Restkit NPM | npm.io

0.7.0 Update

This is an experimental node rest server library using decorators. Developers using Java and C# frameworks are familiar with annotations when writing restful services. restkit is an attempt to bring some of those useful annotations to node rest servers.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Restkit

Routing

Asynchronous Requests

Response

Injectables

Responses (Continued)

Responding to Routes

Errors

Response Factories

Default Error/Response Codes

Middleware

Resources

Rules

Validate and Authorize

DTOs

Prerequisites

Get Restkit

Using npm to install restkit in the root of your server application.

npm install --save restkit

tsconfig

Because we are using Typescript, you will need a tsconfig. This should point to your index.ts file. experimentalDecorators should be set to true. From this point you should model your build configuration to your working process.

If you don't have a process yet or are indifferent, at module to "none" and outDir to "bld". You can build your application by running ntsc in the root directory of your server, and run the generated index.js file in the bld directory.

ntsc
cd build
node index.js

{
    "compilerOptions": {
        "target": "es6",
        "module": "none",
        "moduleResolution": "node",
        "declaration": false,
        "noImplicitAny": true,
        "removeComments": true,
        "noLib": false,
        "outDir": "bld",
        "experimentalDecorators": true
    },
    "files": [
        "index.ts"
    ]
}

Server Support

Restkit does not supply an http server. It adds annotations to your existing server. A server support module should be installed along-side Restkit. These support modules provide the specific implementation of that frameworks request/response model. The support module will also provide additional injectables that require a specific implementation of that server framework. Examples of those would be Param, Query, Header, and Body.

Throughout this readme, Expresskit will be the assumed support module. The differences between the support modules are only in their source, so if you are following along with a different support module, the only difference for your would be the import name.

e.g. import {Param} from 'expresskit' -> import {Param} from 'koakit'

Below are the support modules-

To use Express with Restkit, you need to install Expresskit. Expresskit exports Restkit modules. So where you would import Route via restkit, you can import Route via expresskit.

import {Route} from 'restkit' -> import {Route} from 'expresskit'

This isn't mandatory, only a convenience.

npm install --save expresskit

Once Expresskit is installed, you can use Expresskit in the same way you'd use Restkit. The server option is defaulted to ExpressServer.

import {Expresskit} from 'expresskit';

Expresskit.start();

To use Koa with Restkit, you need to install Koakit. Koakit exports Restkit modules. So where you would import Route via restkit, you can import Route via koakit.

import {Route} from 'restkit' -> import {Route} from 'koakit'

This isn't mandatory, only a convenience.

npm install --save koakit

NOTE: Don't confused the koakit npm package with koa-kit!

Once Koakit is installed, you can use Koakit in the same way you'd use Restkit. The server option is defaulted to KoaServer.

import {Koakit} from 'koakit';

Koakit.start();

Hello World Demo (with ExpressServer)

Restkit does not have an http server on it's own.

The index of your restkit server will need to import the routers you will be using as well as providing the basic configuration of the server. In this hello world example, we will have a hello component and router in a /hello directory.

/
  index.ts
  /hello
    router.ts

In our index.ts we just need to start the Restkit and tell it to import the HelloWorldRouter.

import {Expresskit} from 'expresskit';
import 'hello/router';

Expresskit.start();

When an Restkit server is started, it will default to port 8000. This can be changed by adding Start Options to the start method. This is enough to start a server, but no routes are defined yet. So we'l create a route that returns "Hello World". In our hello/router.ts we can define a router like any class.

export class HelloWorldRouter {}

To create a Route on the HelloWorldRouter, we need to import Route from restkit/route. This is a decorator we can use to create a route on the express server.

import {Route} from 'expresskit';

export class HelloWorldRouter {

  @Route('GET', '/hello')
  public static sayHelloWorld() {
    return 'Hello World';
  }

}

Now if we build the server, start it, and go to http://localhost:8000/hello, we will get the response "Hello World".

Want more examples? See the Expresskit Seed Project. Want to learn more about Restkit and it's many features? Keep reading!

Startup Options

There are a few configurable properties when you start the server. These options are application wide properties. To add startup options, just pass a json object to the Expresskit.start method.

import Expresskit from 'expresskit';

Expressskit.start({
  ... options go here
});

Possible options are-

Option	Description	Default
port	The port the server listens to for incoming requests.	8000
timezone	The default timezone of the application. Sets `process.env.TZ` to this property for convenience.	TZ (GMT 0)
staticFiles	An array of files and their URIs to serve statically when requested.	[]
staticPaths	An array of paths and their URIs to serve statically when requested. All files and child directories of this path will be served statically.	[]
middleware	An array of application-wide middleware functions. (This is where your body parsers will go.)	[]

Static Content

There may be cases (i.e. if your client is bundled with your server) where you'l want to serve files statically. That is, when a file like localhost:8000/index.html is requested, no route is used to handle that request but the file itself will be sent. You can set entire directories as static where the files in them and their child directories can be access directly, or you can set specific files as static.

Both staticFiles and staticPaths are defined in the same format. Each staticFile and staticPath entry must have a path as well as the uri used to access that path. Paths can be relative, so the server can access files/paths in non-child directories. Paths should be relative to the server's index file.

Take this directory structure example-

/
  client/
    assets/
      images/
        fooimage.jpg
    index.html

  server/
    index.ts <-- You Are Here

We can use staticFiles to point / and /index.html to the client index file. And we can use staticPaths to point /images to the client's image assets directory.

Expresskit.start({
  staticFiles: [
    {uri: '/', path: '../client/index.html'},
    {uri: '/index.html', path: '../client/index.html'}
  ],
  staticPaths: [
    {uri: '/images', path: '../client/assets/images'}
  ]
});

Notice that because the server directory is a sibling of the client directory we need to move up a directory in our path. With this configuration of static files and paths, we can request the following urls:

http://localhost:8000/
http://localhost:8000/index.html
http://localhost:8000/images/fooimage.jpg

Middleware

In the middleware section of the README you can provide middleware for specific routes and routers. To add middleware to the entire application, use the middleware option.

An example of when you'd want to use this is for body parsers.

declare var require: any;

import {Expresskit} from 'expresskit';

let bodyParser = require('body-parser');
 
Expresskit.start({
  middleware: [
    bodyParser() 
  ]
});

Keep Reading

restkit v0.7.0

0.7.0 Update

Prerequisites

Get Restkit

tsconfig

Hello World Demo (with ExpressServer)

Startup Options

Static Content

Middleware

Keep Reading

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