restful.io

restful.io is a micro framework built on the shoulders of socket.io. It was designed to get HTTP possibilities, without using HTTP itself. By using socket.io, transport layer is made completely abstract.

I started this project because i needed a simple way to manage realtime routing on the server side. I do believe that a very light client (pure HTML and JS), communicating with the server layer using realtime technologies is a very good and extremely portable paradigm.

Inspirations

• Play Framework 2
• Express.io
• RESTful architectures
• HTTP

Installation

npm install --save restful.io

Main features

• Routing system
• Session management
• Client API (needs to be improved)
• File upload (using socket.io-stream)

What does it look like

Below is a quick presentation of the module in Coffeescript. You may check test folder for more.

Routing

io = require('socket.io')(http)
RestfulRouter = require "restful.io"
 
controllers = {
  UserController: {
    findAll: (route) ->
      route.OK("All users")
    create: (route, user) ->
      route.OK("User #{user.id} has been created")
  }
}
 
router = new RestfulRouter(controllers, {
  GET: [
    {
      uri: "/user"
      to: "UserController.findAll()"
      public: true
    }
  ]
  PUT: [
    {
      uri: "/user"
      to: "UserController.create(p:user)"
      public: true
    }
  ]
}, true)
 
router.start(io)

Session management

No "public" attributes for routes. Those routes are considered as "private", which means you need a valid session to access them. When you will get it, it will be automagically injected on private routes.

controllers = {
  UserController: {
    login: (route, credentials) ->
      route.withNewSession({username: credentials.username}).OK("You are now logged in")
    me: (route, session) ->
      route.OK("Welcome back #{session.username}")
  }
}
 
router = new RestfulRouter(controllers, {
  POST: [
    {
      uri: "/login"
      to: "UserController.login(p:credentials)"
      public: true
    }
  ]
  GET: [
    {
      uri: "/me"
      to: "UserController.me()"
    }
  ]
}, true)
 
router.start(io)

Client API

On the client side, you may create this file :

io = require 'socket.io-client'
ss = require 'socket.io-stream'
 
module.exports = (callback) ->
  socket = io('http://yourdomain.com:1234')
  socket.on 'connect', () ->
    socket.emit('GET:/api')
 
    socket.on 'GET:RESULT', (apiSrc) ->
      API = eval(apiSrc.data)(socket, ss, true)
      callback(API)

Then :

require("./yourfile.coffee") (API) ->
  # Feel free to use API object :) 
  API.POST '/login', {credentials: {username: 'foobar'}}, (result) ->
    # Here we set the "token" (session id) 
    API.token = result.headers.token
    API.GET '/me', {}, (result) ->
      console.log result.data

File upload

TODO

API

Server

Route object

Method	Parameters	Effect	Example
OK	data: *	Sends back data to the client with a 200 result	route.OK({message: "done"})
FORBIDDEN	err: *	Sends back err to the client with a 403 result	route.FORBIDDEN("Error !!")
ISE	err: *	Sends back err to the client with a 500 result	route.ISE("Error !!")
NOT_FOUND	err: *	Sends back err to the client with a 404 result	route.NOT_FOUND("Error !!")

Result object

Property	Possible values
status	200, 403, 500, 404
data	any string
headers	JS object, used for token

Client

API object

API object is automatically generated from your routes. Basically, the way to call a route is :

API.METHOD '/route/you.want', {param:"foobar"}, (result) ->
  # Use the result here 

The only special property you have to worry about is "token" which is your session id.

Tests

npm test

Warranty

restful.io is currently under heavy development. I'm building this project for myself and i try to make the code as clean as possible (which is far away from now :)). Feel free to submit a PR. Same for this README.

Currently working on

• Add some examples
• True client API
• File support
• Using socket.io namespaces