Meteor Restivus v0.9.3
Important Notice
This is likely the last update for this package. Future efforts will focus on building packages for Meteor 3.0+.
This package is a fork of anttr:restivus
example
1const Api = new Restivus({ 2 useDefaultAuth: true, 3 authRequired: true, 4 defaultHeaders: { 5 'Content-Type': 'application/json' 6 }, 7 prettyJson: true, 8}); 9 10Meteor.methods({ 11 'my.meteor.method'(data) { 12 check(data, String); 13 14 if(!Roles.userIsInRole(Meteor.user(), ['admin'])) { 15 throw new Meteor.Error(403, 'Access denied'); 16 } 17 18 return `your param: ${data}`; 19 }, 20}); 21 22Api.addRoute('call-meteor-method/:param', { 23 get() { 24 const resp = this.call('my.meteor.method', this.urlParams.param); 25 return { 26 status: 'success', 27 data: resp, 28 }; 29 } 30});
REST APIs for the Best of Us!
Restivus makes building REST APIs in Meteor 0.9.0+ easier than ever before! The package is inspired by RestStop2 and Collection API, and is built on top of Simple JSON Routes to provide:
- A simple interface for creating REST APIs
- Easy setup of CRUD endpoints for Mongo Collections
- User authentication via the API
- Optional login and logout endpoints
- Access to
this.user
in authenticated endpoints - Custom authentication if needed
- Role permissions for limiting access to specific endpoints
- Works alongside the
alanning:roles
package - Meteor's accepted role permission package
- Works alongside the
- NEW! API versioning via URL path
- And also planned:
- JSON PATCH support on collections
- Autogenerated OPTIONS endpoint on routes
- Pre and post hooks on all endpoints
Version 0.8.0 Released!
Table of Contents
- Getting Started
- Writing a Restivus API
- Consuming a Restivus API
- Upgrading Restivus
- Resources
Getting Started
Installation
You can install Restivus using Meteor's package manager:
> meteor add nimble:restivus
Quick Start
Often, the easiest way to explain something is by example, so here's a short example of what it's like to create an API with Restivus (keep scrolling for a JavaScript version):
JavaScript:
1Items = new Mongo.Collection('items'); 2Articles = new Mongo.Collection('articles'); 3 4if (Meteor.isServer) { 5 6 // Global API configuration 7 var Api = new Restivus({ 8 useDefaultAuth: true, 9 prettyJson: true 10 }); 11 12 // Generates: GET, POST on /api/items and GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE on 13 // /api/items/:id for the Items collection 14 Api.addCollection(Items); 15 16 // Generates: POST on /api/users and GET, DELETE /api/users/:id for 17 // Meteor.users collection 18 Api.addCollection(Meteor.users, { 19 excludedEndpoints: ['getAll', 'put'], 20 routeOptions: { 21 authRequired: true 22 }, 23 endpoints: { 24 post: { 25 authRequired: false 26 }, 27 delete: { 28 roleRequired: 'admin' 29 } 30 } 31 }); 32 33 // Maps to: /api/articles/:id 34 Api.addRoute('articles/:id', {authRequired: true}, { 35 get: function () { 36 return Articles.findOne(this.urlParams.id); 37 }, 38 delete: { 39 roleRequired: ['author', 'admin'], 40 action: function () { 41 if (Articles.remove(this.urlParams.id)) { 42 return {status: 'success', data: {message: 'Article removed'}}; 43 } 44 return { 45 statusCode: 404, 46 body: {status: 'fail', message: 'Article not found'} 47 }; 48 } 49 } 50 }); 51}
Terminology
Just to clarify some terminology that will be used throughout these docs:
(HTTP) Method:
- The type of HTTP request (e.g., GET, PUT, POST, etc.)
Endpoint:
- The function executed when a request is made at a given URL path for a specific HTTP method
Route:
- A URL path and its set of configurable endpoints
Writing A Restivus API
Restivus is a server-only package. Attempting to access any of its methods from the client will result in an error.
Configuration Options
The following configuration options are available when initializing an API using
new Restivus(options)
:
apiPath
- String
- Default:
'api/'
- The base path for your API. If you use
'api'
and add a route called'users'
, the URL will behttps://yoursite.com/api/users/
.
auth
- Object
token
String- Default:
'services.resume.loginTokens.hashedToken'
- The path to the hashed auth token in the
Meteor.user
document. This location will be checked for a matching token if one is returned inauth.user()
.
