Turbo-API

Turbo-API is a high-speed, feature-rich Node.js library that makes it a breeze to create custom APIs, perfect for both beginners and experienced developers. With Turbo-API, you can rapidly set up robust APIs with built-in validation, logging, and services for multiple data backends. Think .NET for JS but better.

v1.1 - IT'S ALIVE! Pretend this is 1.0 - this is the first fully functional version/MVP. So far this has:

• Firestore/firebase support
• Model validation
• Customizable endpoints
• Customizable permissions
• Logging and authorization

To test:

• Set up a Google firebase app
• Install firebase tools via npm npm install -g firebase-tools
• Create a firebase functions app using the firebase-tools CLI, connected to your application (create a folder and run firebase init from that folder in the terminal)
• Install turbo-api in the functions application cd functions, npm i turbo-api
• Create your turbo-config.json in the main project folder (alongside /functions, not in it)
• Set up your controllers, in /functions/controllers, following the example below

Features

• Rapid API Development: Turbo-API is designed to help you quickly set up APIs with minimal configuration, allowing you to focus on your application's core logic.

• Customizable: While Turbo-API offers sensible defaults, you can easily customize and extend it to fit your specific project needs.

• Validation: Built-in validation and error handling provide a safety net for your API routes, helping you catch and handle errors with ease.

• Service Agnostic: Turbo-API is compatible with various data backends. You can seamlessly switch between services, extend existing ones, or create new services to connect to different back-end providers.

Getting Started

Installation

First, install Turbo-API in your Node.js project (currently, this only works for firebase functions, but I plan to add other services):

npm install turbo-api

Creating a Controller

Turbo-API follows a controller-based architecture. Here's how you can create a basic controller for a Book API:

    // Import the necessary content from Turbo-API
    const ControllerBase = require('turbo-api').ControllerBase;
    const { validation, serviceFactory, httpHelpers } = require('turbo-api');
    const { getDataService } = serviceFactory;
    const { handleRoute } = httpHelpers;
    const { AuthError, NoContentError, stringType, numberType, validateData, stringRule, numberRule, enumRule } = validation;
    
    // Import data from other controllers, if necessary
    const { AUTHOR_COLLECTION } = require('./authorController');

    // Define your collections and their properties
    const BOOK_COLLECTION = 'Books';
    const BOOKAUTHOR_COLLECTION = 'BookAuthors';
    const BOOK_PROPS = ['title', 'year', 'genre', 'isbn', 'author'];
    const BOOKAUTHOR_PROPS = ['book', 'author']

    // Create validation rules for your properties
    const bookValidationRules = {
        // Required string property
        title: stringRule(2, 100, true),
        // Required number property
        year: numberRule(0, new Date().getFullYear(), true),
        // Enumerable property
        genre: enumRule(['history', 'horror', 'mystery', 'reference', 'self-help']),
        // Optional, unique string property
        isbn: stringRule(10, 20, false, true),
        // Foreign key reference to the "Authors" collection
        author: fKeyRule(AUTHOR_COLLECTION, true),
    };
    // Define any necessary joining table entities
    const bookAuthorValidationRules = {
        // You can specify a set of properties as needing to have a unique combination (here, that means you can't link the same author to the same book twice)
        uniquePropCombination: ['bookId', 'authorId'],
        bookId: fKeyRule(BOOK_COLLECTION, true),
        authorId: fKeyRule(AUTHOR_COLLECTION, true),
    }

    class BookController extends ControllerBase {
        constructor() {
            super(BOOK_COLLECTION, bookValidationRules, BOOK_PROPS);
        }

        configureRoutes() {
            // Set up basic CRUD actions (create, read, update, delete)
            this.basicCRUD({
                isPublicGet: true,
                isPublicPost: false,
                noMetaData: false,
                allowUserDelete: true,
                isAdminOnly: false,
            }) // options are completely nullable
            // You can also call fullCRUD(options) to set up full CRUD actions
            // (basic CRUD + hard and soft deletion, get by user, and get inactive)

