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rocketchat-sdk

Rocket.Chat Node.js SDK

Application interface for server methods and message stream subscriptions.

Overview

Using this package third party apps can control and query a Rocket.Chat server instance, via Asteroid login and method calls as well as DDP for subscribing to stream events.

Designed especially for chat automation, this SDK makes it easy for bot and integration developers to provide the best solutions and experience for their community.

For example, the Hubot Rocketchat adapter uses this package to enable chat-ops workflows and multi-channel, multi-user, public and private interactions. We have more bot features and adapters on the roadmap and encourage the community to implement this SDK to provide adapters for their bot framework or platform of choice.

API

See full API documentation links in the generated docs. Below is just a summary:

---

Currently, there are two modules exported by the SDK:

• driver - Handles connection, method calls, room subscriptions (via Asteroid)
• methodCache - Manages results cache for calls to server (via LRU cache)

Access these modules by importing them from SDK, e.g:

ES6 import { driver, methodCache } from 'rocketchat-sdk'

ES5 const { driver, methodCache } = require('rocketchat-sdk')

See Asteroid docs for methods that can be called from that API.

Any Rocket.Chat server method can be called via driver.callMethod, driver.cacheCall or driver.asyncCall. Server methods are not fully documented, most require searching the Rocket.Chat codebase.

MESSAGE OBJECTS

The Rocket.Chat message schema can be found here: https://rocket.chat/docs/developer-guides/schema-definition/

The structure for messages in this package matches that schema, with a TypeScript interface defined here: https://github.com/RocketChat/Rocket.Chat.js.SDK/blob/master/src/config/messageInterfaces.ts

The driver.prepareMessage method (documented below) provides a helper for simple message creation and the message module can also be imported to create new Message class instances directly if detailed attributes are required.

DRIVER METHODS

---

driver.connect(options, cb?)

Connects to a Rocket.Chat server

• Options accepts host and timeout attributes
• Can return a promise, or use error-first callback pattern
• Resolves with an Asteroid instance

driver.disconnect()

Unsubscribe, logout, disconnect from Rocket.Chat

• Returns promise

driver.login(credentials)

Login to Rocket.Chat via Asteroid

• Accepts object with username and/or email and password
• Returns promise
• Resolves with logged in user ID

driver.logout()

Logout current user via Asteroid

• Returns promise

driver.subscribe(topic, roomId)

Subscribe to Meteor subscription

• Accepts parameters for Rocket.Chat streamer
• Returns promise
• Resolves with subscription instance (with ID)

driver.unsubscribe(subscription)

Cancel a subscription

• Accepts a subscription instance
• Returns promise

driver.unsubscribeAll()

Cancel all current subscriptions

• Returns promise

driver.subscribeToMessages()

Shortcut to subscribe to user's message stream

• Uses .subscribe arguments with defaults
  • topic: stream-room-messages
  • roomId: __my_messages__
• Returns a subscription instance

driver.reactToMessages(callback)

Once a subscription is created, using driver.subscribeToMessages() this method can be used to attach a callback to changes in the message stream.

Fires callback with every change in subscriptions

• Uses error-first callback pattern
• Second argument is the changed item
• Third argument is additional attributes, such as roomType

For example usage, see the Rocket.Chat Hubot adapter's receive function, which is bound as a callback to this method: https://github.com/RocketChat/hubot-rocketchat/blob/convert-es6/index.js#L97-L193

driver.asyncCall(method, params)

Wraps server method calls to always be async

• Accepts a method name and params (array or single param)
• Returns a Promise

driver.cacheCall(method, key)

Call server method with methodCache

• Accepts a method name and single param (used as cache key)
• Returns a promise
• Resolves with server results or cached if still valid

driver.callMethod(method, params)

Implements either asyncCall or cacheCall if cache exists

• Accepts a method name and params (array or single param)
• Outcome depends on if methodCache.create was done for the method

driver.useLog(logger)

Replace the default log, e.g. with one from a bot framework

• Accepts class or object with debug, info, warn, error methods.
• Returns nothing

driver.getRoomId(name)

Get ID for a room by name

• Accepts name or ID string
• Is cached
• Returns a promise
• Resolves with room ID

driver.getRoomName(id)

Get name for a room by ID

• Accepts ID string
• Is cached
• Returns a promise
• Resolves with room name

driver.getDirectMessageRoomId(username)

Get ID for a DM room by its recipient's name

• Accepts string username
• Returns a promise
• Resolves with room ID

driver.joinRoom(room)

Join the logged in user into a room

• Accepts room name or ID string
• Returns a promise

driver.joinRooms(rooms)

As above, with array of room names/IDs

driver.prepareMessage(content, roomId?)

