the resource. You can also use user data replacement:
// api/persons.js//...const resource = method: "GET" uri: "list" description: "Returns users list" filters: subscribed_to: description: "Select user, subscribed to given user" replaceMe: 'id' subscribed_by: description: "Select user, subscribed by given user" replaceMe: 'id' name: "Get users with names identical or close to given name" { userCtrl; } //...
In this case, if /v1/api/user?subscribed\_to=me
is called, req.filters.subscribed\_to
with be equal to req.user.id
.
If user in not authenticated or req.user doesn't contain ['id']
property, 403
error would be returned by server.
By default 'me' and 'mine' are replaced with current user id. It is possible to add more replacements by 'replaceMe'
setting. (e.g. settings.replaceMe = ['own', 'private']
).
3.2.4 Filter transformations
It is possible to automatically transform filter values. The following transformations can be used:
- toArray: transform comma-separated string into array. If provided with string value, it will be used as custom separator. This transformation is made before any other. Unless stated otherwise, transformation filters will be applied to each array element separately.
- fromJSON: accept valid JSON string and parse it into object.
HTTP 422
will be returned in case of invalid JSON - toLowerCase: transform filter value to lower case
- toUpperCase: transform filter value to upper case
- toInteger: transform filter value to integer
- toNumber: transform filter value to number
- toBoolean: transform filter value to boolean. Note, that strings
"false"
and"0"
are cast to boolean false - min, max: limit numeric filter value. Consider using transformation to number with this parameters.
- clamp: takes array of [min, max], ensures value stays between these numbers. Pre-cast to number is recommended as well.
- transform: provide custom transformation synchronous function
- detach: remove filter from req.filters into separate Request object property. If
detach === true
, the parameter name is the same as filter name. E.g. in case offilters: {foo: {detach: true}}
with?foo=bar
request you will receivereq.foo === bar
. Ifdetach === 'some_string'
, the filter will be detached intoreq['some_string']
. Attempt to detach into existing Request object property, likereq.query
would result inHTTP 500
response.
Please, note, that transform filters are always applied before value limit filters and custom transform is applied the last.
//...const endpoint = method: "GET" uri: "list" description: "Returns users list" filters: username: description: "Filter by username" toLowerCase: true city_code: description: "Filter by city code" toUpperCase: true secret_nickname: description: "Filter by secret nick name" { return ; } { userCtrl; } //...
3.2.5 Filter aliases
Some of the Brest plugins may automatically bind filters to the requests in one way or another. If you want to redefine the name of such filter, but you don't have an access to the responsible plugin or renaming on plugin side is impossible, you can use "filterAlias" API property
{
filterAlias: {"bar": "long_and_ugly_autogenerated_filter_foo"}
}
This will automatically rename "bar" URL parameter into "long_and_ugly_autogenerated_filter_foo", so it could be picked by the autogenerated filter named "long_and_ugly_autogenerated_filter_foo".
Same can be achieved in a different manner:
{
filters: {"long_and_ugly_autogenerated_filter_foo": {"alias": "bar"}}
}
Mind that latter usage may not be usable depending on how and at which point the filters are autogenerated
3.3 Uploading files
Brest uses multer middleware to accept multipart requests, which are primary used for uploading files.
In order to make API endpoint accept files, use upload
field in resource description. The basic usage requires only
dest
parameter, defining the upload destination:
const resource = //... upload: dest: 'uploads/'
You can use fieldname
or fieldnames
parameter as described in multer documentation.
There's also a shortcut for renaming a single uploaded file:
const resource = //... upload: { ; } { ; }
Which is basically the same as using multer.diskStorage
with the same options.
You can get full control over your setup by using function instead of object. The function should accept multer module as a single parameter and return a set up middleware:
const resource = //... { return ; }
3.4 Logging requests
Brest uses mogran library to log requests. Starting from v0.1.10 it is possible to adjust logging as follows:
- default: true
- boolean: false disables logging, true enables with default settings ('combined' format, no additional options)
- string: will load corresponding format without any additional settings.
- morgan instance: use pre-initialized morgan instance.
- object: {<%format%>: {<%settings%>}}. Load morgan(<%format%>, <%settings%>)
4 Events
Brest instance, once setup emits various events, that can be used to further extend it's functionality.
- ready: Brest has successfully initialized express and http server and ready to proceed with further initializations. As most of the Brest extensions are either loading express middlware or require initialized express instance it is reasonable to proceed with extensions initializations once this event fires:
const brest = settings; brest;
- extensionsLoaded: all extensions passed to brest.use have been initialized. At this point API path is to be bound.
brest;
- before_api_init: Event is called before starting binding the paths
- after_api_init: Event is called after successfully finishing binding the paths
Please, note, that these events would be called for each Brest.bindPath
call.
-
closing: Brest is shutting down, but it still has some matters to attend. If you need to catch the moment pass which you shouldn't do anything with Brest, you should catch this event.
