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Automatic RESTful API enabler for KeystoneJS

This module allows you to easily expose your keystone models through a REST API. It allows for very granular control of editable fields, population, filters and more through configuration.

Features

  • Extremely easy setup
  • Granular control/configuration
  • Route configuration by keystone list, instead of path
  • Versatile API

Install

$ npm install --save restful-keystone

Usage

Basic Example

Let's assume we've got an Article list set up in models. We only need a few lines to expose it in a REST API.

Setup

// file: routes/index.js
var keystone = require('keystone');

// Pass your keystone instance to the module
var restful = require('restful-keystone')(keystone);

// ...

exports = module.exports = function( app ){
  //Explicitly define which lists we want exposed
  restful.expose({
    Article : true
  }).start();
}

Yep. That's it.

Request

GET /api/articles

Response

Status: 200 OK
{
    "articles": [
        {
            "_id": "54e2f3d7a21780d7a097ce8d",
            "title": "Lorem Ipsum",
            "author": null,
            "categories": [],
            "content": {
                "brief": "<p>Lorem Ipsum</p>",
                "extended": "<p>Dolor sit amet</p>"
            },
            "state": "draft"
        },
        {
            "_id": "54e2f411a21780d7a097ce8e",
            "title": "Just a small Test",
            "publishedDate": "2015-02-16T23:00:00.000Z",
            "author": null,
            "categories": [],
            "content": {
                "brief": "<p>This is a test</p>",
                "extended": "<p>To make sure restful-keystone is functioning correctly</p>"
            },
            "state": "published"
        }
    ]
}

By default it will setup these routes:

  • GET /api/<collection>: a list operation; returns all of the resources
  • POST /api/<collection>: a create operation; creates a new resource in the collection
  • GET /api/<collection>/:id: a retrieve operation; retrieves a single resource from the collection
  • PATCH /api/<collection>/:id: an update operation; updates the state of the resource with the values from the payload
  • DELETE /api/<collection>/:id: a remove operation; removes the resource from the collection

API

module

The module itself requires a keystone instance to be passed to it:

var restful = require("restful-keystone")(keystone);

However, you can declare the root of your api here as well:

var restful = require("restful-keystone")(keystone, {
    root: "/api/v1"
});

Will host your REST API at /api/v1. Default value is a plain /api.

expose

Allows you to fully configure your exposed lists. You have to pass a truthy entry for each list you want exposed:

restful.expose({
    Article: true,
    User: true
});

By default lists aren't exposed for security reasons, which is why you need to tell restful-keystone explicitly you want a list enabled in the REST API. You have to use the list name as the identifier, i.e. it's the value you passed to keystone.list, e.g.

// file: models/articles.js
// ...
var Article = new keystone.list("Article", {
    //...
});

There's a number of options you can pass to expose for further configuration:

methods

{Boolean|String|String[]} default: true

Allows you to configure which methods are allowed to be used on the resource, by default it's the full range. You can supply the methods as a single string, e.g. "retrieve list" or as an array of strings, e.g. ["retrieve", "list"]. When provided with a boolean value it sets all methods on or off.

restful.expose({
    Article : {
    	methods: ["retrieve", "update", "remove"]
    }
});
restful.expose({
    Article : {
    	methods: false // no methods allowed
    }
});

Possible values:

  • "create": allows a POST on a collection of resources, e.g. POST /api/posts. Creates a resource in the collection.
  • "list": allows a GET on a collection of resources, e.g. GET /api/posts. Retrieves a list of resources from a collection.
  • "retrieve": allows a GET on a specific resource, e.g. GET /api/posts/54e2f3d7a21780d7a097ce8d. Retrieves a specific resource from a collection.
  • "update": allows a PATCH on a specific resource, e.g. PATCH /api/posts/54e2f3d7a21780d7a097ce8d. Updates the state of a specific resource in a collection.
  • "remove": allows a DELETE on a specific resource, e.g. DELETE /api/posts/54e2f3d7a21780d7a097ce8d. Removes a specific resource from a collection.
show

{Boolean|String|String[]} default: true

Configures which fields of the resource will be shown, by default all fields declared in the schema (except virtuals) are shown. Again, provide them as a single space-delimited string, an array of strings or toggle them all on or off with a boolean.

restful.expose({
    Article : {
    	show : "title content"
    }
});
restful.expose({
    Article : {
    	show : ["title", "author", "publishedDate", "content.brief"]
    }
});
edit

{Boolean|String|String[]} default: "true"

Idem to show, except it configures which fields are editable. All fields passed to a request that are not listed in edit will simply be ignored, even if they exist in the schema.

envelop

{Boolean|String} default: "<%=name%>"

Used for enveloping the results (which is definitely best practice, especially when multiple resources are returned). By default this will be the singular or plural version of the list name, e.g. "articles" or "article".

