voltcloud-for-nodejs

a simple VoltCloud client library for nodejs

Usage no npm install needed!

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  import voltcloudForNodejs from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/voltcloud-for-nodejs';
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README

voltcloud-for-nodejs

a simple VoltCloud client library for Node.js

VoltCloud.io is a simple (and reasonably priced) deployment server for web applications with integrated user management and key-value stores for both the application itself and any of its users.

voltcloud-for-nodejs is a simple client library for applications (or servers) based on Node.js which need access to VoltCloud and its functions.

See below for a "smoke test" which may also serve as an example for how to use this library.

Please note: the author is not affiliated with the NSB Corporation in any way. If you want to blame any of the author's VoltCloud-related tools and libraries for some misbehaviour, it's not the fault of George Henne and his team - it is the author's mistake!

NPM users: please consider the Github README for the latest description of this package (as updating the docs would otherwise always require a new NPM package version)

Just a small note: if you like this module and plan to use it, consider "starring" this repository (you will find the "Star" button on the top right of this page), so that I know which of my repositories to take most care of.

Overview

As a developer, one may sign-up for VoltCloud to create (web-based) applications and give them a name. Then, the actual application may be uploaded to VoltCloud and will from now on be served from a VoltCloud URL which includes the given name.

If desired, VoltCloud applications may support their own "users" (in this document, these users are called "customers" in order to explicitly distinguish them from application "developers").

Users may register themselves for a VoltCloud application by providing their EMail address and a password (which they will need later to log into the application). Upon registration, a "confirmation mail" will be sent to the given address that includes a special link to the application which, when clicked, will allow the application to confirm the given user. Should the confirmation message get lost, it may be resent upon request.

Should a customer forget his/her password, there is also the possibility to initiate a "password reset" process. If triggered, a "password reset email" with a special link to the application will be sent to the customer which, when clicked, should allow the customer to change his/her password. A password reset may be triggered as often as needed.

special note for german customers: for an unknown reason, customer confirmation or password reset message take quite a while (approx. 2 hours) to reach mailboxes hosted by GMX and Web.de - if you need s.th. to test with, try address at Mail.de, those seem to be much faster right now.

It is important to understand, that an application and a customer who registered for it form a unit. As a consequence, the EMail address may be used for multiple applications - and all customers with that address will be completely independent from each other. VoltCloud does not offer any possibility to extend a given registration to other applications.

Once confirmed, a customer may set a first and/or a last name, change his/her password and even configure a new EMail address.

A developer may request a list of all customers which registered for a given application and sees their EMail addresses, their names and whether they have already been confirmed or not - but VoltCloud does not show him/her any customer's password (not even a hash value)

VoltCloud also manages individual key-value stores for an application and each of its customers. Both keys and values have to be strings (keys may be up to 255 characters long, values up to 1048574 characters). As is common practice, new entries may be created at will, existing entries read or deleted and a list of all entries requested from VoltCloud.

Developers may inspect and change both an application's key-value store and the stores of all related customers, while customers themselves may inspect and change their own store, but only inspect (and not change) the store of the application they registered for.

Mandating

Because of how VoltCloud works, voltcloud-for-nodejs may run in one of three modes, distinguished by "mandates":

  • independent of a "mandate" (and even without any), the library always allows to register and confirm new customers, resend confirmation messages and initiate or complete password resets
  • while logged-in as a developer, the library also allows to create and manage applications and customers and their associated key-value stores
  • while logged-in as a customer, the library also allows to manage that customer's account and key-value store.

"Mandates" are set using one of the functions actOnBehalfOfDeveloper or actOnBehalfOfCustomer. Before any of these function is called, no "mandate" will be set. Any successful completion of actOnBehalfOfDeveloper or actOnBehalfOfCustomer will change the currently active mandate to that of the given developer or customer, resp.

Mandates may be changed as often as needed and allow voltcloud-for-nodejs to be used both for VoltCloud applications (running with customer mandates) and servers (running with developer mandates)

Focusing

Because voltcloud-for-nodejs is most often used for a specific VoltCloud application and/or for a specific customer only, it is possible to "focus" on that application or customer using focusOnApplication, focusOnApplicationCalled, focusOnCustomer or focusOnCustomerWithAddress, resp. If a new application is created (using focusOnNewApplication) or a new customer registered (using focusOnNewCustomer), that one is automatically focused. Additionally, running on behalf of a customer also automatically focuses that customer.

