Unrest

a vanilla javascript rest api

A client side rest api with cache that works for you not against you.

Installation

bower install -Sp unrest
# or 
npm install --save unrest

Quick Usage

var db = new Unrest('/api');
$scope.people = db('Person').query();

<ul>
  <li ng-repeat="person in people.data">{{person.Name}}</li>
  <li ng-show="people.error">{{people.error.reponse}}</li>
</ul>

Usage

Initialization

// if you're in node
var Unrest = require('unrest');
 
var db = new Unrest('/api', {
  cacheTTL: 10 * 60 * 1000, // 10 minutes default
  cacheByDefault: false, // false by default
  storage: localStorage // if in node do below
  //       new require('node-localstorage').LocalStorage('./scratch');
});

GET Listing

// GET /api/TableName?name=Evan%
// Returns Array
db('TableName')
  .cacheable(5 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000) // 5 days
  .query({name: 'Evan%'})
  .then((data, cache) => {
    // function will run twice. Once for cache with cache=true, then again when
    //  the live data comes in, with cache=false
  }).catch(err => {
    // err: String, server error
    // cache: Object, the old object
  });

GET Value

// GET /api/TableName/53
db('TableName')
  .cacheable(5 * 60 * 1000) // 5 minutes
  .fetch(53)
  .then(...).catch(...);

POST/PUT Create and Save

Rather than having separate functions unrest shares the .save() function. If the object passed in has an .id or .Id property, it will be sent to the server under a PUT request. Otherwise it assumes it is creating that object and sends it under a POST.

// Save item
// POST/PUT /api/TableName(/53)?
data = { Id: 53, Name: 'Evan' }
db('TableName').save(data)
  .then(...)
  .catch(...);

DELETE Value

// DELETE /api/TableName/53
db('TableName').remove(53)
  .then(...).catch(...)

Pseudo Synchronous Result

In client side frameworks like Angular and Vue who default undefined/null to empty strings it is beneficial to have properties set themselves on the returned object once the request resolved.

$scope.mydata = db('TableName').fetch(52);

then in your view template

<div ng-show="mydata.error">{{mydata.error.message}}</div>
<div>
  My Id is {{mydata.Id}} and name is {{mydata.Name}}
</div>

** Note: ** The exception to this rule is the .query() function as that returns an array. In this case the results are assigned to the .data property. This is also the case if the result is a primitive value, like 5 or 'steven'.

Handing Errors

In the event of an error, the .catch function will be called. The function expects a callback that takes a single argument, the error object.

db('TableName').fetch(404).catch(function(err) {
  console.log(err.status, err.response.body); // 404 "Object not found"
})

Dealing with the Cache

Unrest enables an easy caching solution, simply call the .cacheable(<int>) function and any exactly similar requests will be instantly populated from localStorage with the .then parameter cache set to true.

Once the request completes in earnest, the .then parameter cache will be set to a falsey value.

db('TableName')
  .cacheable(15000)
  .fetch(52)
  .then(function(data, cache) {
    // will run twice
    if(cache) {
      // I'm being pulled from localStorage
      // I get called first.
    } else {
      // I arrived from the server.
      // I get called second.
    }
  });

When initializing unrest you can pass the following parameters into the config object.

• cacheTTL: (10 minutes by default) The default time for the cache to be invalid.
• cacheByDefault: (false by default) If true, every request will be cached for the cacheTTL amount of time unless overridden with .cacheable().
• storage: (localStorage by default) Where the cache is saved and pulled from, you can also use sessionStorage.

Contributing

Contributions welcome.

Build Minified

npm run build;

Build (all-the-time); Test (all-the-time)

npm install; gulp;
# I currently don't test all the time... 
gulp test # for that.