-
closed: Brest is lying dead and waiting for garbage collector. If you need to clean up references to the Brest instance, you can do it from here.
-
counter: Some counter has reached the predefined point. The counters can be set up in Brest settings as follows:
{
emitCounterEventOn: {
in: [100, 1000, 1701], // Emit counter event every 100, 1000 and 1701 incoming request
out: [42] // Emit counter event every 42 requests served
process: [64, 128] //Emit on 64 or 128 concurrent requests being served
}
}
As a parameter event listener receives an object {<counter_key>: <counter_value>}. The following counter keys are now being used:
in: Counter is increased for every incoming request, before it is processed.
out: Counter is increased for every outcoming responce, after all processing is done.
process: Counter is increased for evety incoming request and decreased for every responce sent back to client. Thus it represents the number of concurrent requests and can be used to estimate current load.
- error: Something wrong has happened. Event listener receives error object as a parameter.
5 Extensions
5.1 Current
Authentication
Passport Authenticating user with PassportJS
Database handling
- MySQL MySQL
- PostgreSQL PostgreSQL (work in progress)
Validation
- Jayschema JaySchema POST Json Schema validation
- Validation Request params validation
Secutiry
- Limiter Request limiter using redis db and express-limiter library
5.2 Obsolete
- Docker Extension automatically builds documentation for the Brest API function. This extension is currently not supported (and has nothing to do with Docker container management)
- MariaDB MariaDB (abandoned, see MySQL instead!)
Tests
To run the test suite, first install the dependencies, then run npm test:
$ npm install$ npm test
Changes
1.0.0.alpha.6
- brest.initialized() now works correctly if 'ready' event has fired before the function was called
- bindFile now optionally accepts an array of filenames
- bind now optionally accepts an array of descriptions
1.0.0.alpha.5
- brest.initialized() returns a Promise which is being resolved on 'ready' event
- Fixed issue with incorrect url joining on Windows
1.0.0.alpha.4
- Minor cleanup
1.0.0.alpha.3
- Fixed default settings retrieval
- CORS settings can be provided as a parameter to allowCORS endpoint option
1.0.0.alpha.2
- Endpoint URI is more smart regarding extra slashes now
- Added static options
- Static path now has to be absolute (for the sake of similarity with API dir path)
- Added
autoUnlink
option for the file download - Added
autoMime
option to allow automatic Mime type lookup (by extension) Content-disposition
header is sent alongside the downloading file- Added warning when attempting to use non-existing or unreachable static files path
- Fixed issue with counters working incorrectly on file download and redirections
1.0.0.alpha.1
- Async loading
0.4.10
- Fixed issue with returning error on empty Promise.resolve
0.4.9
- Added "afterHandler" extension hook
0.4.8
- Added check for invalid extensions list in
Brest
constructor
0.4.7
- External express() and app should now be passed within
Brest
options - Extensions can be passed as a second parameter, if they require pre-ready initialization
- Bodyparser is initialized globally by default
- Resource.endpoints and Resource.uri are now exposed as getters
- Brest.resources is now exposed as getter
- Async resource init now checks for empty callback result
0.4.6
- Resource names can be overridden with
noun
parameter - Resources can be loaded asyncronously
- Fixed bug with error reporting from resource binding
0.4.5
- Exceptions in filter transformations are now handled correctly
- Added "fromJSON" filter transformation
- Removed "Transform.isBoolean()" method as misleading
- apiUrl setting now has uniform capitalization (snake_case is still valid)
- Filters now can be detached into separate req[%field_name%] fields
0.4.4
- Base directory can be overridden via settings
- Fixed bug with attempt to detach options from null Promise.resolve
0.4.3
- Brest can accept express/app instances initialized outside.
0.4.2
- Event emission for initializing API with settings is now adjustable
0.4.1
- Fixed pure number and string responses being treated incorrectly
"Chapaev"
0.4.0- Method class is now called Endpoint in order to prevent confusion with HTTP methods
- Intel module is now responsible for logging
- Working examples
- Test coverage
- Fixed Clamp() transformation name
- Fixed array transformation
- Fixed typecast and string transformations begin applied with own parameter set to "false"
- Fixed issue with apiPath setting not working correctly
- Fixed issue with bindPath not calling callback in case of success binding
0.3.3
- Fixed bug with bindPath not calling callback in certain cases
0.3.2
- Fixed bug with favicon description
- Fixed bug with
reject
directive - Updated documentation
- Updated
package.json
dependencies versioning
0.3.1
- Fixed bug with undefined "handlerPromise"
0.3.0
- Fixed bug with unauthorized "me" property use
- Fixed typo in undefined handler error message
- Handler can now return promise instead of using callback
0.2.7
- Added more initialization events
0.2.6
- Fixed API prefix
0.2.5
- ESLint introduced
- API URL options added
0.2.4
- Fixed 'toobusy' bug and updated default settings
0.2.3
- CORS now utilizes express.js middleware and supports pre-flight requests.
