apicco-lib

Apicco-lib

The fastest way to build JSON APIs in Koa.js

Apicco is a dynamic Koa router middleware that maps folder & file structure to JSON HTTP endpoints.

app/
├── api/
│   ├── movies/
│   |   ├── create.js        POST /api/movies.create
│   |   ├── info.js          POST /api/movies.info
│   |   ├── list.js    =>    POST /api/movies.list
│   |   ├── update.js        POST /api/movies.update
|   |   └── delete.js        POST /api/movies.delete

Apicco leverages convention over configuration and enables Node developers to deliver JSON APIs rapidly.

Features

• Folder structure to JSON HTTP endpoints mapping
• Parameter validation
• Middleware interception
• Discovery endpoint
• Request body formatting
• Minimal SDK
• Versionless clients

Architecture

Folder structure

Apicco folder structure is very simple. The top API folder, contains one folder per resource.

app/
├── api/
│   ├── resource1/
│   |   ├── action1.js
|   |   └── action2.js
│   ├── resource2/
│   |   ├── action1.js
|   |   └── action2.js

Each folder contains JS action files that respond to API calls. Action files, are named after the methods (actions) that a controller object holds in MVC pattern.

Nested resources

Apicco does not support nested resources. All resources should be located under a common parent folder. That way, your API endpoints will be kept short and simple.

HTTP endpoints

Apicco mounts each action file to a /{prefix}/{resource}.{action} POST route. All the parameters are passed to the HTTP request body. For example:

POST /api/v1/movies/create

{
  "title": "Foo movie",
  "description": "This is a Foo movie",
  "year": 2018
}

Parameter validation

Parameter validation is handled with Joi.

If the validation fails, an HTTP 400 response will be returned to the client, along with a short human-readable error message explaining why the request was rejected.

Discovery

Apicco exposes a discovery endpoint that contains a JSON representation of all the API resources and action files and is used by SDKs (clients) upon initialization.

The discover GET endpoint is mounted at /{prefix}/discovery.

Formatting

Apicco can be also used for request body conversions and formatting. Apicco uses Joi. That is, if the validation convert option is on (enabled by default), a string will be converted using the specified modifiers for string.lowercase(), string.uppercase(), string.trim(), and each replacement specified with string.replace().

The converted request body can be accessed at ctx.request.validatedBody;

Action files

Action files should export the following:

• validate

  A Joi object schema describing the endpoint parameters.

• handle

  An async function that handles the corresponding HTTP request.

//action1.js
const Joi = require('joi');

const validate = {
  id: Joi.number().integer().required(),
  name: Joi.string().max(256)
};
/* 
// OR
const validate = Joi.object({
  id: Joi.number().integer().required(),
  name: Joi.string().max(256)
});
*/

async function handle({ request, response }) {
  response.status = 200;
  response.body = {
    id: request.body.id,
    name: request.body.name
  };
}

module.exports = {
  validate,
  handle
}

Usage

1. Add Apicco middleware to your Koa app

const Koa = require('koa');
const apicco = require('apicco-lib');

const app = new Koa();

app.use(apicco());

app.listen(3000);

1. Create your API action files under the main API folder.

Options

Apicco can be configured via options parameter. The supported options are:

apiPath

Path to folder containing API resources and action files.

Defaults to ./

prefix

URL prefix for all API endpoints.

Defaults to /api/v1

beforeMiddlewares

An array of Koa middlewares to be executed before Apicco middleware.

Defaults to [].)

This option can be used for adding authentication or authorization logic to your API. For example, you can add bearer token authentication using passport:

const Koa = require('koa');
const apicco = require('apicco-lib');
const passport = require('koa-passport')

const app = new Koa();

app.use(passport.initialize());

app.use(apicco({
  beforeMiddlewares: [passport.authenticate('bearer', { session: false })]
}));

afterMiddlewares

An array of Koa middlewares to be executed after Apicco middleware.

Defaults to []

verbose

Controls route logging during Apicco initialization.

Defaults to false

JSON API Design examples

CRUD API

app/
├── api/
│   ├── movies/
│   |   ├── create.js        POST /api/movies.create
│   |   ├── info.js          POST /api/movies.info
│   |   ├── list.js    =>    POST /api/movies.list
│   |   ├── update.js        POST /api/movies.update
|   |   └── delete.js        POST /api/movies.delete

API with relationships

app/
├── api/
│   ├── movies/
│   |   ├── create.js           POST /api/movies.create
|   |   ├── listActors.js       POST /api/movies.listActors
|   |   └── addReview.js        POST /api/movies.addReview
│   ├── actors/
│   |   └── addToMovie.js   =>  POST /api/actors.addToMovie
│   ├── reviews/
│   |   └── list.js             POST /api/reviews.list

For a complex, production API example please refer to Slack Web API documentation