Ember-jsend-api

Got a simple app and want to have a simple backend? Find JSON:API and Ember Data too heavy for something simple? Here is a solution that interfaces with a RESTful jsend API.

This addon adds the jsend service to interface with a CRUD backend that returns jsend data. For example we might have the following API:

Request	Responses
GET /api/entities	200 {"status":"success","data":{entities:[{…},{…}]}
POST /api/entities	201 {"status":"success","data":{entity:{…}}
GET /api/entities/1	200 {"status":"success","data":{entity:{…}}
PATCH /api/entities/1	200 {"status":"success","data":{entity:{…}}
DELETE /api/entities/1	200 {"status":"success","data":null}
Validation Errors	422 {"status":"fail","data":{"field":"message",…}}
Server Errors	500 {"status":"error","message":"error message"}

This addon would provide a convenient service to access these endpoints and convert the data into definable models (Ember.Objects).

Installation

ember install ember-sinon-qunit

Usage

Inject the service into your code (for example in your router):

import Ember from 'ember';
 
export default Ember.Route.extend({
  jsend: Ember.inject.service(),
  model() {
    return this.get('jsend').ajax({url: '/api/entities', method: 'GET'}, 'entities');
  }
});

Would make the model an array of raw objects (POJO). But wait theres more!

If you want to associate the data to your own Ember.Object you can use the Model specific methods. For example:

import Ember from 'ember';
 
const MyModel = Ember.Object.extend({
  toJSON() {
    return this.getProperties('id', 'foo', 'bar');
  }
});
MyModel.reopenClass({
  endpoint: 'entities',
  fetchAllNode: 'entities',
  fetchNode: 'entity'
});
 
export default Ember.Router.extend({
  jsend: Ember.inject.service(),
  model() {
    return this.get('jsend').fetchAll(MyModel);
  }
});

Would make the model an array of MyModel objects.

NOTE: The jsend service ignores HTTP status codes even though jQuery does not. The service relies on the JSON status value (success, fail, error) to provide better errors for the ember application (validation errors, custom messages). Per the jsend specs the server should provide both.

Models

Models should be Ember objects and provide a toJSON() method which returns a JavaScript Object (POJO) in much the same way Backbone defines toJSON. This is the same standard that JSON.stringify uses.

The model class needs three static properties which can be defined using the reopenClass() method.

The values are:

Property	Description
endpoint	The path to the endpoint you want. This is prepended with the namespace and suffixed with the model's ID.
fetchAllNode	This tells when node to lookup the data from. Since jsend responses return a node specific to the request.
fetchNode	As with above this is the node use to look up an individual response.

Methods

Method	Description
ajax(options, dataNode)	The generic helper with no knowledge of any Models you've defined
fetchAll(Model)	Fetch an index of resources
fetch(Model, id)	Requests a resource by ID (The 'R' in CRUD)
create(modelInstance)	Create a new resource (The 'C' in CRUD)
update(modelInstance)	Update a resource (The 'U' in CRUD)
delete(modelInstance)	Delete a resource (The 'D' in CRUD)

Errors

Errors are accessible through the jsend service (for example: this.get('jsend').ValidationError)

Error Type	Description
ValidationError	Used to encapsulate any validation errors (when success:fail). The errors property will hold the validations data.
ServerError	Used to encapsulate a server error (when success:error).

Collaboration

This outlines the details of collaborating on this Ember addon.

Installation

• git clone this repository
• npm install
• bower install

Running Tests

• npm test (Runs ember try:testall to test your addon against multiple Ember versions)
• ember test
• ember test --server