unio

One REST API Client for All.

The Unio client is an easily-extensible REST API Client that supports any REST API that can be described in JSON.

The initiative behind unio is to describe REST APIs in a simple, readable JSON format. This allows them to be imported into unio, and it will know automatically how to talk to the web service from the JSON spec. You can simply import the spec, and start making requests to the API right away. This makes it easy for you to test, use and reuse REST APIs by saving you the time of writing an API client for every new service that pops up.

Currently, the APIs implemented out-of-the-box with unio are:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Github
• Instagram
• StackExchange

Feel free to fork and add new REST API specs! See the Facebook spec and the Instagram spec as examples.

Install

npm install unio

Usage

var unio = require('unio')
 
var client = unio()
 
//
// with the Facebook Search API
//
var params = {
    q: 'coffee',
    access_token: 'FB-ACCESS-TOKEN'
}
 
client
    .use('fb')
    .get('search', params, function (err, response, body) {
        console.log('first search result', body.data[0])
    })
 
//
// Make an FQL query
//
var params = {
    q: 'SELECT first_name, pic FROM user WHERE uid=588625709',
    access_token: 'FB-ACCESS-TOKEN'
}
 
client
    .use('fb')
    .get('fql', params, function (err, res, body) {
        console.log('results:', body.data)
    })
 
//
// Use the Twitter Search API
//
var params = {
    q: 'banana',
    oauth: {
        consumer_key:       '...',
        consumer_secret:    '...',
        token:              '...',
        token_secret:       '...',
    }
}
 
client
    .use('twitter')
    .get('search/tweets', params, function (err, response, body) {
        console.log('search results:', body)
    })
 
//
// use the Twitter REST API to post a tweet
//
var params = {
    status: 'tweeting using unio! :)',
    oauth: {
        consumer_key:       '...',
        consumer_secret:    '...',
        token:              '...',
        token_secret:       '...',
    }
}
 
client
    .use('twitter')
    .post('statuses/update', params, function (err, res, body) {
        // ...
    })
 
//
// with the Instagram API
//
var params = {
    id: 'snow',
    access_token: 'INSTAGRAM-ACCESS-TOKEN'
}
 
client
    .use('instagram')
    .get('tags/:id/media/recent', params, function (err, res, body) {
        // ...
    })
 
//
// import a JSON spec from the local filesystem
//
client
    .spec('./path/to/json/file')
    .use('myspec')
    .post('blah', function (err, res, body) {
        // ...
    })
 
//
// add a new spec directly
//
var apiSpec = {
    name: 'api-name',
    api_root: 'http://api.something.com',
    resources: [
        {
            path: 'some/resource',
            methods: [ 'post' ],
            params: {
                foo: 'required',
                bar: 'optional'
            }
        },
        // other resource entries here...
    ]
}
 
// now use the newly added spec
client
    .spec(apiSpec)
    .use('api-name')
    .post('some/resource', { foo: 123 }, function (err, res, body) {
        // ...
    })
 

API:

.use(name)

Tells unio that the next request you make will be to the API whose spec has the name name. If you don't call .use() before making a request, it will default to the last API that you called .use() with.

.spec(spec)

Adds a new REST API spec to the unio client. Spec can be:

• an Object representing an API specification
• an Array of API specifications
• a String that is a path to a JSON file

The specs that unio currently supports out-of-the-box are in the specs folder. See the Facebook spec and the Twitter spec as examples.

.get(resource, [ params, callback ])

GET an API resource, with optional params object for the request, and an optional callback that looks like: function (err, response, body) { ... }.

.post(resource, [ params, callback ])

Same usage as .get(), but sends a POST request.

.patch(resource, [ params, callback ])

Same usage as .get(), but sends a PATCH request.

.put(resource, [ params, callback ])

Same usage as .get(), but sends a PUT request.

.delete(resource, [ params, callback ])

Same usage as .get(), but sends a DELETE request.

Defining a Unio Spec

unio is intended to make it as easy/painless as possible to talk to HTTP APIs. Here's an example of what a spec looks like:

{
    name: 'some-api',
    api_root: 'http://api.something.com',
    resources: [
        {
            path: 'users/:id',
            methods: [ 'get', 'put' ],
            params: {
                id: 'required'
            }
        },
        {
            path: 'notes',
            methods: [ 'post' ],
            params: {
                title: 'required',
                text: 'required',
                tags: 'optional'
            }
        }, 
        {
            name: 'friends',
            path: 'friends.json',
            methods: [ 'post' ],
            params: {
                id: 'required'
            }
        }  
        // other resource entries here...
    ]
}

name (String)

Each unio spec must have a name. This allows you to .use() the spec and start making requests.

api_root (String)

The api_root specifies the root url where the API resources are located.

resources (Array)

Array of API resources.

Defining a Resource

Each object in the resources array represents a REST API resource. For example, a GET user resource taking three optional parameters (id, name, and location) would look like this:

{
    path: 'user',
    methods: [ 'get' ],
    params: {
        id: 'optional',
        name: 'optional',
        location: 'optional'
    },
}

Each of the resource keys are described below:

path (String)

URI where the resource is located, without a leading slash (e.g. posts/newest) or a full URL (e.g. https://api.bar.com).

name (String)

Optional name of the resource. When you make a request with unio, for example with .get(resource, ...), you can specify the resource by its name value rather than by its path. Think of it like an alias path value for the resource.

E.g. If the following resource is specified:

{
    name: 'statuses/update',
    path: 'statuses/update.json',
    methods: [ 'post' ],
    params: {
        foo: 'required'
    }
}

You can then request the resource by specifying its name OR its path:

// GET a resource by specifying its `name`
unio()
    .use('...')
    .get('statuses/update', params, callback)
 
// GET a resource by specifying its `path`
unio()
    .use('...')
    .get('statuses/update.json', params, callback)

methods (Array)

HTTP verbs that may be used to request the resource (allowed: "GET", "POST", "PUT", "DELETE", "PATCH").

params (Object)

Object representing the parameters accepted by the resource. Each parameter must be marked "optional" or "required".

---

Running the tests

npm test

---

Other Implementations

See PyUnio by Mihir Singh (@citruspi) for a Python implementation of unio.

License

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) by Tolga Tezel [e-mail]

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.