rpcapi

RPC API

Provides a structure for hosting RPC style APIs, supports both http and websocket access out of the box.

RPCAPI is designed to be used within a node.js server, generally alongside the client application (rpcapi-websocket-client) running in the web browser.

The server can then easily define 'endpoints' which are classes containing a collection of associated 'actions' These actions are simple javascript functions, which take parameters and return a value. Actions can then be called remotely, either using a websocket and the client SDK or via a web api.

Designed to solve the problem of constantly building project structures around socket.io to manage many endpoints as well as providing a much nicer way to communicate with the server (RPC instead of messaging).

Contents

• Benefits of RPC over socket messaging
• Getting started
  • Installation
  • Viewing the examples
• Server side
  • Starting a server
  • Defining endpoints
    • Complete endpoint example
    • Registering an endpoint
    • Lifecycle hooks
    • Defining an action
    • Action parameters
    • Pushing to the client
• Client side
  • Accessing actions via the web api
  • Using the websocket client
• Pushing to the client (implementation)
  • Server code
  • Client code
• Advanced topics
  • Mocking
    • Mocking APIClient example
    • Mocking APIEndpointClient example
  • Creating custom access methods

Benefits of RPC over socket messaging

Traditional socket.io code looks like this

socket.emit('userService.authenticateUser', email, password);
socket.on('userService.authenticateUser', function(err, isAuthenticated) {
    if (err) { throw err; }

    if (isAuthenticated) {
        console.log('Yay we are authenticated');
    } else {
        console.log('Authentication failed :(');
    }
});

If we want to handle connection dropouts, timeouts, invalid arguments, unexpected internal server errors etc, this code gets much larger.

Out of the box, RPC API provides a much neater syntax

const isAuthenticated = await userService.callAction('authenticateUser', { email, password });

if (isAuthenticated) {
    console.log('Yay we are authenticated');
} else {
    console.log('Authentication failed :(');
}

Timeouts, invalid arguments and server errors are all automatically handled.

Getting started

Installation

This application is most useful with both RPCAPI on the server and RPCAPI-websocket-client on the client. This allows a client application to easily call endpoint actions.

To install:

npm install --save rpcapi

or using yarn

yarn add rpcapi

Viewing the examples

The best way to get started is to take a look at the examples directory, which includes a basic project with a few different endpoints designed to show how to create and register endpoints and actions.

There is also a client example application which demonstrates how to use rpcapi-websocket-client. This client expects the server example to be running.

To start the server navigate to examples/server then run npm start This will start a local server on port 8080

To view an example endpoint via the webapi navigate to http://localhost:8081/api/calculator/add?a=1&b=2 in a web browser.

To start the client, open a new terminal window and navigate to examples/websocketClient and run npm start The client will be served on port 8081 and can be viewed in a web browser.

Server side

Starting a server

The webapi access method is designed to be run with an express webserver, the websocket access method is designed to be run with a socket io instance.

These services need to be configured in order to provide access into your api endpoints.

const rpcapi = require('rpcapi');
const http = require('http');
const express = require('express');
const socketio = require('socket.io');

//Setup express web server
const app = express();
const server = new http.Server(app);
const io = socketio(server);

//Create our API instance
//This is what will be given to our access methods, we will register all our endpoints against this object
const api = new rpcapi.API();

//Setup websocket access method
const socketApi = new rpcapi.WebSocketAccessMethod(api);
socketApi.bind(io); //Bind socket access method to socket.io instance

//Setup webapi access method
const webApi = new rpcapi.WebAPIAccessMethod(api);
webApi.bind(app); //Bind webapi access method to express web server

//server listen
server.listen(8081, () => {
    console.log('Example API Server listening on port 8081');
});

Defining endpoints

Endpoints are defined as classes, extending rpcapi.APIEndpoint

Endpoints contain actions, which can be remotely called. Actions can define, which are passed to them when they are called

Complete endpoint example

class ExampleEndpoint extends rpcapi.APIEndpoint {
    constructor() {
        super();
        
        $sayHelloParams = { name: 'string' };
    }
    
    connect() {
        //Runs when a client connects
    }
    
    disconnect() {
        //Runs when a client disconnects
    }
    
    $sayHello({ name }) {
        return {
            greeting: `Hello ${name}!`
        };
    }
}

api.registerEndpoint('example', ExampleEndpoint);

Registering an endpoint

Endpoint classes must be registered to the api. You can register many endpoints, but they must all have different names

api.registerEndpoint('example', ExampleEndpoint);

Lifecycle hooks

Lifecycle hooks fire when an endpoint is connected and disconnected. These functions can be used to subscribe to events that the client might be interested in (for example a redis pub/sub service) or setting timers. It is important to clean up and listeners and timers on disconnect to avoid wasting server time after a client has left. An error will be thrown if .emit() is called after disconnect.

class EmitterEndpoint extends rpcapi.APIEndpoint {
    connect() {
        //Runs when a client connects
        this.emitTimer = setInterval(() => {
            this.emit('randomNumber', Math.random());
        });
    }
    
    disconnect() {
        //Runs when a client disconnects
        clearTimeout(this.emitTimer);
    }
}

Defining an action

Actions are just functions on an endpoint class.