- Default:
user
Function-
Default: Get user ID and auth token from
X-User-Id
andX-Auth-Token
headers1function() { 2 return { 3 userId: this.request.headers['x-user-id'], 4 token: Accounts._hashLoginToken(this.request.headers['x-auth-token']) 5 }; 6}
-
Provides one of two levels of authentication, depending on the data returned. The context within this function is the endpoint context without
this.user
andthis.userId
(well, that's what we're working on here!). Once the user authentication completes successfully, the authenticated user and their ID will be attached to the endpoint context. The two levels of custom authentication and their required return data are:- Partial auth
userId
: The ID of the user being authenticatedtoken
: The auth token to be verified- If both a
userId
andtoken
are returned, Restivus will hash the token, then, authentication will succeed if thehashedToken
exists in the givenMeteor.user
document at the location specified inauth.token
- Complete auth
user
: The fully authenticatedMeteor.user
- This is your chance to completely override the user authentication process. If a
user
is returned, anyuserId
andtoken
will be ignored, as it's assumed that you have already successfully authenticated the user (by whatever means you deem necessary). The given user is simply attached to the endpoint context, no questions asked.
For either level of auth described above, you can optionally return a custom error response by providing that response in an
error
field of your response object. Theerror
value can be any valid response. If anerror
field exists in the object returned from your custom auth function, all other fields will be ignored. Do not provide anerror
value if you intend for the authentication to pass successfully. - Partial auth
-
defaultHeaders
- Object
- Default:
{ 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }
- The response headers that will be returned from every endpoint by default. These can be overridden
by returning
headers
of the same name from any endpoint.
defaultOptionsEndpoint
- Endpoint
- Default: undefined
- If an endpoint is provided, it will be used as the OPTIONS endpoint on all routes, except those that have one manually defined. This can be used to DRY up your API, since OPTIONS endpoints will frequently respond generically across all routes.
enableCors
- Boolean
- Default:
true
- If true, enables cross-origin resource sharing (CORS). This allows your API to receive requests
from any domain (when
false
, the API will only accept requests from the domain where the API is being hosted. Note: Only applies to requests originating from browsers).
onLoggedIn
- Function
- Default:
undefined
- A hook that runs once a user has been successfully logged into their account via the
/login
endpoint. Context is the same as within authenticated endpoints. Any returned data will be added to the response body asdata.extra
.
onLoggedOut
- Function
- Default:
undefined
- Same as onLoggedIn, but runs once a user has been successfully logged out of their account via
the
/logout
endpoint. Context is the same as within authenticated endpoints. Any returned data will be added to the response body asdata.extra
.
prettyJson
- Boolean
- Default:
false
- If
true
, render formatted JSON in response.
useDefaultAuth
- Boolean
- Default:
false
- If
true
,POST /login
andGET /logout
endpoints are added to the API. See [Authenticating] (#authenticating) for details on using these endpoints.
version
- String
- Default:
null
- URL path versioning is the only type of API versioning currently available, so if a version is
provided, it's appended to the base path of all routes that belong to that API
1// Base URL path: my-api/v1/ 2ApiV1 = new Restivus({ 3 apiPath: 'my-api/', 4 version: 'v1' 5}); 6 7// Base URL path: my-api/v2/ 8ApiV2 = new Restivus({ 9 apiPath: 'my-api/', 10 version: 'v2' 11});
Here's a sample configuration with the complete set of options:
Warning! For demo purposes only - using this configuration is not recommended!
JavaScript
1 new Restivus({ 2 apiPath: 'my-api/', 3 auth: { 4 token: 'auth.apiKey', 5 user() { 6 return { 7 userId: this.request.headers['user-id'], 8 token: this.request.headers['login-token'] 9 }; 10 }, 11 loginResponse(auth) { 12 return { 13 'X-User-Id': auth.userId, 14 'X-Auth-Token': auth.authToken, 15 }; 16 } 17 }, 18 defaultHeaders: { 19 'Content-Type': 'application/json' 20 }, 21 onLoggedIn() { 22 console.log(this.user.username + ' (' + this.userId + ') logged in'); 23 }, 24 onLoggedOut() { 25 console.log(this.user.username + ' (' + this.userId + ') logged out'); 26 }, 27 prettyJson: true, 28 useDefaultAuth: true, 29 authRequired: false, 30 version: 'v1' 31 });
Defining Collection Routes
One of the most common uses for a REST API is exposing a set of operations on your collections.