Structure message content for sending

• Accepts a message object or message text string
• Optionally addressing to room ID with second param
• Returns a message object

driver.sendMessageByRoomId(content, roomId)

Prepare and send message/s to specified room ID

• Content can be message object, message text string or array of strings
• Returns a promise
• Resolves when all sent

driver.sendMessageByRoom(content, room)

As above, with room name instead of ID

driver.sendDirectToUser(content, username)

As above, with username for DM instead of ID

driver.sendMessage(content, roomId?)

Send a prepared message object (with pre-defined room ID)

• Optional argument allows redirecting message to different room

---

METHOD CACHE

LRU is used to cache results from the server, to reduce unnecessary calls for data that is unlikely to change, such as room IDs. Utility methods and env vars allow configuring, creating and resetting caches for specific methods.

---

methodCache.use(instance)

Set the instance to call methods on, with cached results

• Accepts an Asteroid instance (or possibly other classes)
• Returns nothing

methodCache.create(method, options?)

Setup a cache for a method call

• Accepts method name and cache options object, such as:
  • max Maximum size of cache
  • maxAge Maximum age of cache

methodCache.call(method, key)

Get results of a prior method call or call and cache

• Accepts method name to call and key as single param
• Only methods with a single string argument can be cached (currently) due to the usage of this argument as the index for the cached results.

methodCache.has(method)

Checking if method has been cached

• Accepts method name
• Returns bool

methodCache.get(method, key)

Get results of a prior method call

• Accepts method name and key (argument method called with)
• Returns results at key

methodCache.reset(method, key?)

Reset a cached method call's results

• Accepts a method name, optional key
• If key given, clears only that result set
• Returns bool

methodCache.resetAll()

Reset cached results for all methods

• Returns nothing

---

Getting Started

A local instance of Rocket.Chat is required for unit tests to confirm connection and subscription methods are functional. And it helps to manually run your SDK interactions (i.e. bots) locally while in development.

Use as Dependency

yarn add rocketchat-sdk or npm install --save rocketchat-sdk

ES6 module, using async

import * as rocketchat from 'rocketchat-sdk'

const asteroid = await rocketchat.driver.connect({ host: 'localhost:3000' })
console.log('connected', asteroid)

ES5 module, using callback

const rocketchat = require('rocketchat-sdk')

rocketchat.driver.connect({ host: 'localhost:3000' }, function (err, asteroid) {
  if (err) console.error(err)
  else console.log('connected', asteroid)
})

Develop & Test

Settings

Env var	Description
ROCKETCHAT_URL	URL of the Rocket.Chat to connect to
ROCKETCHAT_AUTH	Set to 'ldap' to enable LDAP login
ADMIN_USERNAME	Admin user password for API
ADMIN_PASS	Admin user password for API
ROCKETCHAT_USER	User password for SDK tests
ROCKETCHAT_PASS	Pass username for SDK tests
INTEGRATION_ID	ID applied to message object to integration source
ROOM_CACHE_SIZE	Size of cache (LRU) for room (ID or name) lookups
ROOM_CACHE_MAX_AGE	Max age of cache for room lookups
DM_ROOM_CACHE_SIZE	Size of cache for Direct Message room lookups
DM_ROOM_CACHE_MAX_AGE	Max age of cache for DM lookups

These are only required in test and development, assuming in production they will be passed from the adapter implementing this package.

Installing Rocket.Chat

Clone and run a new instance of Rocket.Chat locally, using either the internal mongo or a dedicated local mongo for testing, so you won't affect any other Rocket.Chat development you might do locally.

The following will provision a default admin user on build, so it can be used to access the API, allowing SDK utils to prepare for and clean up tests.

• git clone https://github.com/RocketChat/Rocket.Chat.git rc-sdk-test
• cd rc-sdk-test
• meteor npm install
• export ADMIN_PASS=pass; export ADMIN_USERNAME=sdk; export MONGO_URL='mongodb://localhost:27017/rc-sdk-test'; meteor

Using yarn to run local tests and build scripts is recommended.

Do npm install -g yarn if you don't have it. Then setup the project:

• git clone https://github.com/RocketChat/Rocket.Chat.js.SDK.git
• cd Rocket.Chat.js.SDK
• yarn

Test and Build Scripts

• yarn test runs tests and coverage locally (pretest does lint)
• yarn test:debug runs tests without coverage, breaking for debug attach
• yarn docs generates docs
• yarn build runs tests, coverage, compiles, tests package, generates docs
• yarn test:package uses package-preview to make sure the published node package can be required and run only with defined dependencies, to avoid errors that might pass locally due to existing global dependencies or symlinks.

yarn:hook is run on git push hooks to prevent publishing with failing tests, but won't change coverage to avoid making any working copy changes after commit.

Integration Tests

The node scripts in utils are used to prepare for and clean up after test interactions. They use the Rocket.Chat API to create a bot user and a mock human user (benny) for the bot to interact with. They should restore the pre-test state but it is always advised to only run tests with a connection to a clean local or fresh re-usable container instance of Rocket.Chat.

Debugging

Configs are included in source for VS Code using Wallaby or Mocha Sidebar.