Create awesome APIs using express.

Register mongoose resources and default RESTful routes are automatically made

var express = require('express'),
    bodyParser = require('body-parser'),
    methodOverride = require('method-override'),
    morgan = require('morgan'),
    restful = require('node-restful'),
    mongoose = restful.mongoose;
var app = express();

app.use(morgan('dev'));
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({'extended':'true'}));
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(bodyParser.json({type:'application/vnd.api+json'}));
app.use(methodOverride());

mongoose.connect("mongodb://localhost/resources");

var Resource = app.resource = restful.model('resource', mongoose.Schema({
    title: String,
    year: Number,
  }))
  .methods(['get', 'post', 'put', 'delete']);

Resource.register(app, '/resources');

app.listen(3000);

Registers the following routes:

GET /resources
GET /resources/:id
POST /resources
PUT /resources/:id
DELETE /resources/:id

which do exactly what you think they do!

The best part is that restful.model returns a Mongoose model, so you can interact with it the same way that you're already accustomed to! (i.e. new Resource, Resource.findById, etc.)

This library is currently supported through complaint driven development, so if you see something, have a feature request, open an issue and if it seems to jive with the mission of the library, I'll prioritize it.

npm install node-restful

There is a good example application under examples/movies.

I will also show some features and use cases for them, how to set up routes, etc.

There are a few functions that are available after we register the mongoose schema. The first one we already saw.

.methods([...]) takes a list of methods that should be available on the resource. Future calls to methods will override previously set values To disallow delete operations, simply run

Resource.methods(['get', 'post', 'put'])

We can also run custom routes. We can add custom routes by calling .route(path, handler)

Resource.route('recommend', function(req, res, next) {
  res.send('I have a recommendation for you!');
});

This will set up a route at /resources/recommend, which will be called on all HTTP methods. We can also restrict the HTTP method by adding it to the path:

Resource.route('recommend.get', function(req, res, next) {
   res.send('GET a recommendation');
});
Resource.route('recommend', ['get', 'put', 'delete'], function(req, res, next) { ... });

Or do some combination of HTTP methods.

Now. Lets say we have to run arbitrary code before or after a route. Lets say we need to hash a password before a POST or PUT operation. Well, easy.

Resource.before('post', hash_password)
  .before('put', hash_password);
      
function hash_password(req, res, next) {
  req.body.password = hash(req.body.password);
  next();
}

Boy. That was easy. What about doing stuff after request, but before its sent back to the user? Restful stores the bundle of data to be returned in res.locals (see express docs). res.locals.status_code is the returned status code and res.locals.bundle is the bundle of data. In every before and after call, you are free to modify these are you see fit!

Resource.after('get', function(req, res, next) {
  var tmp = res.locals.bundle.title; // Lets swap the title and year fields because we're funny!
  res.locals.bundle.title = res.locals.bundle.year;
  res.locals.bundle.year = tmp;
  next(); // Don't forget to call next!
});
    
Resource.after('recommend', do_something); // Runs after all HTTP verbs

Now, this is all great. But up until now we've really only talked about defining list routes, those at /resources/route_name. We can also define detail routes. Those look like this

Resource.route('moreinfo', {
    detail: true,
    handler: function(req, res, next) {
        // req.params.id holds the resource's id
        res.send("I'm at /resources/:id/moreinfo!")
    }
});

I don't think this is the prettiest, and I'd be open to suggestions on how to beautify detail route definition...

And that's everything for now!

Node-restful accepts many options to manipulate the list results. These options can be added to your request either via the querystring or the POST body. They are passed into the mongoose query to filter your resultset.

If you only need a few properties instead of the entire model, you can ask the service to only give just the properties you need:

A GET request to /users/?select=name%20email will result in:

[
    {
        "_id": "543adb9c7a0f149e3ac29438",
        "name": "user1",
        "email": "[email protected]"
    },
    {
        "_id": "543adb9c7a0f149e3ac2943b",
        "name": "user2",
        "email": "[email protected]"
    }
]

When implementing pagination you might want to use skip and limit filters. Both do exactly what their name says and just skip given amount of items or limit to a set amount of items.

/users/?limit=5 will give you the first 5 items
/users/?skip=5 will skip the first 5 and give you the rest
/users/?limit=5&skip=5 will skip the first 5 and then give you the second 5

Getting a sorted list is as easy as adding a sort querystring parameter with the property you want to sort on. /users/?sort=name will give you a list sorted on the name property, with an ascending sort order.

Changing the sort order uses the same rules as the string notation of mongoose's sort filter. /users/?sort=-name will return the same list as before with a descending sort order.

Sometimes you just want to get all people older than 18, or you are want to get all people living in a certain city. Then you would want to use filters for that. You can ask the service for equality, or values greater or less than, give it an array of values it should match to, or even a regex.

When you have setup a mongoose Schema with properties referencing other entities, you can ask the service to populate them for you.

A GET request to /users/542edff9fffc55dd29d99346 will result in:

{
    "_id": "542edff9fffc55dd29d99346",
    "name": "the employee",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "boss": "542edff9fffc55dd29d99343",
    "__v": 0
}

A GET request to /users/542edff9fffc55dd29d99346?populate=boss will result in:

{
    "_id": "542edff9fffc55dd29d99346",
    "name": "the employee",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "boss": {
        "_id": "542edff9fffc55dd29d99343",
        "name": "the boss",
        "email": "[email protected]",
        "__v": 0
    },
    "__v": 0
}

You can view the issue list for what I'm working on, or contact me to help!

Just reach out to me

Copyright (c) 2012 by Ben Augarten

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