• They must start with a '$' (this is not included as part of the action name)
• They must return an object
• They may return a promise that eventually resolves to an object (the request will wait for the action to resolve)
• Any parameters must be explicitly defined (see below 'Action parameters')

class ExampleEndpoint extends rpcapi.APIEndpoint {
    $sayHello() {
        return {
            greeting: 'Hi!'
        };
    }
}

Action parameters

• All action parameters must be explicitly defined.
• They are defined in an object on the endpoint, named ${actionName}Params
• They must specify a variable type

Action parameter objects are written in the format

$sayHelloParams = { name: 'string' }

When using javascript, these must be defined in the constructor of the class

class ExampleEndpoint extends rpcapi.APIEndpoint {
    constructor() {
        super();
        
        $sayHelloParams = { name: 'string' };
    }
    
    $sayHello({ name }) {
        return {
            greeting: `Hello ${name}!`
        };
    }
}

If you are using typescript, these can be defined throughout the body of the class, which makes it easier to keep the params definition with the action function

class ExampleEndpoint extends rpcapi.APIEndpoint {
    $sayHelloParams = { name: 'string' };
    $sayHello({ name }: { name: string }) {
        return {
            greeting: `Hello ${name}!`
        };
    }
}

Pushing to the client

See further down for more details. There are 2 important functions to use when pushing data to the client

this.canEmit() - Boolean, returns true if the current connection method supports pushing, this.emit() will crash if called when this is false this.emit(eventName, arg1, arg2, etc...) - Send an event to the client

See implementation details below at Pushing to the client (implementation)

Client side

Accessing actions via the web api

By default the WebAPIAccessMethod binds to the path /api This can be changed by passing in the prefix configuration parameter.

const webApi = new rpcapi.WebAPIAccessMethod(api, { prefix: '/myApi' });

Once the server is running, you can access actions directly by requesting the url

/api/{endpoint name}/{action name}?param1={value1}&param2={value2}

For example, an authentication action

/api/login/authenticateUser?username=admin&password=Qwerty1

When using the web api, values are automatically converted to the correct type (as specified in ${action}Params) Types are checked and the endpoint will return an error if the parameters are not given correctly.

If an action requires an object or array for a parameter, you can use JSON to provide this value For example

/api/calculator/sumAll?values=[1, 2, 3, 4]

Web api limitations

Because the web api does not involve a persistent connection, endpoints behave slightly differently to using the websocket client Anytime an action is called, a new instance of the appropriate action is created, and then destroyed when the request is complete. This means that every api call is executed in its own instance of the endpoint.

Another limitation is pushing data to the client, because http is not bidirectional the server cannot push data to the client in the background. It is possible to check if the current connection supports pushing to the client using this.canEmit() within the endpoint. See the PushToClientEndpoint.js file in the examples for reference.

Using the websocket client

The websocket client is the easiest way to call actions on the server from a web browser. There is an example of the websocket client in the examples directory, but the basic structure is straightforward.

const rpcapiClient = require('rpcapi-websocket-client');

const api = new rpcapiClient.APIClient('http://localhost:8081/');

api.connect()
    .then(doMaths)
    .catch(console.error);

async function doMaths() {
    const calculatorEndpoint = await api.connectToEndpoint('calculator');
    
    //Call a remote method on the CalculatorEndpoint instance
    const addResult = await calculatorEndpoint.callAction('add', { a: 1, b: 2 });
    console.log('1 + 2 =', addResult.value);


    //Call another method on the same instance
    const multiplyResult = await calculatorEndpoint.callAction('multiply', { a: 5, b: 4 });
    console.log('5 * 4 =', multiplyResult.value);
    
    calculatorEndpoint.disconnect();
}

Long lived endpoints

It is important to note that when you call api.connectToEndpoint('calculator') you are creating a new instance of the CalculatorEndpoint on the server. This is beneficial as this class instance can keep state across many action calls For example

const adderEndpoint = await api.connectToEndpoint('adder');

console.log(await adderEndpoint.callAction('getValue')); //0

adderEndpoint.callAction('add', { number: 1 });
console.log(await adderEndpoint.callAction('getValue')); //1

adderEndpoint.callAction('add', { number: 5 });
console.log(await adderEndpoint.callAction('getValue')); //6
 