Normally, all application- or customer-specific functions require such a focus. Only resendConfirmationEMailToCustomer, confirmCustomerUsing, startPasswordResetForCustomer, resetCustomerPasswordUsing and CustomerRecord may be run without a customer focus by providing (a token or) the email address of the current target customer.

Error Handling

In contrast to Java, it's not very common in JavaScript to throw specific subclasses of Error depending on the type of error that occurred. voltcloud-for-nodejs therefore throws "named errors", i.e., instances of Error which contain a name and a message property. The name property distinguishes the various error "types" and may be easily used in a switch statement to perform some type-specific error handling.

Prerequisites

voltcloud-for-nodejs has been built for and, thus, requires Node.js. Since you are visiting this page, chances are good that you already have Node.js installed on your machine - if not, please follow the instructions found on nodejs.org to install it (the LTS version is sufficient if you prefer that)

Installation

Simply install the package into your build environment using NPM with the command

npm install voltcloud-for-nodejs

Access

Within your Node.js script, you may then import any functions you need - the following example will import all of them:

import {
  actOnBehalfOfDeveloper, actOnBehalfOfCustomer,
  ApplicationRecords, CustomerRecords,
  focusOnApplication, focusOnApplicationCalled, focusOnNewApplication,
  ApplicationRecord, changeApplicationNameTo, updateApplicationRecordBy,
    uploadToApplication, deleteApplication,
  ApplicationStorage, ApplicationStorageEntry, setApplicationStorageEntryTo,
    deleteApplicationStorageEntry, clearApplicationStorage,
  focusOnCustomer, focusOnCustomerWithAddress, focusOnNewCustomer,
  resendConfirmationEMailToCustomer, confirmCustomerUsing,
  startPasswordResetForCustomer, resetCustomerPasswordUsing,
  CustomerRecord, changeCustomerEMailAddressTo, changeCustomerPasswordTo,
    updateCustomerRecordBy, deleteCustomer,
  CustomerStorage, CustomerStorageEntry, setCustomerStorageEntryTo,
    deleteCustomerStorageEntry, clearCustomerStorage
} from 'voltcloud-for-nodejs'

Just copy that statement into your source code and remove all unwanted functions.

API Reference

exported Constants

voltcloud-for-nodejs exports the following constants:

  • const ApplicationIdPattern = /^[a-zA-Z0-9]{6,}$/
    defines the regular expression pattern to which each VoltCloud application id must match
  • const ApplicationNamePattern = /^([a-z0-9]|[a-z0-9][-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])$/
    defines the regular expression pattern to which each VoltCloud application name must match
  • const maxApplicationNameLength = 63
    defines the maximum length of any VoltCloud application name
  • const maxEMailAddressLength = 255
    defines the maximum length of the email address used to identify developers and customers
  • const maxNamePartLength = 255
    defines the maximum length of the first or last name of any customer
  • const maxStorageKeyLength = 255
    defines the maximum length of any key in a VoltCloud key-value store
  • const maxStorageValueLength = 1048574
    defines the maximum length of any value in a VoltCloud key-value store

exported Types

TypeScript programmers may import the following types in order to benefit from static type checking (JavaScript programmers may simply skip this section):

  • type VC_ApplicationName = string
    application names are strings with 1...maxApplicationNameLength characters matching the regular expression ApplicationNamePattern
  • type VC_ApplicationRecord = {id:string, owner:string, subdomain:string, disabled:boolean, url:string, canonical_domain?:string, confirmation_url?:string, reset_url?:string, last_upload?:string, nice_links:boolean, cors_type:string, cors_domain?:string, frame_type:string, frame_domain?:string}
    instances of this type are returned when details of an existing application are requested
  • type VC_ApplicationUpdate = {subdomain?:string, disabled?:boolean, canonical_domain?:string, confirmation_url?:string, reset_url?:string, nice_links?:boolean, cors_type?:string, cors_domain?:string, frame_type?:string, frame_domain?:string}
    instances of this type are used when specific details of an existing application shall be changed
  • type VC_CustomerRecord = { id:string, email:VC_EMailAddress, first_name?:VC_NamePart, last_name?:VC_NamePart, confirmed:boolean, admin:boolean, meta?:any }
    instances of this type are returned when details of an already registered user are requested
  • type VC_CustomerUpdate = { email?:VC_EMailAddress, password?:{ old:string, new:string, confirmation:string }, first_name?:string, last_name?:string }
    instances of this type are used when specific details of an already registered user shall be changed
  • type VC_EMailAddress = string
    the EMail addresses used to identify developers and customers are strings with up to maxEMailAddressLength characters
  • type VC_Password = string
    VoltCloud passwords are strings fulfilling the VoltCloud requirements for passwords
  • type VC_NamePart = string
    the first and last names of a customer are strings with up to maxNamePartLength characters
  • type VC_StorageKey = string
    VoltCloud storage keys are strings with up to maxStorageKeyLength characters
  • type VC_StorageValue = string | undefined
    VoltCloud storage values are strings with up to maxStorageValueLength characters. While VoltCloud itself responds with an error when non-existing entries are read, voltcloud-for-applications returns undefined instead
  • type VC_StorageSet = { [Key:string]:VC_StorageValue }
    a VoltCloud storage can be seen as an associative array with literal keys and values

