A simple way to put an API in front of a DynamoDB, Firestore, or Azure CosmosDB (MongoDB) backend.
This is based off of the Python implementation of the scoutr.
An sample implementation of this project is provided in the examples folder.
At minimum, two tables are required for this to work: an auth table and a groups table. Additionally, an optional audit log table can be used to track all API calls and changes to records in the data table. The configuration of each table is detailed next.
The auth table must have a primary key of id
. The table name does not matter, as this is passed in during
instantiation.
The groups table must have a primary key of group_id
. The table name does not matter, as this is passed in during
instantiation.
The audit log table must have a primary key of time
. For DynamoDB, it should also have a TTL attribute
of expire_time
configured. The table name does not matter, as this is passed in during instantiation. If a value is
not specified, it is assumed that no audit logs should be kept.
Scoutr provides full access control over the endpoints a set of users is permitted to call and the output that is returned. This is done using field filters, field exclusions, and permitted endpoints, which are outlined in the next section.
This access control functionality is implemented at both a user and a group level. A user can be a member of zero or more groups. The implementation of auth identifiers and groups is outlined in their respective sections.
The two types of access control supported are via API Gateway or via OIDC. Helper functions have been created for each access control type to assist with passing the correct request format into Scoutr.
For API Gateway authentication, the request format is generated by the InitAPIGateway
function.
Refer to the example serverless endpoint
It is assumed that there is an Apache server running in front of the application that performs OIDC authentication and passes the OIDC claims as headers.
The simplest method to setup the API is to use net/http. Helper functions have been
provided to make the setup as simple as possible. The InitHTTPServer
function
automatically generates the belows endpoints:
- GET
/user/
- Returns information about the authenticated user - POST
/user/has-permission/
- Determine if user has permission to access an endpoint. The body of this request should containmethod
andpath
keys as JSON. - GET
/<primary_list_endpoint>/
- Primary endpoint used to list data. The value ofprimary_list_endpoint
is determined by an argument passed toInitHTTPServer()
- GET
/audit/
- List and search all audit logs - GET
/audit/<item>/
- List audit logs for a particular resource - GET
/history/<item>/
- Show history for a particular resource - POST
/search/<search_key>/
- Search endpoint that allows searching by any key for one or more values. The body of this request should be a JSON list of values.
Refer to the example net/http applications
List of field filters to apply to queries by this group. Each item in this list must be structured as:
If the type of value
is a string, it will be filtered using a field = value
operation. To support multiple
values for a single field, tf the type of value
is a list, it will be filtered using a
field IN ['value1', 'value2', ..., 'valueN']
operation. When multiple field filters are specified, they are
combined together using an AND
operation.
[
{"field": "field1", "value": "filter_value"},
{"field": "field2", "value": ["value1", "value2"]},
]
Field exclusions allow for excluding one or more fields from the output of all queries. These fields are from any output during the post-processing phase of all queries. Additionally, if a user attempts to create or update an item that contains a field from this list, the operation will be denied.
[
"field1",
"field2"
]
Before taking any action, every call from API gateway is validated to ensure the user has permissions to
perform the call. For convenience, regular expressions can be used within the endpoint
field.
[
{"method": "GET|POST|PUT|DELETE", "endpoint": "/endpoint"},
{"method": "GET|POST|PUT|DELETE", "endpoint": "^/endpoint2/.+$"}
]
A group object be made up of:
group_id
- Identifier for the grouppermitted_endpoints
- Optional list of permitted endpointsfilter_fields
- Optional list of field filtersexclude_fields
- Optional list of field exclusionsupdate_fields_permitted
- Optional list of the only fields that can be updatedupdate_fields_restricted
- Optional list of fields to restrict updates for
The name of the group table must be passed in to the Config struct.
{
"group_id": "read-only",
"permitted_endpoints": [
{
"endpoint": "^/item/.+$",
"method": "GET"
},
{
"endpoint": "^/items.*$",
"method": "GET"
},
{
"endpoint": "^/search/.+$",
"method": "POST"
}
],
"exclude_fields": [
"supersecret"
],
"update_fields_permitted": [
"comments"
],
"update_fields_restricted": [
"type"
],
"filter_fields": [
{
"field": "provider",
"value": "Provider A"
},
{
"field": "product",
"value": [
"Product A",
"Product B"
]
}
]
}
There are three types of accepted authentication identifiers:
- USERNAME
- OIDC_GROUP
- API_KEY
Though not required, it is recommended for each object type to have a type
key that corresponds to its
authentication type (OIDC_GROUP, USERNAME, or API_KEY).