0.2.2
- Added CORS headers support
- More refactoring towards ES2015 standards
0.2.1
- Fixed issue with multiple API files crashing the startup
- Some inner refactoring
0.2.0
- Inner objects are now ES6 classes
- Filter transformations are now separate clases
- Fixed issue with event listeners being initialized after the events are fired
- Added "min", "max", and "clamp" filter parameters
0.1.16-1
- Fixed: Skips "include" field, if found in filters
0.1.16
- "toBoolean" transformation function fixed
0.1.15
- Added "filterAlias" API parameter to create filter shortcut. You can also use an "alias" filter parameter (String or String[]) for the same purpose
- Added "default" filter parameter
- Added "toFinite", "toInteger", "toNumber", "toBoolean" transformation functions
- Added "override" filter parameter. If true the filter added by third party will rewrite filter in API. Otherwise, defaultsDeep will be used.
0.1.14
- toArray filter param now explodes string value to array
- toUpperCase filter param no longer fires if filter description is a string
- Introduced "reject" method description field
- "error" field in error reply now has lowercase key (before: Error → now: error)
0.1.13
- Introduced "obsolete" method description field.
- Filter transformation options added
0.1.12
- Unauthorized request will now return 401 instead of 403.
- Authentication extensions now should return "false" or castable to "false" if no error is found, and an error object in case of error.
0.1.11
- Brest now emits 'error' event on all errors
0.1.10
- Fixed issue with description field overriden. Now plugins are supposed to use "getField('name')" instead of "method.description['name']" and "getFields()" instead of "method.description" where appliable.
- Morgan loggins is now adjustable with settings.log field (see "Logging")
- brest.getSetting now uses _.get(), which means some more sintax variations in addition to existing ones. Please, refer to lodash tutorial for details.
- Function that gets methods verb is now called "getVerb()" not "getMethod()"
0.1.9
- Enable/disable conditions
- Response fields screening (currently for noAuth case only. Role screening en route)
- Path description fields are not limited to the predefined list, nor the required fields are checked. However, the default HTTP method is GET and if handler is skipped, empty handler which returns error is used instead.
- It is now possible to add new replacement keys to replaceMe (settings: replaceMe)
- getBrest() method in available in Endpoint and Path objects. Usable in plugins.
- TooBusy now returns 429 code instead of 503
- Fixed issue with incorrect settings format crashing the application
- Fixed "Authentication failed" error message
0.1.8-3
- Toobusy settings: fixed 'interval' setting, added 'enabled' setting
0.1.8-2
- Rolled back bugfix for 0.1.8-1 as it breaks usage of arrays in counters setup
- Toobusy can be now provided with settings (see https://www.npmjs.com/package/toobusy-js)
0.1.8-1
- Fixed bug with counter not being reset;
0.1.8
- brest.getPort() method added
- brest.close() now has safeguard from multiple calls
- express request logging can be switched off with log:false setting
- overloading safeguard added
- lesser changes
0.1.7
- Extensions now can have separate init functions for resources and methods
- Resources and methods now emit "ready" and "error" events (can be caught in extensions)
- Async resource and methods initialization (no actual changes outside)
- Some code refactoring
0.1.6
- Added new events
- Introduced counters
0.1.5-3
- fixed undefined var for req.include
0.1.5-2
- Settings defaults are using deep copy
0.1.5-1
- Some colors added
- Brest.close() method added. Closes server, emits "closing" on start and "closed" on finish
- New event emitters "closing" and "closed"
0.1.5
- Fixed issues with Multer initialization
- Took new features from bmrest fork
- "noCache" method parameter (bmrest) will sent no-caching headers
- "toArray" filter parameter will cast filter value to array if it's not an array already
- "include" method parameters (bmrest compat.) will add "include" array to request object
0.1.4-1
- Fixed issue with Express crashing on empty return
0.1.4
- It is now possible to bind multiple API paths
- Fixed some obsolete Express methods calls
0.1.3
- Multer fix
0.1.2
- It is now possible to use callbacks for file downloads
- Fixed bug with multiple extension loading
- Changed authenticate callback check from _.isUndefined to _.isNull
0.1.1
- Async module initialization
0.1.0
- Moved express initialization into the bREST logic.
- Moved validation into the extensions
- Moved authentication into the extensions
0.0.5
- File downloads added. Use response options "file" to send file to download and optional "fileName" to define filename. Please note, that you won't be able to retrieve files using Ajax due to safety restrictions.
0.0.4-6
- Response options added
0.0.4-5
- Now it is possible to define auto-replacement for "me" filter value
- Documentation update
0.0.4-4
- Changes in settings handling.
- Documentation update
0.0.4-3
When no filters are defined, req.filters is an empty Object, not undefined property.
0.0.4-2
Documentation update.
0.0.4-1
Fixed issue with loading JSON-schema files.
0.0.4
Fixed issue with URL parameters passed to method with no described filters.
0.0.3
First working version.
MIT License
Copyright © 2013 Maxim Tovstashev max.kitsch@gmail.com
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.