exported Classification and Validation Functions

  • ValueIsPassword (Value:any):boolean
    returns true if the given value may be used as a VoltCloud password (i.e., if it is a string which fulfills the requirements of a VoltCloud password) or false otherwise
  • allowPassword (Description:string, Argument:any):string
    checks if the given Argument (if it exists), may be used as a VoltCloud password (i.e., is a string which fulfills the requirements of a VoltCloud password). If this is the case (or Argument is missing), the function returns the primitive value of the given Argument, otherwise an error with the message "the given ${Description} is no valid VoltCloud password" is thrown, which uses the given Description. Similar to the javascript-interface-library, the variants allowedPassword, expectPassword and expectedPassword exist here as well
     
  • ValueIsApplicationName (Value:any):boolean
    returns true if the given value may be used as a VoltCloud application name (i.e., if it is a string with 1...maxApplicationNameLength characters matching the regular expression ApplicationNamePattern) or false otherwise
  • allowApplicationName (Description:string, Argument:any):string
    checks if the given Argument (if it exists), may be used as a VoltCloud application name (i.e., is a string with 1...maxApplicationNameLength characters matching the regular expression ApplicationNamePattern). If this is the case (or Argument is missing), the function returns the primitive value of the given Argument, otherwise an error with the message "the given ${Description} is no valid VoltCloud application name" is thrown, which uses the given Description. Similar to the javascript-interface-library, the variants allowedApplicationName, expectApplicationName and expectedApplicationName exist here as well
     
  • ValueIsStorageKey (Value:any):boolean
    returns true if the given value may be used as a key for a VoltCloud key-value store or false otherwise
  • expectStorageKey (Description:string, Argument:any):string
    checks if the given Argument (if it exists), may be used as a key for a VoltCloud key-value store. If this is the case (or Argument is missing), the function returns the primitive value of the given Argument, otherwise an error with the message "the given ${Description} is no valid VoltCloud storage key" is thrown, which uses the given Description. Similar to the javascript-interface-library, the variants allowedStorageKey, expectStorageKey and expectedStorageKey exist here as well
     
  • ValueIsStorageValue (Value:any):boolean
    returns true if the given value may be used as a value in a VoltCloud key-value store or false otherwise
  • expectStorageValue (Description:string, Argument:any):string
    checks if the given Argument (if it exists), may be used as a value for a VoltCloud key-value store. If this is the case (or Argument is missing), the function returns the primitive value of the given Argument, otherwise an error with the message "the given ${Description} is no valid VoltCloud storage value" is thrown, which uses the given Description. Similar to the javascript-interface-library, the variants allowedStorageValue, expectStorageValue and expectedStorageValue exist here as well

exported VoltCloud Functions not requiring any Mandate

  • async function focusOnApplication (ApplicationIdOrURL:string):Promise<void>
    sets the application given by ApplicationIdOrURL as the target for all following application-specific requests. When used without any mandate, ApplicationIdOrURL must contain the complete URL of the requested application - when used with a developer mandate, ApplicationIdOrURL must contain the requested application's internal id. The function will fail, if no such application exists
     
  • async function focusOnNewCustomer (EMailAddress:string, Password:string):Promise<void>
    registers a new customer with the email address given by EMailAddress, configures the given Password as the initial password and sets him/her as the target for all following (customer-specific) requests. If configured for the current target application, this request will automatically send a customer confirmation email to the given address
     
