baucis

baucis v0.4.6-1

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 — get all or a subset of documents
• GET /api/v1/vegetables/:id — get the addressed document
• POST /api/v1/vegetables — creates new documents and sends them back. You may post a single document or an array of documents.
• PUT /api/v1/vegetables/:id — update the addressed document
• DEL /api/v1/vegetables — delete all or a subset of documents
• DEL /api/v1/vegetables/:id — delete the addressed object

HTTP Headers

• ETag is supported out-of-the-box by Express
• Last-Modified can be set by passing lastModified: 'foo' to baucis.rest in order to set the header field to the value of that path on all requests. GET requests to the collection set the field to the latest date out of all documents returned by the query. (Cool huh?)
• 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.

Examples

• Examples with jQuery
• Examples with Backbone

Query Options

• conditions — Set the Mongoose query's find or remove arguments when using verbs HEAD, GET, DELETE with collection endpoints.
• skip — Don't send the first n documents in the response.
• limit – Limit the response document count to n
• select — Set which fields should be selected for response documents
• sort — Sort response documents by the given criteria. sort: 'foo -bar'' sorts the collection by foo in ascending order, then by bar in descending order.
• populate — Set which fields should be populated for response documents. See the Mongoose population documentation for more information.

It is not permitted to use the select query option or the select option of populate with a +path. This is to allow a mechanism for hiding fields from client software.

You can deselect paths in the schema definition using select: false or in the controller options using select: '-foo' and your server middleware will able to select these fields as usual using query.select, while preventing the client from selecting the field.

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
});

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
  lastModified: 'lastUpdatedField', // Set the `Last-Modified` HTTP header using this field
  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