api-gate

is a module to quickly write api endpoints and hook them to your express app

Usage no npm install needed!

<script type="module">
  import apiGate from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/api-gate';
</script>

README

api-gate

This module is still under development. Please raise any issues for bugs of feature requests

To install apiGate just add it to your package json

$ npm install --save api-gate

How to use

Initialize a new apiGate instance and tell if what to guard. Give it a path to the endpoint module, that will be explained below, and watch a request.


// Require api-gate
var apiGate = require('api-gate');
var gate = apiGate();

// Tell it what to guard, by passing the path to the endpoint (see below)
gate.guard('./endpoints/user');

// now you can use it to guard a http request
var http = require('http');
var server = http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    if( gate.watch(req,res) === false ){
        res.end('try calling api.yourdomain.com:3000/user');
    }
});
server.listen(3000);

Express middleware

ApiGate come also with a handy middleware for express. If the request is a valid api request no other script after this middleware will be called.

// To use it in an express app:
var express = require('express');
var app = express();

// like above, include api-gate and initialize it
var apiGate = require('api-gate');
var gate = apiGate();

// Tell it what to guard, by passing the path to the endpoint (see below)
gate.guard('./endpoints/user');

// Now use the ready-made middleware
app.use(gate.middleware);

app.listen(3000);

Options

During initialization of the gate you can set some options like:

var apiGate = require('api-gate');
var options = {
    multiPart: false, // TODO
    subDomain: 'api'
};
var gate = apiGate(options);

subdomain (default: 'api') - The subdomain specific for your api

Endpoints

specifying an endpoint is quite straightforward. for each endpoint you can write handlers for each Http method and define a schema for it.

// user.js
var user = module.exports = {};

user.GET = {
    handler: function (req, res, params) {},
    schema: {}
};
Responses

apiGate has a small utility that help you reply to your api calls. Just use res.reply.

user.GET = {
    handler: function (req, res, params) {
        // reply with a success and 200 status code
        res.reply(200, {success: true});
    },
    schema: {}
};
Schema

Define the parameters that your endpoint needs and they will be parsed and verified for you beforehand. It uses Validator module and can be extended. For more info visit the validator module https://www.npmjs.org/package/validator

var propTypes = require('api-gate').propTypes;

user.GET = {
    handler: function (req, res, params) {
        // Here params.id is a valid and tested parameter
        // reply with a success and 200 status code
        res.reply(200, {success: params.id});
    },
    schema: {
        id: propTypes.isAlphanumeric
    }
};