Well, you're in luck, because this is almost too easy with Restivus! All available REST endpoints
(except patch
and options
, for now) can be generated for a Mongo Collection using
Restivus#addCollection()
. This generates two routes by default:
/api/<collection>
- Operations on the entire collection
GET
andPOST
/api/<collection>/:id
- Operations on a single entity within the collection
GET
,PUT
,PATCH
andDELETE
Collection
The first - and only required - parameter of Restivus#addCollection()
is a Mongo Collection.
Please check out the Meteor docs for more on creating
collections. The Meteor.users
collection will have [special endpoints]
(#users-collection-endpoints) generated.
Collection Options
Route and endpoint configuration options are available in Restivus#addCollection()
(as the 2nd,
optional parameter).
Route Configuration
The top level properties of the options apply to both routes that will be generated
(/api/<collection>
and /api/<collection>/:id
):
path
- String
- Default: Name of the collection (the name passed to
new Mongo.Collection()
, or'users'
forMeteor.users
) - The base path for the generated routes. Given a path
'other-path'
, routes will be generated at'api/other-path'
and'api/other-path/:id'
routeOptions
- Object
authRequired
Boolean- Default:
false
- If true, all endpoints on these routes will return a
401
if the user is not properly authenticated.
- Default:
roleRequired
String or Array of Strings- Default:
undefined
(no role required) - The acceptable user roles for all endpoints on this route (e.g.,
'admin'
,['admin', 'dev']
). Additional role permissions can be defined on specific endpoints. If the authenticated user does not belong to at least one of the accepted roles, a403
is returned. Since a role cannot be verified without an authenticated user, setting theroleRequired
impliesauthRequired: true
, so that option can be omitted without any consequence. For more on setting up roles, check out thealanning:roles
package.
- Default:
excludedEndpoints
- String or Array of Strings
- Default:
undefined
- The names of the endpoints that should not be generated (see the
endpoints
option below for a complete list of endpoint names).
endpoints
- Object
- Default:
undefined
(all available endpoints generated) - Each property of this object corresponds to a REST endpoint. In addition to the
excludedEndpoints
list, you can also prevent an endpoint from being generated by setting its value tofalse
. All other endpoints will be generated. The complete set of configurable properties on these endpoints is described in the Endpoint Configuration section below. Here is a list of all available endpoints, including their corresponding HTTP method, path, and a short description of their behavior:getAll
EndpointGET /api/collection
- Return a list of all entities within the collection (filtered searching via query params coming soon!).
post
EndpointPOST /api/collection
- Add a new entity to the collection. All data passed in the request body will be copied into the newly created entity. Warning: This is unsafe for now, as no type or bounds checking is done.
get
EndpointGET /api/collection/:id
- Return the entity with the given
:id
.
put
EndpointPUT /api/collection/:id
- Completely replace the entity with the given
:id
with the data contained in the request body. Any fields not included will be removed from the document in the collection.
patch
EndpointPATCH /api/collection/:id
- Partially modify the entity with the given
:id
with the data contained in the request body. Only fields included will be modified.
delete
EndpointDELETE /api/collection/:id
- Remove the entity with the given
:id
from the collection.
Endpoint Configuration
By default, each of the endpoints listed above is undefined
, which means it will be generated with
any default route options. If you need finer control over your endpoints, each can be defined as an
object containing the following properties:
authRequired
- Boolean
- Default:
undefined
- If true, this endpoint will return a
401
if the user is not properly [authenticated] (#authenticating). If defined, this overrides the option of the same name defined on the entire route.
roleRequired
- String or Array of Strings
- Default:
undefined
(no role required) - The acceptable user roles for this endpoint (e.g.,
'admin'
,['admin', 'dev']
). These roles will be accepted in addition to any defined over the entire route. If the authenticated user does not belong to at least one of the accepted roles, a403
is returned. Since a role cannot be verified without an authenticated user, setting theroleRequired
impliesauthRequired: true
, so that option can be omitted without any consequence. For more on setting up roles, check out thealanning:roles
package.
action
- Function
- Default:
undefined
(Default endpoint generated) - If you need to completely override the default endpoint behavior, you can provide a function
that will be executed when the corresponding request is made. No parameters are passed; instead,
this
contains the endpoint context, with properties including the URL and query parameters.
