fulcrum-app

fulcrum-js

 

A JavaScript library for the Fulcrum API.

Installation

npm install --save fulcrum-app

Version 2 Changes

Version 1 of this library used callbacks for API responses. Version 2 uses Promises. Promises offer some advantages over the callback pattern used previously. You can read more about them in the Promises section.

Usage

There are three main exports from this module: Client, getUser, and createAuthorization.

Client

API calls are made using a client. Let's assume you already have an API token and you want to make some calls to the API. If you need an API token, see the getUser and createAuthorization functions.

import { Client } from 'fulcrum-app';
// or
// const fulcrum = require('fulcrum-app');
// const Client = fulcrum.Client;

const client = new Client('your-api-token');

client.forms.all({schema: false})
  .then((page) => {
    console.log(`I got you ${page.objects.length} forms.`);
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.log('Error getting your forms.', error.message);
  });

Various methods are available for each of the resources. Check the chart below for details.

Client Resources and Methods

Resource	Methods
Forms	find, all, create, update, delete
Records	find, all, create, update, delete, history
Projects	find, all, create, update, delete
Changesets	find, all, create, update, close
Choice Lists	find, all, create, update, delete
Classification Sets	find, all, create, update, delete
Webhooks	find, all, create, update, delete
Photos	find, all, create, media
Signatures	find, all, create, media
Videos	find, all, create, media
Audio	find, all, create, media
Memberships	all, change
Roles	all
Child Records	all
Layers	find, all, create, update, delete
Audit Logs	find, all

find

Finds a single resource. The single parameter is a resource id.

This method returns a Promise containing the resource.

client.forms.find('abc-123')
  .then((form) => {
    console.log('success', form);
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    // There was a problem with the request. Is the API token correct?
    console.log(error.message);
  });

Check the Fulcrum API Docs for an example of returned objects.

all

Search for resources. The single parameter is an options object. The options object will be converted to query string parameters and properly url encoded. The options will vary depending on the resource, but the pagination options, page and per_page, are always accepted.

This method returns a Promise containing a page. The page object has 5 properties.

property	description
objects	An array of the resources requested
currentPage	The current page
perPage	The number of resources returned per page
totalPages	The total number of pages required to return all resources
totalCount	The total count of all resources with respect to current query parameters

const options = {
  form_id: '043d36a5-d144-4bca-b6ce-be210476e913',
  page: 1,
  per_page: 2
}

client.records.all(options)
  .then((page) => {
    console.log(
      `Got page ${page.currentPage} of ${page.totalPages} containing ${page.objects.length} of ${page.totalCount} total resources.`
    );
    // Got page 1 of 5 containing 2 of 10 total resources.
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.log(error.message);
  });

create

Create a resource. The single parameter is an object. The object should represent the resource you are creating. Check the Fulcrum API Docs for examples of resource objects.

This method returns a Promise containing the created resource.

const obj = {
  name: 'My Awesome Webhook',
  url: 'http://foo.com/fulcrum_webhook',
  active: true
};

client.webhooks.create(obj)
  .then((webhook) => {
    console.log('success', webhook);
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.log(error.message);
  });

update

Update an object. Parameters are a resource id and an object. The id is the unique id for the resource to be updated. The object should represent the resource you are updating.

This method returns a promise containing the updated resource.

const obj = {
  name: 'My Awesome Webhook',
  url: 'http://foo.com/fulcrum_webhook',
  active: false,
  id: '139c8c99-d4e4-4bf0-a0c5-ed6b6e2e5605'
};

client.webhooks.update(obj.id, obj)
  .then((webhook) => {
    console.log('success', webhook);
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.log(error.message);
  });

delete

Delete a resource. The single parameter is a resource id.

This method returns a promise containing the resource that was deleted.

client.forms.delete('6fc7d1dc-62a4-4c81-a857-6b9660f18b55')
  .then((form) => {
    console.log('success', form);
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.log(error.message);
  });

Handling Authentication Errors

The client also provides a registerAuthenticationErrorHandler method which accepts a single parameter, a function to handle authentication errors. Authentication errors will still be thrown but all authentication errors will be sent to the function passed into this method. This is helpful if you've built a client application where a user "logs in" using the getUser and createAuthorization methods (documented below), and for some reason the authorization token has been deleted. This can tell your application to reset the current session and prompt the user to "log in" again. Using this method is optional.

import { Client } from 'fulcrum-app';

const handleAuthError = () {
  console.log('The authorization token is no longer valid');
  destroySession();
  promptLogIn();
};

const client = new Client('your-api-token');

client.registerAuthenticationErrorHandler(handleAuthError);

query

The Client object has a query method that can be used to access the Query API. The arguments are a SQL string, and an optional format. The default format is 'json'. Other formats are 'csv' or 'geojson'.

import { Client } from 'fulcrum-app';

const client = new Client('your-api-token');

client.query('SELECT * FROM "Manhole Inspections" LIMIT 1;')
  .then(result => console.log(result))
  .catch(error => console.log(error));

// or to get GeoJSON
client.query('SELECT * FROM "Manhole Inspections" LIMIT 1;', 'geojson')
  .then(geojson => console.log(geojson.features[0].geometry.coordinates[0]))
  .catch(error => console.log(error));

getUser

This is a helper function to get user data including organizations you belong to. Use this in conjunction with createAuthorization to create an API token.

