db-to-express-rest

A module to create Express 4 REST API routes automagically from MongoDB or NeDB document collections.

Overview

db-to-express-rest allows you to create REST API routes for a document collection with a simple one-liner.

var dbtoexpress = require("db-to-express-rest");
app.use("/api", dbtoexpress("artists"));

1. You call dbtoexpress() with a collection name.
2. It creates a file-based document collection if it doesn't exist. See Using with MongoDB.
3. You use() the returned value on your Express app.
4. And that's it. You have an HTTP REST interface for that document collection.

The call to dbtoexpress() returns an express.Router that is easy to app.use() on your Express 4 app.

This means that db-to-express-rest generates the usual REST API methods for you to easily expose a document collection.

Installation

npm install db-to-express-rest

Usage

Creating API endpoints and collections for several kind of documents at once.

var express = require("express"),
  dbtoexpress = require("db-to-express-rest"),
  app = express();

app.use("/api", dbtoexpress("records"));
app.use("/api", dbtoexpress("artists"));
app.use("/api", dbtoexpress("genres"));

app.listen(3000);

Inner workings

This module uses internally NeDB for simple file-based document collections and Monk for interfacing with MongoDB document collections. The trick is that these modules implement the same interface for finding, inserting, updating and removing documents from collections.

Auto-generated HTTP routes

The returned express.Router provides the following REST actions

• FIND - Using the underlying database's .find() method.
• FIND ONE - Using the underlying database's .findOne() method.
• INSERT - Using the underlying database's .insert() method.
• UPDATE - Using the underlying database's .update() method.
• DELETE - Using the underlying database's .delete() method.

See Exposed REST API for further explanation.

Using file storage for collections (NeDB)

Using a file-based storage is the default behaviour. You can

• Ask db-to-express-rest to create collections for you (passing a collection name as first paramenter)
• Use db-to-express-rest with your previously created NeDB file-based collections.

See API for more details on creation.

Using with mongoDB

pass the option dbtype to dbtoexpress().

var express = require("express"),
  dbtoexpress = require("db-to-express-rest"),
  app = express();

app.use("/api", dbtoexpress("records", {dbtype: "mongodb"}));
app.use("/api", dbtoexpress("artists", {dbtype: "mongodb"}));

app.listen(3000);

By default, it will connect to localhost and use (create) a database named mydb.

• Of course you can pass db-to-express-rest your previously created NeDB file-based collections.

See API for more details on creation.

MongoDB connection URI

Pass the option uri to dbtoexpress to use a specific database in a MongoDB instance

app.use("/api", dbtoexpress("records", {
  dbtype: "mongodb",
  uri: "190.220.8.211/mydatabase"
}));

Validating POSTs and PUTs

Validating data is as simple as using a middleware like express-form2. You just set a middleware prior to app.use()ing the router created by db-to-express-rest.

You may think that expres-form2 is exclusive for form-submitted data but it acts on req.body so it will be as useful on a JOSN encoded body as with a URL encoded one.

validate = require("express-form2");

app.use("/api", expressrest("cars", {}, [
  validate(
    field("title").isNumeric(),
    field("content").required()
  ),
  function(req, res, next) {
    if (!req.form.isValid) {
      return res.status(400).json(req.form.errors);
    }
    next();
  }
]));

API

Module

The db-to-express-rest module returns a function. You specify a collection and options arguments to the main module function. For example:

var dbtoexpress = require("db-to-express-rest");

dbtoexpress(collection, options)

Arguments

• collection - Required - A string or an object.

  {String} - If you provide a string, that string will be used as the collection name. If you're using NeDB, that will be the name of the file too. If you're using MongoDB, that will be the name of the collection.

  {Object} - If you provide an instanceof nedb() or an instance of monk.Collection, it will be used as the exposed collection. The collection's name for the HTTP routes will be figured out by the filename if using NeDB or by the Mongo collection name used if you're using MongoDB.

• options - Optional - {Object}

  • dbtype - {String} 'nedb' or 'mongodb'. Only required if the collection argument is a string. Default: 'nedb'.
  • uri - {String} - Connection URI string for a MongoDB database. The URI is a standard MongDB MongoURI. For example: '190.220.8.121/mydatabase'. Default: 'localhost/mydb'. Only valid if using mongodb.
  • filename - {String} - a filename for NeDB storage. Only valid if using NeDB. Default: join(process.cwd(), "db", "{collection}.db")

• middleware - Optional - {Array} - An array of middleware that will be attachend on POST and PUT methods before saving changes.

Returned value

The module creates an express.Router() and returns it. It also adds two properties to this object:

• collection: {Object} - The collection object used for queries.
• collectionName - {String} - The collection name. This is also the collection name used for HTTP routes for the REST endpoints.

Example on using the extra properties on the returned value.

var express = require("express"),
  dbtoexpress = require("db-to-express-rest"),
  app = express();

var dbroutes = dbtoexpress("records", {dbtype: "mongodb"});
app.use(dbroutes);

console.log("Exposing REST endpoints for collection %s", dbroutes.collectionName)

Exposed REST API

All routes respond with Content-type: application/json.

Supported REST API requests:

GET /{collection_name}

Returns all documents in the specified collection.

POST /{collection_name}

Insert new document in collection (document in POST body).

GET /{collection_name}/:_id

Returns document with _id.

PUT /{collection_name}/:_id

Update document with _id= (updated document in PUT body)

DELETE /{collection_name}/:_id

Delete document with _id.

Content Type

Make sure application/json is used as Content-Type when using POST/PUT with request bodies. Also accepts url-encoded parameters coming from a form. (this module loads body-parser's .json() and urlencoded mechanisms )