  • async function resendConfirmationEMailToCustomer (EMailAddress?:string):Promise<void>
    if configured for the current target application, this function will send another customer confirmation email to the address given by EMailAddress - if no such address is given, that email is sent to the current target customer
  • async function confirmCustomerUsing (Token:string):Promise<void>
    confirms the email address given for a newly registered customer by providing the Token sent as part of a customer confirmation email. This token internally also specifies the customer to whom it was sent
     
  • async function startPasswordResetForCustomer (EMailAddress?:string):Promise<void>
    if configured for the current target application, this function will send a password reset email to the address given by EMailAddress - if no such address is given, that email is sent to the current target customer
  • async function resetCustomerPasswordUsing (Token:string, Password:string):Promise<void>
    sets Password as the new password for a customer by providing the Token sent as part of a password reset email. This token internally also specifies the customer to whom it was sent

exported VoltCloud Functions requiring either a Developer or a Customer Mandate

  • async function actOnBehalfOfDeveloper (EMailAddress:string, Password:string):Promise<void>
    uses the given EMailAddress and Password to request an "access token" from VoltCloud, which is then used to authorize any non-public VoltCloud operation that is intended for application developers only. Note: EMailAddress and Password are kept in memory while the process is running in order to automatically refresh the token upon expiry.
    Important: do not run actOnBehalfOfDeveloper or actOnBehalfOfCustomer while any other request is running - or that other request may fail because of a changed mandate
  • async function actOnBehalfOfCustomer (EMailAddress:string, Password:string):Promise<void>
    uses the given EMailAddress and Password to request an "access token" from VoltCloud, which is then used to authorize any non-public VoltCloud operation that is intended for application customers only. This request requires to focus on an application first, since customers are application-specific. Note: EMailAddress and Password are kept in memory while the process is running in order to automatically refresh the token upon expiry.
    Important: do not run actOnBehalfOfDeveloper or actOnBehalfOfCustomer while any other request is running - or that other request may fail because of a changed mandate
     
  • async function ApplicationStorage ():Promise<VC_StorageSet>
    retrieves the complete key-value store for the current target application and delivers it as a JavaScript object
  • async function ApplicationStorageEntry (StorageKey:VC_StorageKey):Promise<VC_StorageValue | undefined>
    retrieves an entry (given by StorageKey) from the key-value store for the current target application and returns its value (as a JavaScript string) - or undefined if the requested entry does not exist
     
  • async function CustomerRecord (CustomerId?:string):Promise<VC_CustomerRecord | undefined>
    retrieves a record with all current VoltCloud settings for the customer given by CustomerId - if no such id is given, the current target customer's record will be retrieved. If no such customer exists (for the current target application), undefined is returned instead. See above for the internals of the delivered object
  • async function deleteCustomer ():Promise<void>
    deletes the current target customer
     
  • async function CustomerStorage ():Promise<VC_StorageSet>
    retrieves the complete key-value store for the current target customer and delivers it as a JavaScript object
  • async function CustomerStorageEntry (StorageKey:VC_StorageKey):Promise<VC_StorageValue | undefined>
    retrieves an entry (given by StorageKey) from the key-value store for the current target customer and returns its value (as a JavaScript string) - or undefined if the requested entry does not exist
  • async function setCustomerStorageEntryTo (StorageKey:VC_StorageKey, StorageValue:VC_StorageValue):Promise<void>
    sets the entry given by StorageKey in the key-value store for the current target customer to the value given by StorageValue (which must be a JavaScript string). If the entry does not yet exist, it will be created
  • async function deleteCustomerStorageEntry (StorageKey:VC_StorageKey):Promise<void>
    removes the entry given by StorageKey from the key-value store for the current target customer. It is ok to "delete" a non-existing entry (this function is "idempotent")
  • async function clearCustomerStorage ():Promise<void>
    removes all entries from the key-value store for the current target customer. It is ok to "clear" an empty store (this function is "idempotent")

exported VoltCloud Functions requiring a Developer Mandate

  • async function ApplicationRecords ():Promise<VC_ApplicationRecord[]>
    retrieves a (potentially empty) list with the details of all applications created by the currently configured developer. See above for the internals of the delivered list items
     
  • async function focusOnApplicationCalled (ApplicationName:VC_ApplicationName):Promise<void>
    sets the application given by ApplicationName as the target for all following application-specific requests. The function will fail, if no such application exists for the currently configured developer
  • async function focusOnNewApplication ():Promise<void>
    creates a new application for the currently configured developer and sets it as the target for all following application-specific requests
     