GET /api/articles

Status: 200 OK
{
    "articles": []
}
GET /api/articles/54e2f411a21780d7a097ce8e

Status: 200 OK
{
	"article": {
	    "_id": "54e2f411a21780d7a097ce8e",
	    "title": "Just a small Test",
	    "publishedDate": "2015-02-16T23:00:00.000Z",
	    "author": null,
	    "categories": [],
	    "content": {
	        "brief": "<p>This is a test</p>",
	        "extended": "<p>To make sure restful-keystone is functioning correctly</p>"
	    },
	    "state": "published"
	}
}

When you pass it a plain string it will be used as-is:

restful.expose({
    Article : {
    	envelop: "results"
    }
});

Will envelop all request results in "results":

GET /api/articles

Status: 200 OK
{
    results: [
        // articles
    ]
}

If however, you pass it an ERB-style interpolate delimiter string it will be substituted with whatever list or configuration value you want. E.g.

restful.expose({
    Article : {
    	envelop: "<%=path%>"
    }
});

Will envelop all results (even those of requests on single resources) in a field with the same name as the path value of the list, e.g. "articles":

GET /api/articles/54e2f411a21780d7a097ce8e

Status: 200 OK
{
	"articles": {
	    "_id": "54e2f411a21780d7a097ce8e",
	    "title": "Just a small Test",
	    "publishedDate": "2015-02-16T23:00:00.000Z",
	    "author": null,
	    "categories": [],
	    "content": {
	        "brief": "<p>This is a test</p>",
	        "extended": "<p>To make sure restful-keystone is functioning correctly</p>"
	    },
	    "state": "published"
	}
}

You can turn enveloping off altogether by passing it a boolean false.

filter

{Object}

You can set permanent filtering on a collection with filter. Pass it any key/value pair to automatically restrict all operations to documents that pass the condition.

restful.expose({
    Article : {
    	filter : {
    		state: "published"
    	}
    }
});

Will only operate on Article documents that have a "published" value in "state".

populate

{Boolean|String|String[]} default: false

Allows automatic population of relationship fields.

restful.expose({
    Article : {
    	populate : "author"
    }
});
GET /api/articles/54e2f411a21780d7a097ce8e

Status: 200 OK
{
    "article": {
        "_id": "54e2f3d7a21780d7a097ce8d",
        "title": "Lorem Ipsum",
        "author": {
            "_id": "543f8abd6f0a6bb721653954",
            "name": {
                "last": "User",
                "first": "Admin",
                "full": "Admin User"
            },
            "email": "[email protected]"
        },
        "content": {
            "brief": "<p>Lorem Ipsum</p>",
            "extended": "<p>Dolor sit amet</p>"
        }
    }
}
path

{String} default: the plural name of the list

Allows you to configure the path at which the resources will be expose.

restful.expose({
    Article : {
        path : "news"
    }
});
GET /api/news/54e2f411a21780d7a097ce8e

Status: 200 OK
{
    "article": {
        "_id": "54e2f3d7a21780d7a097ce8d",
        "title": "Lorem Ipsum",
        "author": {
            "_id": "543f8abd6f0a6bb721653954",
            "name": {
                "last": "User",
                "first": "Admin",
                "full": "Admin User"
            },
            "email": "[email protected]"
        },
        "content": {
            "brief": "<p>Lorem Ipsum</p>",
            "extended": "<p>Dolor sit amet</p>"
        }
    }
}

before and after

before and after allow you to register middleware functions that are executed ... umm ... before and after the response creation. Obviously this could be achieved by using the usual app.get("/api/articles", someMiddleware) as well, but these methods allow you to configure it by list name instead of path.