These instances are individual to each client, you can even create many instances/connections from the same client. For example

//Create 2 adder connections
const adder1Endpoint = await api.connectToEndpoint('adder');
const adder2Endpoint = await api.connectToEndpoint('adder');

console.log(await adder1Endpoint.callAction('getValue')); //0
console.log(await adder2Endpoint.callAction('getValue')); //0

adder1Endpoint.callAction('add', { number: 14 });
adder2Endpoint.callAction('add', { number: 2 });

console.log(await adder1Endpoint.callAction('getValue')); //14
console.log(await adder2Endpoint.callAction('getValue')); //2
 

Pushing to the client (implementation)

One of the biggest advantages of sockets is the ability to push data from the server to the client without the client explicitly asking for data. This is possible using the websocket client.

Pushing data to the client requires a websocket conenction, it will not work over a webapi connection. To ensure the current connection method supports pushing/emitting, call this.canEmit()

Pushing to the client - server code

class PushToClientEndpoint extends rpcapi.APIEndpoint {
    //Cleanup when the client disconnects
    disconnect() {
        clearTimeout(this.pushTimer);
    }

    $startPushing() {
        if (!this.canEmit()) {
            return { result: 'Cannot push, the connected method does not support pushing' };
        }

        clearTimeout(this.pushTimer);
        this.pushTimer = setInterval(() => {
            this.emit('time', Date.now()); //Will push to the client, the client can listen via apiEndpoint.on('time', cb);
        }, 1000);

        return { result: 'Pushing the current time every second (event: time)' };
    }
}

Pushing to the client - client code

const pushToClientEndpoint = api.connectToEndpoint('pushToClient');

//Register code to run when the server sends us a 'time' event
pushToClientEndpoint.on('time', (currentTime) => {
    console.log('The server says the time is', currentTime);
});

//Call the startPushing action to request the server pushes the time to us every second
await pushToClientEndpoint.callAction('startPushing');

Advanced topics

Mocking

On the client it can be difficult to test modules that directly communicate with the server.

RPCAPI-websocket-client provides ready to go mocking classes for both

• APIClient (the single connection object to the server)
• APIEndpointClient (An endpoint, created by api.connectToEndpoint())

These classes do not establish any connection with the server, they simply simulate a predefined api structure for testing

Mocking APIClient example

• Many endpoints and actions can be mocked (you could mock your entire backend if you wanted to)
• There is fake delay of 10ms each call to simulate 'server lag'
  • This may be changed in a future version, while writing test cases it is not nice to be 'waiting' an arbitrary length of time before making more assertion

const mockAPIClient = new MockAPIClient({
    endpoints: {
        testEndpoint: {
            actions: {
                testAction: () => {
                    return { someValue: 123 };
                }
            }
        }
    }
});

await mockAPIClient.connect();

const mockEP = await mockAPIClient.connectToEndpoint('testEndpoint');
const response = await mockEP.callAction('testAction');
console.log(response); // { someValue: 123 }

Mocking APIEndpointClient example

MockAPIEndpointClient is very similar to MockAPIClient, however it only mocks a single endpoint, and does not require 'connecting' (it simulates a single connected endpoint)

    const mockAPIEndpointClient = new MockAPIEndpointClient({
        actions: {
            testAction: () => {
                return { a: 1 };
            },
            otherAction: () => {
                return { a: 2 };
            }
        }
    });
    
    const result1 = await mockAPIEndpointClient.callAction('testAction');
    console.log(result1); //{ a: 1 }
    
    const result2 = await mockAPIEndpointClient.callAction('otherAction');
    console.log(result2); //{ a: 2 }

Creating custom access methods

Access methods are nothing special, they are just a module that takes in an API instance. They can create new endpoint instances by calling api.getEndpoint(endpointName) to get an APIEndpoint instance

On this instance you can then call:

• actionExists(actionName) - Boolean, if action exists
• actionParams(actionName) - Object, keyed list of parameters and their types
• connect() - Call this when the client is connected to this endpoint (generally immediately after creation). Only call this if the connection is long lived
• disconnect() - Call when the client disconnects / the endpoint is not required anymore. Only call this if the connection is long lived
• registerEmitHandler(handlerFunc) - Provide a function that will be called if the endpoint calls this.emit(), once you have provided a function this.canEmit() will return true
• callAction(actionName, args) - Call an action by name