Request and Response Structure
All responses generated by Restivus follow the JSend format, with one minor tweak: failures have
an identical structure to errors. Successful responses will have a status code of 200
, unless
otherwise indicated. Sample requests and responses for each endpoint are included below:
post
Request:
curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/articles/ -d "title=Witty Title" -d "author=Jack Rose"
Response:
Status Code: 201
1{ 2 "status": "success", 3 "data": { 4 "_id": "LrcEYNojn5N7NPRdo", 5 "title": "Witty Title", 6 "author": "Jack Rose" 7 } 8}
getAll
Request:
curl -X GET http://localhost:3000/api/articles/
Response:
1{ 2 "status": "success", 3 "data": [ 4 { 5 "_id": "LrcEYNojn5N7NPRdo", 6 "title": "Witty Title!", 7 "author": "Jack Rose", 8 }, 9 { 10 "_id": "7F89EFivTnAcPMcY5", 11 "title": "Average Stuff", 12 "author": "Joe Schmoe", 13 } 14 ] 15}
get
Request:
curl -X GET http://localhost:3000/api/articles/LrcEYNojn5N7NPRdo
Response:
1{ 2 "status": "success", 3 "data": { 4 "_id": "LrcEYNojn5N7NPRdo", 5 "title": "Witty Title", 6 "author": "Jack Rose", 7 } 8}
put
Request:
curl -X PUT http://localhost:3000/api/articles/LrcEYNojn5N7NPRdo -d "title=Wittier Title" -d "author=Jaclyn Rose"
Response:
1{ 2 "status": "success", 3 "data": { 4 "_id": "LrcEYNojn5N7NPRdo", 5 "title": "Wittier Title", 6 "author": "Jaclyn Rose" 7 } 8}
patch
Request:
curl -X PATCH http://localhost:3000/api/articles/LrcEYNojn5N7NPRdo -d "author=J. K. Rowling"
Response:
1{ 2 "status": "success", 3 "data": { 4 "_id": "LrcEYNojn5N7NPRdo", 5 "title": "Wittier Title", 6 "author": "J. K. Rowling" 7 } 8}
delete
Request:
curl -X DELETE http://localhost:3000/api/articles/LrcEYNojn5N7NPRdo
Response:
1{ 2 "status": "success", 3 "data": { 4 "message": "Item removed" 5 } 6}
Users Collection Endpoints
A few special exceptions have been made for routes added for the Meteor.users
collection. For now,
the majority of the operations are limited to read access to the user._id
and read/write access to
the user.profile
. All route and endpoint options are identical to those described for all other
collections above. No options have been configured in the examples below; however, it is highly
recommended that role permissions be setup (or at the absolute least, authentication required) for
the delete
endpoint. Below are sample requests and responses for the users
collection.
Create collection:
1Api.addCollection(Meteor.users);
post
Request:
POST http://localhost:3000/api/users
1{ 2 "email": "jack@mail.com", 3 "password": "password", 4 "profile": { 5 "firstName": "Jack", 6 "lastName": "Rose" 7 } 8}
Note: The only fields that will be recognized in the request body when creating a new user are
email
, username
, password
, and profile
. These map directly to the parameters of the same
name in the Accounts.createUser() method, so
check that out for more information on how those fields are handled.
