Restalize Template

This is a helper module for Restalize REST API generator. It serves as a template for the REST API project generated by Restalize.

• Cloning and using the repo
• How to use the API:
  • 1. Getting all Entity instances
  • 2. Getting entities with simple query parameters
  • 3. Getting entities with more complex query parameters
    • 3.1 REST API operators
    • 3.2 REST API response modifiers

Cloning and using the repo

Since this package belongs to a monorepo, cloning it alone means you need to use git filter-branch to remove unnecessary files:

git clone https://github.com/kennasoft/restalize.git
git filter-branch --subdirectory-filter packages/restalize-template

If you already have your typeorm entities/models defined (see examples at tests/lib/entities), you can throw them in the directory server/lib/entities, and you have yourself a basic CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) REST API complete with Open API 2.0 (swagger) documentation. Remember to specify your own typeorm database connection details in a .env file (see .env.sample).

When you start the express or hapi server using yarn dev or yarn dev:hapi commands respectively, it generates 7 different API routes for each entity/model. For example, if you have an entity called Pet, you'll get the following endpoints:

- GET /api/Pets        # fetch a list of Pets based on request query params
- GET /api/Pets/:id    # fetch a single Pet based on the id path param
- POST /api/Pets       # create a single Pet based on JSON payload in request body
- PUT /api/Pets        # update a Pet or multiple Pets based on condition found in request payload
- PUT /api/Pets/:id    # update the Pet with id matching the id in request path using the update fields in the request body
- DELETE /api/Pets     # delete multiple Pets based on condition found in request payload
- DELETE /api/Pets/:id    # delete the Pet with id matching the id in request path

Apart from the routes listed above, you also get the /api route which lands on a swagger UI page listing all available endpoints

- GET /api # display the OpenApi UI to see all available endpoints

Which will give a page like this:

The GET request has some useful querying, sorting, and filtering features that can be used on the endpoint, which we'll look into in this document.

How to use the API:

1. Getting all Entity instances

You can fetch all rows paginated (20 rows per page) by doing a simple get request to the /api/Pets endpoint without any query parameters. E.g. running the command below in a terminal

curl -X GET http://localhost:3000/api/Pets

will result in the following output:

{
  "status": "success",
  "data": {
    "total": 5,
    "subtotal": 5,
    "currentPage": 1,
    "totalPages": 1,
    "rows": [
      {
        "name": "FuzzyCat",
        "photoUrls": [
          "http://loremflickr.com/g/320/240/cat",
          "http://loremflickr.com/320/240/cat"
        ],
        "status": "available"
      },
      {
        "name": "NaughtyDog",
        "photoUrls": [
          "http://loremflickr.com/g/320/240/dog",
          "http://loremflickr.com/320/240/dog"
        ],
        "status": "available"
      },
      {
        "name": "Spotty",
        "photoUrls": [
          "http://loremflickr.com/g/320/240/leopard",
          "http://loremflickr.com/320/240/leopard"
        ],
        "status": "available"
      },
      {
        "name": "King Kong",
        "photoUrls": [
          "http://www.sciencedump.com/sites/default/files/field/teaserimage/gorilla.jpg",
          "http://www.kidzone.ws/ANIMALS/gorillas/gorilla.jpg",
          "http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/04/14/article-2604010-1D117C4D00000578-291_634x782.jpg",
          "http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article8084087.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/MAIN-Dublin-zoo-gorilla-dies-after-short-illness.jpg"
        ],
        "status": "available"
      },
      {
        "name": "Tyrannosaurus Rex",
        "photoUrls": [
          "http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/jurassicpark/images/5/57/Jurassic-world-stomp-strike-tyrannosaurus-rex-1.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150213174835",
          "http://orig03.deviantart.net/f652/f/2014/331/5/7/jurassic_world__tyrannosaurus_rex_by_sonichedgehog2-d87wp3n.png",
          "http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/7251586-3x2-940x627.jpg",
          "http://www.sideshowtoy.com/assets/products/200209-t-rex-the-tyrant-king/lg/200209-t-rex-the-tyrant-king-003.jpg"
        ],
        "status": "unavailable"
      }
    ]
  }
}

