halapi

My node module

Install

In Browser:

$ bower install --save halapi

In Node:

$ npm install --save halapi

Usage

Given the API response:

{
  id: 1,
  firstname: 'John',
  lastname: 'Bar',
  links: {
    self: {
      href: '/person/1'
    },
    house: {
      href: '/person/1/house'
    },
    children: {
      href: '/person/1/children'
    }
  }
}

You must create the wrapper using the halapi, as below:

var api = new halapi({
  endpoint: 'http://foo.tld/bar'
});

halapi does not make the request by itself. Should you want to use $.ajax, superagent for the browser or request, got in node, it's up to you.

You must provide your own function that must follow this API:

var request = function (url) {
  return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
    // do what you want here !
  });
});

api.request(request);

You can now request any resource using the api.fetch method

api.fetch('/person/1');
api.fetch('/person/1/house');

The api.fetch return a promise which will return a halapi.Resource when resolved.

api.fetch('/person/1').then(function (john) {
  // john is an instance of halapi.Resource
})

To retrieve a linked resource from an existing resource, it's as simple as:

john.link('house').then(function (house) {
  // house is an instance of halapi.Resource
})

The halapi.Resource is not exported as it is easily accessible using api.fetch.

The halapi.Resource has a simple API:

• data(): return only the data part of the response, without the links property
• get(name): return the data property name
• links(): return the links property
• link(name): return a promise to fetch the resource for the given name link
• save(data): replace the content of the resource. Normally you should not need to use this.
• linkAttr: if you need to override the default value (links) for the link property

A small example below:

Given both the reponses for:

the resource /person/1:

{
  "id": 1,
  "firstname": "John",
  "lastname": "Foo",
  "links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "/person/1"
    },
    "house": {
      "href": "/person/1/house"
    }
  }
}

And the resource /person/1/house:

{
  "hid": 123,
  "name": "The little house",
  "links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "/person/1/house"
    },
    "address": {
      "href": "/house/1/address"
    },
    "badLink": {}
  }
}

api.fetch('/person/1').then(function (person) {
  person.get('firstname'); // John

  person.links();
  /*
  {
    "self": {
      "href": "/person/1"
    },
    "house": {
      "href": "/person/1/house"
    }
  }
  */

  person.link('house').then(function (house) {
    house.data();
    /*
    {
      "hid": 123,
      "name": "The little house"
    }
    */

    // this should not be needed.
    // Beware that it's the whole server response and as such you should provide
    // the links property
    house.save({
      hid: 124,
      name: "My little house"
    });

    house.data(); // will return the same data which where saved
    house.links(); // undefined because no links where provided.
  })
});

License

MIT © Stéphane Bachelier