Response:
Status Code: 201
1{ 2 "status": "success", 3 "data": { 4 "_id": "oFpdgAMMr7F5A7P3a", 5 "profile": { 6 "firstName": "Jack", 7 "lastName": "Rose" 8 } 9 } 10}
getAll
Request:
curl -X GET http://localhost:3000/api/users/
Response:
1{ 2 "status": "success", 3 "data": [ 4 { 5 "_id": "nBTnv83sTrf38fFTi", 6 "profile": { 7 "firstName": "Anthony", 8 "lastName": "Reid" 9 } 10 }, 11 { 12 "_id": "oFpdgAMMr7F5A7P3a", 13 "profile": { 14 "firstName": "Jack", 15 "lastName": "Rose" 16 } 17 } 18 ] 19}
get
Request:
curl -X GET http://localhost:3000/api/users/oFpdgAMMr7F5A7P3a
Response:
1{ 2 "status": "success", 3 "data": { 4 "_id": "oFpdgAMMr7F5A7P3a", 5 "profile": { 6 "firstName": "Jack", 7 "lastName": "Rose" 8 } 9 } 10}
put
Request:
PUT http://localhost:3000/api/users/oFpdgAMMr7F5A7P3a
1{ 2 "firstName": "Jaclyn", 3 "age": 25 4}
Note: The data included in the request body will completely overwrite the user.profile
field of
the User document
Response:
1{ 2 "status": "success", 3 "data": { 4 "_id": "oFpdgAMMr7F5A7P3a", 5 "profile": { 6 "firstName": "Jaclyn", 7 "age": "25" 8 } 9 } 10}
delete
Request:
curl -X DELETE http://localhost:3000/api/users/oFpdgAMMr7F5A7P3a
Response:
1{ 2 "status": "success", 3 "data": { 4 "message": "User removed" 5 } 6}
Defining Custom Routes
Routes are defined using Restivus#addRoute()
. A route consists of a path and a set of endpoints
defined at that path.
Path Structure
The path
is the 1st parameter of Restivus#addRoute
. You can pass it a string or regex. If you
pass it test/path
, the full path will be https://yoursite.com/api/test/path
.
Paths can have variable parameters. For example, you can create a route to show a post with a
specific id. The id
is variable depending on the post you want to see such as "/articles/1" or
"/articles/2". To declare a named parameter in the path, use the :
syntax followed by the parameter
name. When a user goes to that URL, the actual value of the parameter will be stored as a property
on this.urlParams
in your endpoint function.
In this example we have a parameter named _id
. If we navigate to the /post/5
URL in our browser,
inside of the GET endpoint function we can get the actual value of the _id
from
this.urlParams._id
. In this case this.urlParams._id => 5
.
JavaScript:
1// Given a URL "/post/5" 2Api.addRoute('/post/:_id', { 3 get: function () { 4 var id = this.urlParams._id; // "5" 5 } 6});
You can have multiple URL parameters. In this example, we have an _id
parameter and a commentId
parameter. If you navigate to the URL /post/5/comments/100
then inside your endpoint function
this.urlParams._id => 5
and this.urlParams.commentId => 100
.
JavaScript:
1// Given a URL "/post/5/comments/100" 2Api.addRoute('/post/:_id/comments/:commentId', { 3 get: function () { 4 var id = this.urlParams._id; // "5" 5 var commentId = this.urlParams.commentId; // "100" 6 } 7});
If there is a query string in the URL, you can access that using this.queryParams
.
JavaScript:
1// Given the URL: "/post/5?q=liked#hash_fragment" 2Api.addRoute('/post/:_id', { 3 get: function () { 4 var id = this.urlParams._id; 5 var query = this.queryParams; // query.q -> "liked" 6 } 7});
Route Options
The following options are available in Restivus#addRoute
(as the 2nd, optional parameter):
authRequired
- Boolean
- Default:
false
- If true, all endpoints on this route will return a
401
if the user is not properly authenticated.
roleRequired
- String or Array of Strings
- Default:
undefined
(no role required) - A string or array of strings corresponding to the acceptable user roles for all endpoints on
this route (e.g.,
'admin'
,['admin', 'dev']
). Additional role permissions can be defined on specific endpoints. If the authenticated user does not belong to at least one of the accepted roles, a403
is returned. Since a role cannot be verified without an authenticated user, setting theroleRequired
impliesauthRequired: true
, so that option can be omitted without any consequence. For more on setting up roles, check out thealanning:roles
package.
Defining Endpoints
The last parameter of Restivus#addRoute
is an object with properties corresponding to the supported
HTTP methods. At least one method must have an endpoint defined on it. The following endpoints can
be defined in Restivus:
get
post
put
patch
delete
options
These endpoints can be defined one of two ways. First, you can simply provide a function for each method you want to support at the given path. The corresponding endpoint will be executed when that type of request is made at that path.