2. Getting entities with simple query parameters

Beyond a simple GET, you can also fetch a list of entities matching criteria in the GET request querystring. For example, to get entities with the name field equal to FuzzyCat, we can do:

curl -X GET http://localhost:3000/api/Pets?name=FuzzyCat

which results in an SQL query to the backing store similar to the following

SELECT * FROM pet WHERE name='FuzzyCat';

We can also fetch entities using multiple criteria, e.g.

curl -X GET http://localhost:3000/api/Pets?name=FuzzyCat&status=available

which results in an SQL query to the backing store similar to

SELECT * FROM pet WHERE name='FuzzyCat' AND status='available';

3. Getting entities with more complex query parameters

The API also offers more advanced querying using a special set of operators described in the table below:

3.1 REST API operators

Operator	Description	Example
eq	'Equals' operator, used to check if specified parameter is an exact match to the term	/api/Pets?name.eq=T-Rex or /api/Pets?name=T-Rex
ne	'Not equals' operator, used to check if specified parameter is not an exact match to the term	/api/Pets?name.ne=T-Rex
lt	'Less than' operator used to check if specified parameter is less than the term	/api/Pets?createdAt.lt=2020-06-12
lte	'Less than or equal' operator used to check if specified parameter is less than or equal to the term	/api/Pets?createdAt.lte=2020-06-12
gt	'Greater than' operator used to check if specified parameter is greater than the term	/api/Pets?createdAt.gt=2020-06-12
gte	'Greater than or equal' operator used to check if specified parameter is greater than or equal to the term	/api/Pets?createdAt.gte=2020-06-12
between	'Between' operator used to check if specified parameter falls between the 2 comma-separated values in the term. Note that the lower value is meant to come before the higher value.	/api/Pets?createdAt.between=2020-01-01,2020-06-01
like	'Like' operator used to do a partial match of the specified parameter with the term	Term starts with: /api/Pets?name.like=Fuzz* Term ends with: /api/Pets?name.like=*Cat Term matches anywhere in parameter /api/Pets?name.like=ty or /api/Pets?name.like=*ty*
in	'In' operator used to test if parameter is any of a range of comma-separated values	/api/Pets?name.in=FuzzyCat,NaughtyDog
not	'Not' operator is a special one that inverses the operation of any other operator it prefixes. Used on its own, it is equivalent to not.eq	/api/Pets?name.not=FuzzyCat /api/Pets?name.not.in=FuzzyCat,NaughtyDog /api/Pets?createdAt.not.between=2020-01-01,2020-06-01 etc.

The general syntax for using operators in the GET request is

/api/PluralEntityName?[fieldName].[operator]=value

or when you apply the not operator

/api/PluralEntityName?[fieldName].not.[operator]=value

3.2 REST API response modifiers

Beyond the operators that can be passed in the request querystring, you can also pass response modifiers, to sort, paginate, and select fields. Below is a list of the modifiers available to your API

Modifier	Description	Example
_pageSize_	a numeric value that sets the number of rows to return per request. The default is 20	/api/Pets?_pageSize_=3
_page_	This, combined with _pageSize_ gives an offset to start fetching the next set of results	/api/Pets?_pageSize_=2&_page_=2
_orderBy_	This provides a criteria for sorting the results by. With a general syntax of _orderBy_=[fieldName].[sortDirection] where sortDirection is ASC or DESC.	/api/Pets?_orderBy_=name.ASC
_select_	This makes it possible to reshape the response data to contain only the specified fields	/api/Pets?_select_=name,status,category

Here is a sample request to get all Pets of the category with id=1, showing 1 item per page:

curl -X GET http://localhost:3000/api/Pets?category=1&_page_=1&_pageSize_=1&_select_=id,name,status,category,tags