restful.expose({
    Article: true
}).before({
    Article: requireAdmin
});

This will call the requireAdmin middleware function before the response is generated, for any of the methods: "retrieve", "list", ... Obviously you can configure it to be executed for specific methods only:

restful.expose({
    Article: true
}).before({
    Article: {
        update: requireAdmin,
        remove: [requireAdmin, resourceExists],
        create: [requireAdmin, limitNotReached]
    }
});

Either provide the middleware by method as in the above example, but if you want to execute the same middleware on several methods at once you can pass them separately:

restful.expose({
    Article: true
}).before("update remove create", {
    Article:  requireAdmin
});

This will execute requireAdmin only for the "update", "remove" and "create" methods (i.e. not for "list" and "retrieve")

As you saw in the above examples you can pass a function or an array of functions in all occasions.

Multiple calls to before (or after) will merge the configurations:

restful.expose({
    Article: true
}).before("update remove create", {
    Article:  requireAdmin
}).before("update", {
    Article: requireAllFields
});

Will execute requireAdmin and requireAllFields for the "update" method.

after behaves identical to before except for one thing:

By default restful-keystone will send the response, but any method that receives after middleware will have to have additional middleware to send the response. This is to allow maximum flexibility, otherwise you wouldn't be able to manipulate the results before they're sent.

restful.expose({
    Article: true
}).after("create", {
    Article:  function(req, res, next){
        console.log("CREATED:", res.locals.body);
        res.send(res.locals.status, res.locals.body);
    }
});

As you can see the response and status code are stored in res.locals

start

This signals to restful-keystone that it should set up the routes et cetera. I.e. you're finished configuring.

restful.expose({
    Article: true
}).after("create", {
    Article:  function(req, res, next){
        console.log("CREATED:", res.locals.body);
        res.send(res.locals.status, res.locals.body);
    }
}).start(); // DO NOT FORGET TO START restful-keystone

A start method was added to allow you to configure restful in any order you see fit, i.e. this is all possible:

restful.before( /* config */ )
    .expose( /* config */ )
    .after( /* config */ )
    .start();

Or

restful
    .after( /* config */ )
    .expose( /* config */ )
    .before( /* config */ )
    .start();

Just make sure start is the last method to be called.

Requests

All values can be passed with requests as json bodies or as url encoded json over the query string.

PATCH /api/articles/54e2f411a21780d7a097ce8e
{
	"title": "Changed my title!"
}

Status: 200 OK
{
    "article": {
        "_id": "54e2f3d7a21780d7a097ce8d",
        "title": "Changed my title!",
        "author": "543f8abd6f0a6bb721653954",
        "content": {
            "brief": "<p>Lorem Ipsum</p>",
            "extended": "<p>Dolor sit amet</p>"
        }
    }
}

Is equivalent to:

PATCH /api/articles/54e2f411a21780d7a097ce8e?%7B%0D%0A%09%22title%22%3A+%22Changed+my+title%21%22%0D%0A%7D

Status: 200 OK
{
    "article": {
        "_id": "54e2f3d7a21780d7a097ce8d",
        "title": "Changed my title!",
        "author": "543f8abd6f0a6bb721653954",
        "content": {
            "brief": "<p>Lorem Ipsum</p>",
            "extended": "<p>Dolor sit amet</p>"
        }
    }
}

list requests allow the passing of a filter value in order to do on-the-fly filtering, see above for an explanation.

Responses

All requests respond with a 200 OK status if the request was succesful, except for remove requests which will return 204 No Content.

When something goes wrong appropriate errors are thrown, however restful-keystone does not provide any error handling out of the box, i.e. you need to make sure you have some kind of error handling middleware in place.

Permissions

restful-keystone does NOT provide any security checks, i.e. if you expose a resource it is available to anonymous requests !! You need to set up any restrictions you want to see applied to routes yourself.

Roadmap

  • Configuration through json files
  • Optional full adherence to jsonapi.org spec
  • Pagination

Changelog

  • v0.3 make compatible with Keystone v0.3 (i.e. express 4)
  • v0.2
    • API improvements
    • added before and after hooks
  • v0.1 initial API

License

MIT © d-pac

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Automatic RESTful API enabler for KeystoneJS

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