Germaine is an ExpressJs middleware that allows you to quickly deploy an API that listens on a given endpoint and serves content from a JSON file.

Features

• dependency free
• lightweight (3Ko)
• super-fast
• delay simulator (for lazy loading tests)
• dynamic reading
• Define your endpoints in a funny way :)

Installing

Using npm:

$ npm install germaine

Using bower:

$ bower install germaine

API

germaine(path[, config])

path

The path to the file used as database. It can be JSON or JavaScript.

config

| NAME | TYPE | DESCRIPTION | | :------- | :-----------------------------------------------------------------------: | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | isStatic | boolean Default: false | By default, the file will be read each time the url is called. This allows you to update the content at any time without having to restart the whole server. You can disable this feature by setting isStatic to true. | | delay | int,object Default: 0 | You can add a custom delay (ms) to the requests. This is useful to simulate lazy loading for example. You can also provide an object with the min and max properties to randomise the delay. |

Example

const express  = require('express');

const germaine = require('../index');

const path     = require('path');

const app = express();

app.get(

  '/germaine/*', 

  germaine(path.resolve(__dirname, './example-database.json'))

);

app.listen(3030, function () {

  console.log('germaine listening on localhost:3030/germaine!');

});

How it works

Let's assume that this JSON represents your database:

{

  "pages": {

    "home": {

      "title": "Home page",

      "content": {

        "intro": "..."

      }

    },

    "bio": {

      "title": "About myself"

    },

    "content": {

      "lastProject": "Germaine"

    }

  }

}

With germaine, you can get access at any depth segment of the file from the url.

For example, you can get the content of the homepage this way :

GET /germaine/pages/home

But you can also only ask for the page title!

GET /germaine/pages/home/title

This let you define more or less complexes structures and sort your content very easily!

When should I use this?

• When you only need to get static content from a server
• For building tests
• When you have to build something that needs to make simple API calls, but the API has not been developed

Can I use it on production?

Yes of course! Germaine is a simple middleware for express, so it's up to you to add any restrictions and controls you which.

What about multi-language?

Germaine would like not to overweight. She therefore does not prefer to transform herself into a multi-function toolbox but remain herself, simple. However, it is always possible for you to cheat a little :

const express  = require('express');

const germaine = require('../index');

const path     = require('path');

const app = express();

app.get('/germaine/*', (req, res) => {

  if (headers['content-language']) {

    const path = `database-${headers['content-language']}.json`;

    return germaine(path.resolve(__dirname, path)(req, res);

  }

}));

app.listen(3030, function () {

 console.log('germaine listening on localhost:3030/germaine!');

});

And if I want to use several JSON files?

Germaine would like not to overweight. She therefore does not prefer to transform herself into a multi-function toolbox but remain herself, simple. However, it is always possible for you to cheat a little :

const express  = require('express');

const germaine = require('../index');

const path     = require('path');

const app = express();

app.get(

  '/germaine/pages*', 

  germaine(path.resolve(__dirname, './pages-database.json'))

);

app.get(

  '/germaine/articles*', 

  germaine(path.resolve(__dirname, './articles-database.json'))

);

app.listen(3030, function () {

console.log('germaine listening on localhost:3030/germaine!');

});

License

MIT