For finer-grained control over each endpoint, you can also define each one as an object containing the endpoint action and some addtional configuration options.
Endpoint Configuration
An action
is required when configuring an endpoint. All other configuration settings are optional,
and will get their default values from the route.
action
- Function
- Default:
undefined
- A function that will be executed when a request is made for the corresponding HTTP method.
authRequired
- String
- Default:
Route.authRequired
- If true, this endpoint will return a
401
if the user is not properly authenticated. Overrides the option of the same name defined on the entire route.
roleRequired
- String or Array of Strings
- Default:
Route.roleRequired
- The acceptable user roles for this endpoint (e.g.,
'admin'
,['admin', 'dev']
). These roles will be accepted in addition to any defined over the entire route. If the authenticated user does not belong to at least one of the accepted roles, a403
is returned. Since a role cannot be verified without an authenticated user, setting theroleRequired
impliesauthRequired: true
, so that option can be omitted without any consequence. For more on setting up roles, check out thealanning:roles
package.
JavaScript
1Api.addRoute('articles', {authRequired: true}, { 2 get: { 3 authRequired: false, 4 action: function () { 5 // GET api/articles 6 } 7 }, 8 post: function () { 9 // POST api/articles 10 }, 11 put: function () { 12 // PUT api/articles 13 }, 14 patch: function () { 15 // PATCH api/articles 16 }, 17 delete: function () { 18 // DELETE api/articles 19 }, 20 options: function () { 21 // OPTIONS api/articles 22 } 23});
In the above examples, all the endpoints except the GETs will require [authentication] (#authenticating).
Endpoint Context
Each endpoint has access to:
this.user
- Meteor.user
- The authenticated
Meteor.user
. Only available ifauthRequired
istrue
and a user is successfully authenticated. If not, it will beundefined
.
this.userId
- String
- The authenticated user's
Meteor.userId
. Only available ifauthRequired
istrue
and a user is successfully authenticated. If not, it will beundefined
.
this.urlParams
- Object
- Non-optional parameters extracted from the URL. A parameter
id
on the patharticles/:id
would be available asthis.urlParams.id
.
this.queryParams
- Object
- Optional query parameters from the URL. Given the URL
https://yoursite.com/articles?likes=true
,this.queryParams.likes => true
.
this.bodyParams
- Object
- Parameters passed in the request body. Given the request body
{ "friend": { "name": "Jack" } }
,this.bodyParams.friend.name => "Jack"
.
this.request
this.response
- Node response object
- If you handle the response yourself using
this.response.write()
orthis.response.writeHead()
you must callthis.done()
. In addition to preventing the default response (which will throw an error if you've initiated the response yourself), it will also close the connection usingthis.response.end()
, so you can safely omit that from your endpoint.
this.done()
-
Function
-
Must be called after handling the response manually with
this.response.write()
orthis.response.writeHead()
. This must be called immediately before returning from an endpoint.1Api.addRoute('manualResponse', { 2 get: function () { 3 console.log('Testing manual response'); 4 this.response.write('This is a manual response'); 5 this.done(); // Must call this immediately before return! 6 } 7});
this.<endpointOption>
All endpoint configuration options can be accessed by name (e.g.,
this.roleRequired
). Within an endpoint, all options have been completely resolved, meaning all
configuration options set on an endpoint's route will already be applied to the endpoint as
defaults. So if you set authRequired: true
on a route and do not set the authRequired
option on
one if its endpoints, this.authRequired
will still be true
within that endpoint, since the
default will already have been applied from the route.
Response Data
You can return a raw string:
1return "That's current!";
A JSON object:
1return { json: 'object' };
A raw array:
1return [ 'red', 'green', 'blue' ];
Or include a statusCode
or headers
. At least one must be provided along with the body
:
1return { 2 statusCode: 404, 3 headers: { 4 'Content-Type': 'text/plain', 5 'X-Custom-Header': 'custom value' 6 }, 7 body: 'There is nothing here!' 8};
All responses contain the following defaults, which will be overridden with any provided values:
statusCode
- Default:
200
headers
- Default:
Content-Type
:application/json
Access-Control-Allow-Origin
:*
- This is a CORS-compliant header that allows requests to be made to the API from any domain. Without this, requests from within the browser would only be allowed from the same domain the API is hosted on, which is typically not the intended behavior. This can be disabled by default, or also by returning a header of the same name with a domain specified (usually the domain the API is being hosted on).
