json-api-serializer

A Node.js framework agnostic library for serializing your data to JSON API compliant responses (a specification for building APIs in JSON).

Why another library for serializing data to JSON API ?

Simply because others libraries are not as flexible as i need.

Installation

npm install --save json-api-serializer

Documentation

Register

var JSONAPISerializer = require('json-api-serializer');
var Serializer = new JSONAPISerializer();
Serializer.register(type, options);

Serialization options:

• id (optional): The key to use as the reference. Default = 'id'.
• blacklist (optional): An array of blacklisted attributes. Default = [].
• whitelist (optional): An array of whitelisted attributes. Default = [].
• links (optional): Describes the links inside data. It can be:
  • An object (values can be string or function).
  • A function with one argument function(data) { ... } or with two arguments function(data, extraData) { ... }
• topLevelMeta (optional): Describes the top-level meta. It can be:
  • An object (values can be string or function).
  • A function with one argument function(extraData) { ... } or with two arguments function(data, extraData) { ... }
• topLevelLinks (optional): Describes the top-level links. It can be:
  • An object (values can be string or function).
  • A function with one argument function(extraData) { ... } or with two arguments function(data, extraData) { ... }
• relationships (optional): An object defining some relationships
  • relationship: The property in data to use as a relationship
    • type: The type to use for serializing the relationship (type need to be register)
    • alternativeKey (optional): An alternative key (string or path) to use if relationship key not exist (example: 'author_id' as an alternative key for 'author' relationship). See issue #12.
    • schema (optional): A custom schema for serializing the relationship. If no schema define, it use the default one.
    • links (optional): Describes the links for the relationship. It can be:
      • An object (values can be string or function).
      • A function with one argument function(data) { ... } or with two arguments function(data, extraData) { ... }
    • meta (optional): Describes meta that contains non-standard meta-information about the relationship. It can be:
      • An object (values can be string or function).
      • A function with one argument function(data) { ... } or with two arguments function(data, extraData) { ... }
• convertCase (optional): Case conversion for serializing data. Value can be : kebab-case, snake_case, camelCase

Deserialization options:

• unconvertCase (optional): Case conversion for deserializing data. Value can be : kebab-case, snake_case, camelCase
• blacklistOnDeserialize (optional): An array of blacklisted attributes. Default = [].
• whitelistOnDeserialize (optional): An array of whitelisted attributes. Default = [].

Global options:

To avoid repeating the same options for each type, it's possible to add global options on JSONAPISerializer instance:

var JSONAPISerializer = require('json-api-serializer');
var Serializer = new JSONAPISerializer({
  convertCase: 'kebab-case',
  unconvertCase: 'camelCase'
});

Usage

input data (can be an object or an array of objects)

// Data
var data = [{
  id: "1",
  title: "JSON API paints my bikeshed!",
  body: "The shortest article. Ever.",
  created: "2015-05-22T14:56:29.000Z",
  updated: "2015-05-22T14:56:28.000Z",
  author: {
    id: "1",
    firstName: "Kaley",
    lastName: "Maggio",
    email: "[email protected]",
    age: "80",
    gender: "male"
  },
  tags: ["1", "2"],
  photos: ["ed70cf44-9a34-4878-84e6-0c0e4a450cfe", "24ba3666-a593-498c-9f5d-55a4ee08c72e", "f386492d-df61-4573-b4e3-54f6f5d08acf"],
  comments: [{
    _id: "1",
    body: "First !",
    created: "2015-08-14T18:42:16.475Z"
  }, {
    _id: "2",
    body: "I Like !",
    created: "2015-09-14T18:42:12.475Z"
  }, {
    _id: "3",
    body: "Awesome",
    created: "2015-09-15T18:42:12.475Z"
  }]
}]

Register

Register your resources types :

var JSONAPISerializer = require('json-api-serializer');
var Serializer = new JSONAPISerializer();

// Register 'article' type
Serializer.register('article', {
  id: 'id', // The attributes to use as the reference. Default = 'id'.
  blacklist: ['updated'], // An array of blacklisted attributes. Default = []
  links: { // An object or a function that describes links.
    self: function(data) { // Can be a function or a string value ex: { self: '/articles/1'}
      return '/articles/' + data.id;
    }
  },
  relationships: { // An object defining some relationships.
    author: {
      type: 'people', // The type of the resource
      links: function(data) { // An object or a function that describes Relationships links
        return {
          self: '/articles/' + data.id + '/relationships/author',
          related: '/articles/' + data.id + '/author'
        }
      },
    },
    tags: {
      type: 'tag'
    },
    photos: {
      type: 'photo'
    },
    comments: {
      type: 'comment',
      schema: 'only-body' // A custom schema
    }
  },
  topLevelMeta: function(data, extraData) { // An object or a function that describes top level meta.
    return {
      count: extraData.count,
      total: data.length
    }
  },
  topLevelLinks: { // An object or a function that describes top level links.
    self: '/articles' // Can be a function (with extra data argument) or a string value
  }
});

// Register 'people' type
Serializer.register('people', {
  id: 'id',
  links: {
    self: function(data) {
      return '/peoples/' + data.id;
    }
  }
});

// Register 'tag' type
Serializer.register('tag', {
  id: 'id',
});

// Register 'photo' type
Serializer.register('photo', {
  id: 'id',
});

// Register 'comment' type with a custom schema
Serializer.register('comment', 'only-body', {
  id: '_id',
});