            // Add custom endpoints/actions like so:
            this.router.put('/:bookId/author/:authorId', (req, res) => handleRoute(req, res, async (req) =>
                const user = req.user;
                if (!user) throw new AuthError('User is not authenticated');

                // Create an entry in a book-author joining table
                const bookId = req.params.bookId;
                const authorId = req.params.authorId;
                const bookAuthor = { bookId, authorId };

                // Validate against the rules defined above
                validateData(bookAuthor, bookAuthorValidationRules, this.db, BOOKAUTHOR_COLLECTION);
                // Perform the data action using the data service
                const db = await getDataService();
                const linkResult = await db.createDocument(BOOKAUTHOR_COLLECTION, bookAuthor, user.uid);
                // Log the event, if necessary
                this.logger.info(`Author ${authorId} linked to Book ${bookId} by ${user.uid}`);
                // Return the result (this will be the response data)
                return linkResult;
            ));
        }
    }

    // Export the controller, along with other data that might be used by other controllers
    module.exports = {
        controller: BookController,
        BOOK_COLLECTION,
        BOOK_PROPS,
        bookValidationRules,
    };

Defining Your Config

Create a turbo-config.json file in the root folder of your project. It specifies the data and logging services to use, as well as the mapping of controller names to their respective routes.

1. Create the Configuration File:

   If you don't have a turbo-config.json file in your project, create one in the root folder of your Turbo-API project. You can use the provided example as a starting point:

    {
        "dataService": "firestore",
        "loggingService": "firestore",
        "controllers": {
            "bookController": "/books",
            "authorController": "/authors",
        }
    }

2. Configure Data and Logging Services:

"dataService": Specify the data service to use (e.g., "firestore"). Turbo-API is designed to support any number of back-end services. Firestore is the only back-end service set up by default, as of v1.0.1.

"loggingService": Define the logging service to use (e.g., "firestore"). Similar to the data service, Turbo-API allows for flexibility in selecting logging services.

3. Map Controllers to Routes:

In the "controllers" section, you map each controller name to its respective route. For example, "profileController": "/profile" associates the "profileController" with the "/profile" route. You can customize these routes to match your application's needs.

Setting up Firebase in Your Consuming App

To use Firebase as your data service in your consuming app, you need to set up your Firebase credentials. The Turbo-API library allows you to configure Firebase credentials using environment variables. Follow these steps to set up Firebase in your consuming app:

1. Install the Firebase SDK: If you haven't already, install the Firebase SDK in your project using npm or yarn.

   npm install firebase
   # OR
   yarn add firebase

2. Create a Firebase Project:

If you don't have a Firebase project yet, create one on the Firebase Console. Once your project is created, navigate to Project Settings to find your Firebase configuration.

3. Set Up Environment Variables:

In your consuming app, set up environment variables to store your Firebase configuration. You can use a library like dotenv to load these variables from a .env file.

Create a .env file in your project's root directory (if you don't have one already) and add the following environment variables, replacing the values with your Firebase configuration details:

FIREBASE_TYPE=your-firebase-app-type
FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID=your-project-id
FIREBASE_PRIVATE_KEY_ID=your-private-key-id
FIREBASE_PRIVATE_KEY=your-private-key
FIREBASE_CLIENT_EMAIL=your-client-email
FIREBASE_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id

These environment variables are not required, and have default values:

FIREBASE_AUTH_URI=
FIREBASE_TOKEN_URI=
FIREBASE_AUTH_PROVIDER_CERT_URL=
FIREBASE_CLIENT_CERT_URL=

You can find these configuration values in your Firebase project settings.

4. Load Environment Variables:

In your consuming app's entry point (e.g., index.js or app.js), make sure to load the environment variables from the .env file using dotenv. You can do this by adding the following code at the beginning of your entry point:

    require('dotenv').config();

Running Your API

To start your Turbo-API, include the following in your main application file:

    const { buildApp } = require('./turbo-api')

    // Set up Firebase Admin/Auth (if using Firebase)
    admin.initializeApp()

    const app = buildApp()

    // Export the API
    exports.api = functions.https.onRequest(app)

Now your Turbo-API is up and running! You can access the book/:id route for books you've defined in your controller.