Versioning an API
We can't always get an API right on the first try (in fact, most people don't). Eventually, we find ourselves needing to maintain different versions of our API. This allows clients to convert at their own convenience, while providing the latest and greatest API to those ready to consume it.
Currently, there is only a single versioning strategy supported in Restivus: URL path versioning. In this strategy, the version of the API is appended to the base path of all routes belonging to that API. This allows us to easily maintain multiple versions of an API, each with their own set of configuration options. Here's a [good write-up] (http://www.troyhunt.com/2014/02/your-api-versioning-is-wrong-which-is.html) on some of the different API versioning strategies.
JavaScript
1// Configure first version of the API 2var ApiV1 = new Restivus({ 3 version: 'v1', 4 useDefaultAuth: true, 5 prettyJson: true 6}); 7 8// Maps to api/v1/items and api/v1/items/:id 9ApiV1.addCollection(Items, { 10 routeOptions: { authRequired: true } 11}); 12 13// Maps to api/v1/custom 14ApiV1.addRoute('custom', { 15 get: function () { 16 return 'get something'; 17 } 18}); 19 20// Configure another version of the API (with a different set of config options if needed) 21var ApiV2 = new Restivus({ 22 version: 'v2', 23 enableCors: false 24}); 25 26// Maps to api/v2/items and api/v2/items/:id (with auth requirement removed in this version) 27ApiV2.addCollection(Items); 28 29// Maps to api/v2/custom (notice the different return value) 30ApiV2.addRoute('custom', { 31 get: function () { 32 return { 33 status: 'success', 34 data: 'get something different' 35 }; 36 } 37});
Documenting an API
What's a REST API without awesome docs? I'll tell you: absolutely freaking useless. So to fix that, we use and recommend apiDoc. It allows you to generate beautiful and extremely handy API docs from your JavaScript comments. It supports other comment styles as well, but we're Meteorites, so who cares? Check it out. Use it.
Consuming A Restivus API
The following uses the above code.
Basic Usage
We can call our POST /articles/:id/comments
endpoint the following way. Note the /api/ in the URL
(defined with the api_path option above):
curl -d "message=Some message details" http://localhost:3000/api/articles/3/comments
Note: There is a 50mb limit on requests. If you need this limit increased, please file a GitHub Issue.
Authenticating
Warning: Make sure you're using HTTPS, otherwise this is insecure!
Default Authentication
Note: To use the default authentication, you must first create a user with the accounts-password
package. You can do this with Restivus if you
setup a POST collection endpoint for the Meteor.users
collection.
Logging In
If you have useDefaultAuth
set to true
, you now have a POST /api/login
endpoint that returns a
userId
and authToken
. You must save these, and include them in subsequent requests. In addition
to the password
, the login endpoint requires one of the following parameters (via the request
body):
email
: An email address associated with yourMeteor.user
accountusername
: The username associated with yourMeteor.user
accountuserId
: The _id associated with yourMeteor.user
account
A login will look something like
curl http://localhost:3000/api/login/ -d "username=test&password=password"
The password can be SHA-256 hashed on the client side, in which case your request would look like
curl http://localhost:3000/api/login/ -d "username=test&password=sha-256-password&hashed=true"
And the response will look like
1{ status: "success", data: {authToken: "f2KpRW7KeN9aPmjSZ", userId: fbdpsNf4oHiX79vMJ} }
You'll need to save the userId
and token
on the client, for subsequent authenticated requests.