Serialize

Serialize it with the corresponding resource type, data and optional extra data :

// Synchronously (blocking)
const result = Serializer.serialize('article', data, {count: 2});

// Asynchronously (non-blocking)
Serializer.serializeAsync('article', data, {count: 2})
  .then((result) => {
    ...
  });

The output data will be :

{
  "jsonapi": {
    "version": "1.0"
  },
  "meta": {
    "count": 2,
    "total": 1
  },
  "links": {
    "self": "/articles"
  },
  "data": [{
    "type": "article",
    "id": "1",
    "attributes": {
      "title": "JSON API paints my bikeshed!",
      "body": "The shortest article. Ever.",
      "created": "2015-05-22T14:56:29.000Z"
    },
    "relationships": {
      "author": {
        "data": {
          "type": "people",
          "id": "1"
        },
        "links": {
          "self": "/articles/1/relationships/author",
          "related": "/articles/1/author"
        }
      },
      "tags": {
        "data": [{
          "type": "tag",
          "id": "1"
        }, {
          "type": "tag",
          "id": "2"
        }]
      },
      "photos": {
        "data": [{
          "type": "photo",
          "id": "ed70cf44-9a34-4878-84e6-0c0e4a450cfe"
        }, {
          "type": "photo",
          "id": "24ba3666-a593-498c-9f5d-55a4ee08c72e"
        }, {
          "type": "photo",
          "id": "f386492d-df61-4573-b4e3-54f6f5d08acf"
        }]
      },
      "comments": {
        "data": [{
          "type": "comment",
          "id": "1"
        }, {
          "type": "comment",
          "id": "2"
        }, {
          "type": "comment",
          "id": "3"
        }]
      }
    },
    "links": {
      "self": "/articles/1"
    }
  }],
  "included": [{
    "type": "people",
    "id": "1",
    "attributes": {
      "firstName": "Kaley",
      "lastName": "Maggio",
      "email": "[email protected]",
      "age": "80",
      "gender": "male"
    },
    "links": {
      "self": "/peoples/1"
    }
  }, {
    "type": "comment",
    "id": "1",
    "attributes": {
      "body": "First !"
    }
  }, {
    "type": "comment",
    "id": "2",
    "attributes": {
      "body": "I Like !"
    }
  }, {
    "type": "comment",
    "id": "3",
    "attributes": {
      "body": "Awesome"
    }
  }]
}

Some others examples are available in tests folders

Deserialize

input data (can be an simple object or an array of objects)

var data = {
  data: {
    type: 'article',
    id: '1',
    attributes: {
      title: 'JSON API paints my bikeshed!',
      body: 'The shortest article. Ever.',
      created: '2015-05-22T14:56:29.000Z'
    },
    relationships: {
      author: {
        data: {
          type: 'people',
          id: '1'
        }
      },
      comments: {
        data: [{
          type: 'comment',
          id: '1'
        }, {
          type: 'comment',
          id: '2'
        }]
      }
    }
  }
};

Serializer.deserialize('article', data);

{
  "id": "1",
  "title": "JSON API paints my bikeshed!",
  "body": "The shortest article. Ever.",
  "created": "2015-05-22T14:56:29.000Z",
  "author": "1",
  "comments": [
    "1",
    "2"
  ]
}

Custom schemas

It is possible to define multiple custom schemas for a resource type :

Serializer.register(type, 'customSchema', options);

Then you can apply this schema on the primary data when serialize or deserialize :

Serializer.serialize('article', data, 'customSchema', {count: 2});
Serializer.serializeAsync('article', data, 'customSchema', {count: 2});
Serializer.deserialize('article', jsonapiData, 'customSchema');

Or if you want to apply this schema on a relationship data, define this schema on relationships options with the key schema :

Example :

relationships: {
  comments: {
    type: 'comment'
    schema: 'customSchema'
  }
}

Mixed data (dynamic type)

Serialize

If your data contains one or multiple objects of different types, it's possible to define a configuration object instead of the type-string as the first argument of serialize and serializeAsync with these options:

• type (required): A string for the path to the key to use to determine type or a function deriving a type-string from each data-item.
• topLevelMeta (optional): Describes the top-level meta. It can be:
  • An object (values can be string or function).
  • A function with one argument function(extraData) { ... } or with two arguments function(data, extraData) { ... }
• topLevelLinks (optional): Describes the top-level links. It can be:
  • An object (values can be string or function).
  • A function with one argument function(extraData) { ... } or with two arguments function(data, extraData) { ... }

Example :

const typeConfig = {
  // Same as type: 'type'
  type: (data) => data.type, // Can be very complex to determine different types of items.
};

Serializer.serializeAsync(typeConfig, data, {count: 2})
  .then((result) => {
    // ...
  });

Deserialize

If your data contains one or multiple objects of different types, it's possible to define a configuration object instead of the type-string as the first argument of deserialize with these options:

• type (required): A string for the path to the key to use to determine type or a function deriving a type-string from each data-item.

Example :

const typeConfig = {
  // Same as type: 'type'
  type: (data) => data.type, // Can be very complex to determine different types of items.
};

const deserialized = Serializer.deserialize(typeConfig, data);

Requirements

json-api-serializer only use ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) features supported natively by Node.js 4 and above (ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) | Node.js). Make sure that you have Node.js 4+ or above.

License

MIT