steffenmllr/localize-api

proxy for REST/RPC style API's w/ caching & garbage collection

localize-api

I needed a way to have more control over external API's as well as keep the REST API functionality. This module allows you to localize external API's along with a simple cache layer/garbarge collection utilizing nedb, I plan to build in mongodb as well.

Features

• express api mount/router for external resources

• 100% coffeescript, hate it or love it

• this module wouldn't be anywhere near as cool if it wasn't for nedb. If you're not familiar with it, I suggest you take a look because nedb by itself is really powerful as well.

• negates the whole clientside cors issue for some people by using request, and localizes to a RESTful route

• If you're using cache it's going to help avoid making a lot of chatty calls to an API, especially if you're pulling large datasets eg:

  GET /github/users/dhigginbotham/following?per_page=300 200 605ms
  GET /github/users/dhigginbotham/following?per_page=300 304 24ms
  

Installation

npm install localize-api --save

Simple Example

var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var server = require('http').createServer(app);

// include localize-api module
var localize = require('localize-api');

app.set('port', 1337);
app.use(express.bodyParser());

// init localize
var github = new localize();

// mount paths
github.mount(app);

server.listen(app.get('port'), function () {
  console.log('listening on port ' + app.get('port'));
});

// GET http://localhost:1337/github/users/dhigginbotham

Full Example

This example depends on having express.js and nedb available:

npm install nedb --save

var express = require('express');
var app = express();

var server = require('http').createServer(app);

var path = require('path');
var DataStore = require('nedb');
var localize = require('../../lib');

app.set('port', 1337);
app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.use(express.methodOverride());

// // simple example
// var github = new localize();

// github.mount(app);

// full example
var ds = new DataStore({
  filename: path.join(__dirname, 'db', 'fileStorage.db')
});


// define custom route endpoint
var customRoute = function (req, res) {
  res.send(req.__coderbits);
};


// define some custom middleware to display the
// functionality
var middleOne = function (req, res, next) {
  console.log('I am the middleOne middleware :)');
  next();
};

var middleTwo = function (req, res, next) {
  console.log('I am the middleTwo middleware :) :)');
  next();
};


// define specific options for your `localizer`
var opts = {
  path: 'coderbits',
  uri: 'https://coderbits.com',
  customKey: '__coderbits',
  stale: '5m',
  headers: {
    'User-Agent' : 'test localize-api surfing'
  },
  cache: true,
  ds: ds,
  middleware: [middleOne, middleTwo],
  customRoute: customRoute
};

var coderbits = new localize(opts);

// when mounting this route you will need to
// have access to `app`, otherwise it will have
// nowhere to mount anything.

coderbits.mount(app);

server.listen(app.get('port'), function () {
  console.log('listening on port ' + app.get('port'));
});

// GET http://localhost:1337/coderbits/dhz.json

Options

Name	Defaults	Info
accepted	['post', 'put', 'delete', 'get']	accepted methods to run external requests against, expects an array
cache	false	uses nedb currently, still finishing mongodb
customKey	path	defaults to your path string, for instance if your path was 'github', req.github would be set
customRoute	null	allows you to pass a custom route through as your endpoint, helpful if you want to use the output to template a file
ds	DataStore	you'll get one of these from nedb
headers	Object	inherits from req.headers if this isn't set, however there's a caveat, because the example, github requires a custom user-agent set, so we do that in here to make things happy. However it's recommended that you set your own
bodyOverride	Object	Good for storing globals like AccessTokens, AppId, etc.
preware	[Array]	This happens before the request is fired, and has access to req/res objects
methodOverride	Object	Quick and easy methodOverride.
locals	false	if true it will set res.locals[customKey] as well as req[customKey]
middleware	[]	allows you to add custom middleware to your api, good for authentication/ensureLogin etc
path	github	defaults to github which is the default api to get this going quickly
stale	1m	uses ms module for ez times eg: 1s, 1m, 5m, 1h, 10h, 1d, etc
uri	https://api.github.com	api path to localize

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2013 David Higginbotham 

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.