Node.js API Endpoint Discovery and Postman Collection Generator

This Node.js npm package scans a directory for API endpoints implemented using Express framework, extracts endpoint details including headers, query parameters, and request body, and generates a Postman API collection file.

Installation

npm install nodejs-api-discovery

Usage

Configuration

Modify the config.json file to specify the directory to scan, the server framework (express for now), the object instance where endpoints are defined (app for Express), and other parameters.

{
  "directoryToScan": "./",
  "framework": "express",
  "objectInstance": "app",
  "postmanCollectionFile": "./postman_collection.json",
  "baseUrl": "http://localhost:3000"
}

import {
   generatePostmanCollection,
   discoverEndpoints,
} from "nodejs-api-discovery";
import fs from 'fs';

// Load configuration
const configPath = './config.json';
const config = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(configPath, 'utf8'));

async function runTool(writeCollection = false) {
try {
   const endpoints = await discoverEndpoints(
      config.directoryToScan,
      config.framework,
      config.objectInstance
   );

   await generatePostmanCollection(endpoints, config.baseUrl, writeCollection);
   console.log("Postman collection generated successfully!");
} catch (error) {
   console.error("Error generating Postman collection:", error);
}
}

runTool(true);

Generated Postman Collection

The generated Postman collection (postman_collection.json) contains API endpoints with methods, URLs prefixed by baseUrl, headers, query parameters, and request bodies (if available).

Next Steps

Future Improvements

Support for More Frameworks: Extend the tool to support other Node.js frameworks like Hapi, Koa, etc.
Enhanced Body Parsing: Improve body parsing logic to handle more complex body types (e.g., JSON, form-data, multipart).
Query Parameters: Currently supports basic query parameter extraction. Enhance to handle nested parameters and arrays.
Error Handling and Edge Cases: Add robust error handling for parsing failures and handle edge cases in route definition parsing.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Fork the repository, create a feature branch, and submit a pull request with your enhancements.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Notes:

This markdown section provides a clear and structured guide on how to install, configure, and use your npm package for discovering API endpoints and generating a Postman collection.
Adjust paths (index.mjs, config.json, etc.) and specific configurations (baseUrl, framework, etc.) according to your actual project setup and requirements.
Ensure to include this section in your README.md file in the root directory of your npm package to effectively communicate usage instructions to users and contributors.

CodeMaster17/nodejs-api-discovery