mongodb-discuss

This is a simple small module which implements the core features of a forum or discussion list. This is intended to be the backend that drives a few different apps (discussions list, tasks management etc).

If you are looking for a full fledged bulletin-board functionality, I recommend looking at NodeBB. This module is meant to be simple enough to embed in other locations but also change to suit any specific needs and as such is not meant to be a complete product.

Install

npm install mongodb-disucc

Initialization

 
   // Initialization via mongo URLs of the form: mongodb://user:password@host:port/database
   var discuss = require('mongodb-discuss')({mongoUrl: 'mongodb://user:password@host:port/database'});
 

API

This document is a work in progress. The unit tests cover bulk of the functionality and are probably easy enough to read at this point.

All APIs are of the following form:

 
   discuss.method(userId, params, done);

• userId is expected to be the ID of the caller and should always be present.
• params is expected to be an object giving the parameters. This is sanitized for mongodb-injection type security issues.
• done is a regular Node-style callback to report errors as well as the JSON response.

As such, the APIs are modeled to be fairly simple to expose directly to a browser-based client for example -- with the caveat that no authorization or authentication is done by the module and that is left to the caller.

createTopic

All interactions with topics start from creating a topic.

 
   var params = {
     subject: "This is the subject of the topic",
     body: "This is the body of the topic",
     subscriberIds: ["A list of userIds who should be subscribed to this from day one"],
     altTopicId: "An alternate ID to record with this topic; cf. findTopicIdFromAltId"
   };
 
   discuss.createTopic(creatorUserId, params, function (err, result) {
     // if the call succeeds, result contains the fields topicId, subject, body and altTopicId
   });
 
   // if a new topic is created, in addition to a success return above,
   // an event is generated on the discuss object.  This will happen
   // before the callback above returns.  This can be used to send a message
   // to the creator that the topic was created
   discuss.once('newTopic', function (topic) { // the newly created topic data object is provided here }

getSubscriptionState and setSubscriptionState

These methods allow a given user to figure out if (s)he is subscribed to a given topic.

 
   discuss.getSubscriptionState(userId, {topicId: topicId}, function (err, result) {
     if (!result.isSubscribed) {
       discuss.setSubscriptionState(userId, {topicId: topicId, isSubscribed: true}, function (err) {
       });
     }
   });
 

postMessage

This allows a user to post a message. Note that it possible to subscribe more people to the topic at this time and also note that a user who posts is automatically added to the list of subscribers.

 
   discuss.postMessage(userId, {topicId: topicId, body: body, subscriberIds: newSubscriberIds}, function (err) {
     // did the post succeed?
  });
 
  // also, when a message is successfully posted, it might need to delivered
  // to all users currently subscribed.  The delivery mechanism depends on the
  // app.  So, there is an event which is fired every time a message is delivered.
  discuss.on('mail', function (info) {
     // info.topic is a topic object (_id, subject, body, authorId are 
     //   valid fields.
     // info.from is the userId of the sender
     // info.to is an array of userIds of those who were already subscribed
     // info.addedTo is an array of userIds which got added with the message
     // info.message is a message object (_id, authorId, topicId, body) are
     //   valid fields
  });

getRecentTopics

This fetches all recent topics on the system or all topics created by the current user.

 
   var params = {type: 'all'};
   discuss.getRecentTopics(userId, params, done);
 
   // if params.type = 'my' -- only topics created by the current user are returned.
   // if params.type = 'subscribed' -- only topics the current user is subscribed to
   //    are returned.

getAllTopicDetails

This fetches all subscribers and messages for a topic.

   
   discuss.getAllTopicDetails(userId, {topicId: topicId}, function (err, info) {
      // info has all regular topic fields (topicId, body, subject, authorId etc)
      // in addition:
      // info.subscriberIds = array of subscriber ids
      // info.messages = array of message where each message has
      //   * body, authorId, createdTime and updatedTime fields
   });

Not yet implemented

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