Logging Out
You also have an authenticated POST /api/logout
endpoint for logging a user out. If successful, the
auth token that is passed in the request header will be invalidated (removed from the user account),
so it will not work in any subsequent requests.
curl http://localhost:3000/api/logout -X POST -H "X-Auth-Token: f2KpRW7KeN9aPmjSZ" -H "X-User-Id: fbdpsNf4oHiX79vMJ"
Authenticated Calls
For any endpoints that require the default authentication, you must include the userId
and
authToken
with each request under the following headers:
- X-User-Id
- X-Auth-Token
curl -H "X-Auth-Token: f2KpRW7KeN9aPmjSZ" -H "X-User-Id: fbdpsNf4oHiX79vMJ" http://localhost:3000/api/articles/
Upgrading Restivus
To update Restivus to the latest version:
> meteor update nimble:restivus
Or to update Restivus to a specific version:
> meteor add nimble:restivus@=<version_number>
For example, to update restivus to v0.7.0:
> meteor add nimble:restivus@=0.7.0
Please check the change log before updating, for more information about the changes between each version. More detailed instructions for updating between major versions are included below.
Upgrading to 0.8.0
The most noticeable difference in v0.8.0 is that Restivus is now exported as a "class" instead of an
object. API configuration has also been moved from Restivus.configure()
(which has been removed),
to the Restivus constructor. This means that instead of being forced to configure a single Restivus
API with
1Restivus.configure({ 2 apiPath: 'only-api', 3 ... 4}); 5 6Restivus.addRoute('example');
you can configure as many separate APIs as you need with
1FirstApi = new Restivus({ 2 apiPath: 'first-api', 3 ... 4}); 5 6SecondApi = new Restivus({ 7 apiPath: 'second-api', 8 ... 9}); 10 11// Maps to /first-api/example 12FirstApi.addRoute('example', ...); 13 14// Maps to /second-api/example 15SecondApi.addRoute('example', ...);
This update makes it possible to maintain multiple versions of an API.
One other significant (but not API-breaking) change is that iron:router
has been
replaced by simple:json-routes
as the server-side router for Restivus. This means
that Restivus should no longer [interfere with other routers]
(https://github.com/kahmali/meteor-restivus/issues/24) (client or server), or do other [annoying]
(https://github.com/kahmali/meteor-restivus/issues/35) [things]
(https://github.com/kahmali/meteor-restivus/issues/43). Special thanks to [Sashko Stubailo]
(https://github.com/stubailo) for his work on simple:json-routes
, and for handling the conversion
from iron:router
to simple:json-routes
in Restivus!
Some other notable changes are:
- The
deleteAll
collection endpoint has been removed, as it had the potential to be quite destructive, and is not a standard REST endpoint useAuth
API config option renamed touseDefaultAuth
- More accurate response codes returned in API
For a complete list of changes, check out the [change log] (https://github.com/anttr/meteor-restivus/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md).
Upgrading to 0.7.0
WARNING! All clients consuming a Restivus API with the default authentication will need to reauthenticate after this update
Restivus used to store the account login token in the Meteor.user
document at
services.resume.loginTokens.token
. Now, to match Meteor's current implementation, the account
login token is stored as a hashed token at services.resume.loginTokens.hashedToken
. This means
that all clients using the default authentication in a Restivus API will need to reauthenticate with
their username/email and password after this update, as their existing tokens will be rendered
invalid.
Upgrading to 0.6.1
Restivus v0.6.1 brings support for easily generating REST endpoints for your Mongo Collections, and with that comes a few API-breaking changes:
- The
Restivus.add()
method has been changed toRestivus.addRoute()
for clarity, now that theRestivus.addCollection()
method has been added. - All responses generated by Restivus now follow the JSend format, with one minor tweak: failures have an identical structure to errors (check out the JSend documentation for more details on the response structure, which will be demonstrated throughout these docs). Just to be clear, this only affects responses that are automatically generated by Restivus. Any responses you manually created will remain unaffected.
Resources
Plugins
- Define and generate Swagger 2.0 documentation for Restivus API
Change Log
A detailed list of the changes between versions can be found in the [change log] (https://github.com/anttr/meteor-restivus/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md).
Contributing
Contributions to Restivus are welcome and appreciated! If you're interested in contributing, please check out the guidelines before getting started.
Thanks
Thanks to the developers over at Differential for RestStop2, where we got our inspiration for
this package and stole tons of ideas and code, as well as the Sashko Stubailo from MDG, for his
work on simple:json-routes
, including the Restivus conversion from Iron
Router.
Also, thanks to the following projects, which RestStop2 was inspired by:
License
MIT License. See LICENSE for details.