Customization

Turbo-API is highly customizable. You can extend and modify controllers, create your custom services, and change validation rules to match your application's unique requirements.

Understanding Validation Rules

Turbo-API includes a robust validation system that ensures data consistency and integrity. The validation rules are defined in your controllers and help you specify the requirements and constraints for your data. This section provides an overview of how the existing validation rules work and how to customize them.

Basic Types

Before diving into specific validation rules, let's understand the basic types used in Turbo-API:

• stringType: Represents a string.
• numberType: Represents a number.
• boolType: Represents a boolean.
• arrType: Represents an array.

These types are fundamental in validating the data properties. For example, you can specify that a particular property should be of type string or number.

Custom Error Types

Turbo-API employs custom error types to handle different error scenarios. Here are the primary error types:

• NoContentError: Thrown when a request is unnecessary.
• ValidationError: Thrown when a request is not properly formatted.
• AuthError: Thrown when a user does not have permission to complete the request.
• ForbiddenError: Thrown when a request is valid but presents a conflict.
• NotFoundError: Thrown when a necessary resource cannot be retrieved.
• LogicError: Thrown when a request is valid, but the data is logically invalid or defies the schema's philosophy.
• DependencyError: Thrown when a secondary call fails.
• InternalError: Thrown when an unknown error has occurred.
• ServiceError: Thrown when a third-party service is not available (e.g., ML).

These custom error types allow you to handle different error scenarios with precision.

Validation Functions

Turbo-API provides several validation functions to check various aspects of data properties:

• validateData: Validates a data object against its rules set and potentially against the database.
• validateProp: Validates an individual property against its rules.
• validateType: Validates the property type if specified.
• validateLength: Validates the length of string or array-like properties.
• validateSize: Validates the value of numerical properties.
• validateValue: Validates the property against a set of allowed values, like an enum.
• validateFormat: Validates a string property against a regex pattern
• validateCondition: Validates whether a requirement condition is met.
• validateForeignKey: Validates a foreign key reference (referenced object must exist).
• validateUniqueness: Validates the uniqueness of a property value within the collection.
• validateUniquePropCombo: Validates the combination of specified properties as unique.

These functions help you define how data should be validated, considering types, lengths, sizes, and more.

Helper Functions

In addition to the validation functions, Turbo-API includes some helper functions:

• filterObjectByProps: Sanitizes incoming data against allowed properties.
• applyDefaults: Applies default values to properties according to the rules.
• doComparison: Compares values based on comparison operators.

These helper functions assist in fine-tuning data validation and ensuring your data adheres to the defined rules.

Error Handling

Turbo-API's validation system uses a range of custom error types to distinguish between different error scenarios. It makes it easy to return appropriate HTTP responses based on the error type. For example, a ValidationError results in an HTTP 400 Bad Request response, while an AuthError leads to a 401 Not Authorized response.

Understanding these error types and the associated error handling mechanism will help you effectively troubleshoot issues in your Turbo-API application.

You can also extend and customize the validation rules and functions to meet the specific requirements of your application.

    (Example to come...)

Extending Turbo-API

Turbo-API is designed to be extensible. You can add new services to the factory and create custom validation methods to meet your specific project needs. You can add or extend back-end services and controller actions.

More on this to come...

Future Features

Intended future updates:

• AWS SUPPORT!
• TESTS
• Add admin functions to auth service
• TS type definitions
• Better error handling (add some try/catches?)
• Validation extension
  • Make validator into a class
  • Inject validator, with default
  • Define validator in turbo-config.json?
• More configuration options
  • Firebase-specific configuration options
  • AWS-specific configuration options

CONTRIBUTIONS WELCOME!! If you would like to add any of these updates, please feel free to make a pull request:

https://github.com/AndroidDoctorr/turbo-api

License

Turbo-API is licensed under the ISC License.