import { getUser } from 'fulcrum-app';
// or
// const fulcrum = require('fulcrum-app');
// const getUser = fulcrum.getUser;

getUser('[e-mail]', 'password')
  .then((user) => {
    console.log(user);
    // user.contexts is an array of the organizations you belong to. Use These
    // ids with createAuthorization to create API tokens.
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.log(error.message);
  });

createAuthorization

This is a helper function to create authorizations (API tokens) associated with a user and organization (a membership).

import { createAuthorization } from 'fulcrum-app';
// or
// const fulcrum = require('fulcrum-app');
// const createAuthorization = fulcrum.createAuthorization;

const email = '[e-mail]';
const password = 'password';
const organizationId = 'organization-id-from-getUser';
const note = 'My awesome app version 4.20';
const timeout = 60 * 60 * 24;

createAuthorization(email, password, organizationId, note, timeout)
  .then((authorization) => {
    console.log(authorization);
    // authorization.token is your API token to use with the rest of the API.
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.log(error.message);
  });

Promises

Using Promises, we have more options for flow control and handling errors. In some JavaScript environments we can use the await operator.

The await expression causes async function execution to pause until a Promise is fulfilled, that is resolved or rejected, and to resume execution of the async function after fulfillment. When resumed, the value of the await expression is that of the fulfilled Promise.

In other words, they let us write asynchronous code, where we usually have nested callbacks, in a more sequential pattern. Below is an example of how we would have made two sequential API calls with version 1.

function getFormAndRecord(callback) {
  client.forms.find('abc-123', (error, form) => {
    if (error) {
      callback(error);
      return
    }

    client.records.find('def-456', (error, record) => {
      if (error) {
        callback(error);
      } else {
        callback(null, [form, record]);
      }
    })
  });
}

getFormAndRecord((error, results) => {
  if (error) {
    return console.log(error);
  }

  return console.log(results);
});

And here's an example of using the await keyword to pause execution until the promises (API calls) are resolved.

async function getFormAndRecord() {
  try {
    const form = await client.forms.find('abc-123');
    const record = await client.records.find('def-456');
    console.log(form, record);
  } catch (error) {
    console.log(error);
  }
}

getFormAndRecord();

If either the client.forms.find or client.records.find methods fail, they will be picked up in the catch, allowing us to log errors from a single place and have a much cleaner way of making multiple API calls.

Below is a real world example where we 1) create a changeset, 2) delete a record associated with that changeset, 3) close the changeset. This is similar to how the mobile apps work where all adds, updates, and deletes are associated with changesets.

async function deleteRecord(formId, recordId) {
  try {
    // metadata is an arbitrary object describing the
    // app/environment that the changeset was performed in
    const changesetObj = {
      form_id: formId,
      metadata: {
        app: 'fulcrum-js',
        version: 99.78
      }
    };

    console.log('Creating changeset ...');
    const changeset = await client.changesets.create(changesetObj);

    console.log('Deleting record ...');
    await client.records.delete(recordId, changeset.id);

    console.log('Closing changeset ...');
    await client.changesets.close(changeset.id);

    console.log(`Deleted record ${recordId} in changeset ${changeset.id}.`);
  } catch (error) {
    console.log(error.message);
  }
}

deleteRecord('abc-123', 'def-456');

Media

This library supports creating all media types supported by the Fulcrum API - photos, videos, signatures, and audio. The create method for each of these resource type accepts a Readable Stream and an optional object containing the unique access key for the media.

import fs from 'fs';

const photo = fs.createReadStream('photo.jpg');

client.photos.create(photo)
  .then(created => console.log(created))
  .catch(error => console.log(error));

To specifiy your own access key (unique id) for a piece of media, pass it along in an options object. Otherwise we'll create one for you using the uuid package.

import fs from 'fs';
import uuid from 'uuid';

const photo = fs.createReadStream('photo.jpg');
const key = uuid.v4();

client.photos.create(photo, {accessKey: key})
  .then(created => console.log(created))
  .catch(error => console.log(error));

Since the create method accepts a Readable Stream we can pipe that stream directly from an http request, keeping us from downloading a file and saving it to a temporary file, then deleting it after a successful create.

import request from 'request';

client.photos.create(request('https://nodejs.org/static/legacy/images/logo.png'))
  .then(created => console.log(created))
  .catch(error => console.log(error));

Sometimes you might not have access to a media stream, but will have a Buffer of the entire resource. The library won't be able to infer the file name so you'll need to supply a fileName option.

const photo = fs.readFileSync('photo.jpg');

client.photos.create(photo, {fileName: 'photo.jpg'})
  .then(created => console.log(created))
  .catch(error => console.log(error));

Use the media method to get photos, signatures, audio, and video in multiple sizes. The parameters passed to this method are id (also referred to as access key), and size. The default size is original. The sizes available for each media type are:

Resource	Sizes
Photos	'original', 'thumbnail', and 'large'
Signatures	'original', 'thumbnail', and 'large'
Videos	'original', 'small', and 'medium'
Audio	'original'

Get the original photo size.

const writeStream = fs.createWriteStream('original.jpg');

client.photos.media('4352ac45-8527-43ac-819f-0bc735119767')
  .then(photo => photo.pipe(writeStream))
  .catch(error => console.log(error));

Get the small version of a video.

const writeStream = fs.createWriteStream('vid.mp4');

client.videos.media('5b9b6c9c-2a79-4f69-9539-9c0cb958f0a0')
  .then(video => video.pipe(writeStream))
  .catch(error => console.log(error));

Development

Install dependencies:

cd fulcrum-js
npm install

Tests

npm test