baucis

baucis v0.4.3

Baucis is Express middleware that creates configurable REST APIs using Mongoose schemata.

Like Baucis and Philemon of old, this library provides REST to the weary traveler. The goal is to create a JSON REST API for Mongoose & Express that matches as closely as possible the richness and versatility of the HTTP 1.1 protocol.

Those versions published to npm represent release versions. Those versions not published to npm are development releases.

Relase versions of baucis can be considered stable. Baucis uses semver.

Please report issues on GitHub if bugs are encountered.

David Rijckaert - Philemon and Baucis Giving Hospitality to Jupiter and Mercury

Usage

To install:

npm install baucis

An example of creating a REST API from a couple Mongoose schemata:

var Vegetable = new mongoose.Schema({
  name: String
});

var Fruit = new mongoose.Schema({
  name: String
});

// Note that Mongoose middleware will be executed as usual
Vegetable.pre('save', function () { ... });

// Register the schemata
mongoose.model('vegetable', Vegetable);
mongoose.model('fruit', Fruit);

// Create the API routes
baucis.rest({
  singular: 'vegetable',
});

baucis.rest({
  singular: 'fruit'
});

// Create the app and listen for API requests
var app = express();
app.use('/api/v1', baucis());
app.listen(80);

Later, make requests:

• GET /api/v1/vegetables/:id — get the addressed document

• PUT /api/v1/vegetables/:id — create or update the addressed document

• DEL /api/v1/vegetables/:id — delete the addressed object

• GET /api/v1/vegetables — get all documents

• POST /api/v1/vegetables — creates a new document and sends back its ID

• PUT /api/v1/vegetables — replace all documents with given new documents

• DEL /api/v1/vegetables — delete all documents

Examples

Examples with jQuery:

$.getJSON('/api/v1/vegetables/4f4028e6e5139bf4e472cca1', function (data) {
  console.log(data);
});

$.ajax({
  type: 'POST',
  dataType: 'json',
  url: '/api/v1/vegetables',
  data: {
    name: 'carrot',
    color: 'orange'
  }
}).done(function (vegetable) {
  // The new document that was just created
  console.dir(vegetable);
});

Requests to the collection (not its members) take standard MongoDB query parameters to filter the documents based on custom criteria.

$.ajax({
  type: 'GET',
  dataType: 'json',
  url: '/api/v1/vegetables',
  data: {
    conditions: JSON.stringify({
      color: 'red',
      'nutrition.sodium': { $lte: 10 }
    })
  }
}).done(function (vegetables) {
  console.dir(vegetables);
});

Examples with Backbone:

var Vegetables = Backbone.Collection.extend({
  url: '/vegetables',
  baucis: function (options) {
    if (!options) return this.fetch();

    var data = {};

    Object.keys(options).forEach(function (key) {
      data[key] = JSON.stringify(options[key]);
    });

    return this.fetch({ data: data });
  }
});

var Vegetable = Backbone.Model.extend({
  urlRoot: '/vegetables'
});

var vegetables = new Vegetables();
vegetables.baucis({ conditions: { color: 'red' } }).then( ... );

Besides, the conditions option, populate is also currently supported, to allow population of references to other documents.

vegetables.baucis({
  conditions: { color: red },
  populate: 'child'
});

// or

populate: ['child1', 'child2' ]

// or

populate: [{
  path: 'child1',
  select: ['fieldA', 'fieldB'],
  match: {
    'foo': { $gte: 7 }
  },
  options: { limit: 1 }
}, ... ]

It is not permitted to use the select option of populate with a +path. This allows you to deselect paths at the schema level using select: false in the path definition. The client will not be able to select paths deselected in this way, but your server middleware may select these fields as usual using query.select.

See the Mongoose population documentation for more information.

skip and limit are available as well, typically used for paging:

vegetables.baucis({
  skip: 20,
  limit: 10
});

Also, sort:

vegetables.baucis({
  sort: 'foo -bar'
});

bacuis.rest

Use plain old Connect/Express middleware, including pre-existing modules like passport. For example, set the all option to add middleware to be called before all the model's API routes.

baucis.rest({
  singular: 'vegetable',
  all: function (request, response, next) {
    if (request.isAuthenticated()) return next();
    return response.send(401);
  }
});

Or, set some middleware for specific HTTP verbs or disable verbs completely:

baucis.rest({
  singular: 'vegetable',
  get: [middleware1, middleware2],
  post: middleware3,
  del: false,
  put: false
});

RESTful Headers

• Accept: application/json is set for all responses.
• The Allow header is set automatically, correctly removing HTTP verbs when those verbs have been disabled with e.g. put: false.
• The Location HTTP header is set for PUT and POST responses.
• If relations: true is passed to baucis.rest, the HTTP Link header will be set with various links for all responses.

Controllers

baucis.rest returns an instance of the controller created to handle the schema's API routes.

var subcontroller = baucis.rest({
  singular: 'bar',
  basePath: '/:fooId/bars',
  publish: false, // don't add API routes automatically
  select: 'foo +bar -password', // select fields for all queries
  findBy: 'baz', // use this field instead of `_id` for queries
  restrict: function (query, request) {
    // Only retrieve bars that are children of the given foo
    query.where('parent', request.params.fooId);
  }
});

var controller = baucis.rest({
  singular: 'foo',
  configure: function (controller) {
    // Embed the subcontroller at /foos/:fooId/bars
    controller.use(subcontroller);

    // Embed arbitrary middleware at /foos/qux
    controller.use('/qux', function (request, response, next) {
      // Do something cool…
      next();
    });
  }
});

Controllers are Express apps, so do whatever you want with them.

var controller = baucis.rest({
  singular: 'robot',
  configure: function (controller) {
    // Add middleware before all other rotues in the controller
    controller.use(express.cookieParser());
  }
});

// Add middleware after default controller routes
controller.use(function () { ... });
controller.set('some option name', 'value');
controller.listen(3000);

Baucis uses the power of Express, without getting in its way. It's meant to be a way to organize your REST API's Express middleware.

Contact Info

• http://kun.io/
• @wprl

© 2012-2013 William P. Riley-Land