  • async function ApplicationRecord ():Promise<VC_ApplicationRecord | undefined>
    retrieves a record with details of the current target application. See above for the internals of the delivered object
  • async function changeApplicationNameTo (ApplicationName:VC_ApplicationName):Promise<void>
    renames the current target application to ApplicationName
  • async function updateApplicationRecordBy (Settings:VC_ApplicationUpdate):Promise<void>
    updates the details given by Settings in the current target application. See above for the internals of the Settings object
  • async function uploadToApplication (ZIPArchive:Buffer):Promise<void>
    uploads the ZIP archive given by ZIPArchive to the current target application
  • async function deleteApplication (ApplicationId:string):Promise<void>
    deletes the currently focused application
     
  • async function setApplicationStorageEntryTo (StorageKey:VC_StorageKey, StorageValue:VC_StorageValue):Promise<void>
    sets the entry given by StorageKey in the key-value store for the current target application to the value given by StorageValue (which must be a JavaScript string). If the entry does not yet exist, it will be created
  • async function deleteApplicationStorageEntry (StorageKey:VC_StorageKey):Promise<void>
    removes the entry given by StorageKey from the key-value store for the current target application. It is ok to "delete" a non-existing entry (this function is "idempotent")
  • async function clearApplicationStorage ():Promise<void>
    removes all entries from the key-value store for the current target application. It is ok to "clear" an empty store (this function is "idempotent")
     
  • async function CustomerRecords ():Promise<VC_CustomerRecord[]>
    retrieves a (potentially empty) list with the details of all customers who registered for the current target application. See above for the internals of the delivered list items
     
  • async function focusOnCustomer (CustomerId:string):Promise<void>
    sets the customer given by CustomerId as the target for all following (customer-specific) requests
  • async function focusOnCustomerWithAddress (EMailAddress:string):Promise<void>
    sets the customer with the email address given by EMailAddress as the target for all following (customer-specific) requests

Note: additionally, developers may also call any functions mentioned in the previous sections, which do either not require any mandate or may be used with developer or customer mandates

exported VoltCloud Functions requiring a Customer Mandate

  • async function changeCustomerEMailAddressTo (EMailAddress:string):Promise<void>
    changes the EMail address of the currently configured customer to EMailAddress. No customer with that address must currently be registered for the current target application or the function will fail
  • async function changeCustomerPasswordTo (Password:string):Promise<void>
    changes the password of the currently configured customer to Password
  • async function updateCustomerRecordBy (Settings:VC_CustomerUpdate):Promise<void>
    updates the settings for the current target customer given by Settings. See above for the internals of the Settings object

Note: additionally, developers may also call any functions mentioned in the previous sections, which do either not require any mandate or may be used with developer or customer mandates

Smoke Test

This repository contains a small "smoke test" (in a file called "smoke-test.js") which may also serve as an example for how to use voltcloud-for-nodejs. It illustrates the "good cases" of all functions offered by this library.

Preparation

The test becomes available if you download this repository (either using git in any of its variants or by unpacking a downloaded a ZIP archive containing this repo)

Now navigate to the folder containg the files of this repository and run

npm install

once in order to install any dependencies for the test.

The smoke test itself may be configured using the following set of environment variables:

  • developer_email_address - set this to the email address of the developer for whom the test should run
  • developer_password - set this to the developer's password
  • customer_email_address - set this to an email address (different from that for the developer!) you have access to. It will become the address of a "customer"
  • customer_password - set this to the "customer"s password (which must meet the VoltCLoud password requirements)
  • customer_confirmation_token - initially, this variable should remain blank. Follow the instructions given by "smoke-test.js" to set it to a customer confirmation token when needed
  • customer_password_reset_token - initially, this variable should remain blank. Follow the instructions given by "smoke-test.js" to set it to a password reset token when needed

Execution

The test may be started from within a shell using

node smoke-test.js

Important: for all procedures to get tested, you will have to start the script four times - in between, you may have to set the environment variables customer_confirmation_token or customer_password_reset_token following the instructions printed on the console

Build Instructions

You may easily build this package yourself.

Just install NPM according to the instructions for your platform and follow these steps:

  1. either clone this repository using git or download a ZIP archive with its contents to your disk and unpack it there
  2. open a shell and navigate to the root directory of this repository
  3. run npm install in order to install the complete build environment
  4. execute npm run build to create a new build

If you made some changes to the source code, you may also try

npm run agadoo

in order to check if the result is still tree-shakable.

You may also look into the author's build-configuration-study for a general description of his build environment.

License

MIT License