/deployd

a toolkit for building realtime APIs

Primary LanguageJavaScript

deployd

the simplest way to build an api.

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overview

Deployd is the simplest way to build realtime APIs for web and mobile apps. Ready-made, configurable Resources add common functionality to a Deployd backend, which can be further customized with JavaScript Events.

features

  • secure access to database APIs directly from untrusted clients (browser js, mobile apps, etc)
  • notify clients in realtime of events occurring within the database
  • user and session management
  • all APIs exposed over REST / HTTP
  • bundled browser JavaScript client
  • web socket authentication and session management
  • can be hosted by modern cloud platforms
  • support extension through node modules and npm

Read more about deployd

⚠️ Deployd v1.0.0 has been released. Read the migration guide below.

Requirements

Deployd is built using node and published using npm.
To install and use it, you need to install Node.JS.

quick start

$ npm install deployd-cli -g
$ dpd create hello
$ cd hello
$ dpd -d

Best Practices

  1. Once you start writing anything serious, you should start your project using a node script instead of the dpd command. Read more here. Dpd is only meant to be used as a quick prototyping tool.

  2. You are encouraged to structure your resources in a hierarchy based on what they belong to. Since deployd 1.1.0 you can name your resources like the following example:

    1. Assume your user collection is named users
    2. Their associated photos could be in a collection named users/photos.
    3. A potential dpd-event script associated to photos could go in users/photos/resize.
  3. Once your project grows, you may find yourself writing code in one place that you need elsewhere. Take a look at dpd-codemodule for this purpose.

  4. Keep in mind that deployd comes with absolutely no built-in access control checking. Anyone can delete, read, or update any information from any collection unless you close this down. We recommend plugging in your permission checks in On BeforeRequest events, and/or other appropriate places.

  5. The dpd-clientlib package is provided mostly as a convenience and should probably not be used directly in production. Once your project outgrows it, feel free to replace it with something else. You may use any HTTP library and/or socket.io client implementation to interact with deployd. Please see the documentation for more information.

  6. You will find plugins for various sorts of tasks on npm if you search for dpd. Deployd plugins start with dpd-name

  7. You can use deployd in a cluster configuration. In order for the socket.io adapter to be able to emit to clients on other cluster nodes, you will need to use Redis as a pub/sub server. See here for more information.

  8. Try not to run dpd.somecollection.get() type queries inside On GET handlers.

    1. These can have severe performance implications especially when running queries that return multiple results, because each subquery will execute at least once for every document returned.
    2. Instead you should put your logic in dpd-event scripts that run as fewer queries as possible, and which concatenate the results using code. lodash can be a good library to help with merging results.

Other notes:

  • emit to users type calls that return multiple results (eg: emit(dpd.users, {active: true}, 'postModified', this);) are inefficient and should be avoided. Instead you should join sessions to rooms and emit to rooms instead. See PR 698 for more info.
  • if you do not use dpd-clientlib, keep in mind that you will need to associate the connected websocket with the session id after authenticating. You can do this by emitting a server:setsession message on the socket, with a payload of {sid: 'sessionid'}. You can get the session id by calling the login method of the user collection resource. See the documentation for more information.

Helpful Resources

Migration guide to v1.0.0

v1.0.0 contains a big refactoring: the CLI, dashboard and client-lib has been extracted from the core to allow easier contributions and maintainability.
Here's a guide to help you migrate to v.1.0.0.

If you start your application using a node script (recommended), you just need to update the deployd dependency and add the missing ones (client-lib and dashboard).

$ npm install deployd@latest --save
$ npm install dpd-dashboard dpd-clientlib --save-dev

If you use the CLI to start your app (using dpd inside your app folder), you will need to uninstall the old global version of deployd and install deployd-cli. npm uninstall deployd -g && npm install deployd-cli -g

If you have trouble making it work, feel free to ask for help on the chat.

install from npm

Once Node.JS is installed, open your terminal and type the following command:

npm install deployd-cli -g

the dpd command should be available. Type dpd -V and the current version should appear.

install on windows

The windows installer is deprecated. The recommended way is now npm (npm install deployd-cli -g) and install mongodb separately.

install on macosx

The macosx installer is deprecated. The recommended way is now npm (npm install deployd-cli -g) and install mongodb separately.

install from source

git clone https://github.com/deployd/deployd.git
npm install

unit & integration tests

cd deployd
mongod &
npm test

license

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

Copyright 2017 deployd llc