The field requirements for each object type are outlined in the following sections
- id (primary key) - this is the user's username (i.e. johndoe)
Though not required, it is recommended to also include a name
field containing the user's full name to make it
easier to identify the user at a glance.
- id (primary key) - this is expected to be the group id (i.e. group123) from the OIDC header
Though not required, it is recommended to also include a name
field containing the group's display name to make it
easier to identify the group at a glance.
If a user is a member of more than one OIDC group, the permissions granted by each configured group will be combined together to generate the effective permissions applied to the user.
- id (primary key) - this is the api key id
- name
- username
Optionally, each auth object can include a groups
object, which should be a list of group ids that the user is a
member of:
{
"groups": [
"read-only",
"product-a-only"
]
}
Any permissions defined in the groups are combined together to make up the user's permissions. In addition, the same
permissions that a group defines (filter_fields
, exclude_fields
, update_fields_permitted
,
update_fields_restricted
, permitted_endpoints
) can be expressed at the user level. These permissions will be
combined together with the permissions outlined in the groups the user is a member of. Permissions defined at the user
level DO NOT override those specified at the group level - they are combined.
The name of the user table must be passed in to the constructor.
For every authorized, successful call to the API, an entry will be logged in the audit log table. Each record will follow the below format:
{
"action": "CREATE|UPDATE|DELETE|GET|LIST|SEARCH|{CUSTOM-ACTION}",
"body": {
"key": "value"
},
"method": "HTTP method from API gateway",
"path": "/endpoint/path",
"path_params": {
"key": "value"
},
"query_params": {
"key": "value"
},
"resource": {
"key": "value"
},
"time": "2019-10-04T18:44:30.166635",
"user": {
"api_key_id": "ID",
"name": "John Doe",
"source_ip": "1.2.3.4",
"username": "johndoe",
"user_agent": "curl"
}
}
The following fields may not be included or may not have values for all types of actions:
- body
- query_params
- path_params
- resource
The helper methods within Scoutr assume that your API consists of the following endpoint types:
- List all records
- List all unique values for a key
- Search multiple values for a single search key
- Get single item by key
- Update single item by key
- Delete single item by key
- List all audit logs
- View item history
The list all items endpoint will return a list of all items within the backend that the user has permission to see and that meet any specified filter criteria.
The list by unique key endpoint provides a means to display all unique values for a single search key. It is
implemented by specifying a value for the uniqueKey
argument of the ListUniqueValues()
function. This is only
supported in DynamoAPI
currently.
# Unique listing of all values of the `status` key that the user is permitted to see
list-statuses:
handler: listUnique
events:
- http:
path: statuses
method: get
private: true
environment:
UniqueKey: status
func handler(event events.APIGatewayProxyRequest) (events.APIGatewayProxyResponse, error) {
// Convert log retention to int
logRetention, err := strconv.Atoi(os.Getenv("LogRetentionDays"))
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
// Build config
config := config.Config{
DataTable: os.Getenv("DataTable"),
AuthTable: os.Getenv("AuthTable"),
AuditTable: os.Getenv("AuditTable"),
GroupTable: os.Getenv("GroupTable"),
LogRetentionDays: logRetention,
}
// Initialize api gateway
api, request := helpers.InitAPIGateway(event, config)
// List the data
data, err := api.List(request)
// Handle any errors
if errorResponse := helpers.APIGatewayErrorHandler(err); errorResponse != nil {
return *errorResponse, nil
}
// Send response
return helpers.ProcessAPIGatewayResponse(data)
}
Lookup information about multiple items (POST /search/{search_key}
)
[
"record-a",
"record-b"
]
Retrieve a single record from the backend. The Get()
function accepts two arguments:
req
- the Request object containing information about the requestid
- the id of the item to lookup
If this returns more than one record, it will throw a BadRequest
error. If no records are
returned, a NotFound
error will be thrown.
The Create()
function accepts the req
argument, with req
being the Request object, an
item
argument, with item
being a map[string]string
of the data to be inserted, and a validation
argument in
order to perform validation on all the supplied data. Refer to the data validation section for more
information.
The Update()
function accepts a couple of arguments:
req
Request object
partitionKey
Mapping of the partition key to value. For instance, if the table's partition key is id
, it is expected this mapping
would be:
map[string]string{
"id": "value"
}
item
map[string]string
of fields to be updated
validation
map[string]utils.FieldValidation
of fields to perform validation against. Refer to the
data validation section for more information.
**auditAction**
A string value to use as the Action in the audit logs. This should be set to UPDATE
in most cases.
The Delete()
function accepts a couple of arguments:
req
Request object
partitionKey
Mapping of the partition key to value. For instance, if the table's partition key is id
, it is expected this mapping
would be:
map[string]string{
"id": "value"
}
The ListAuditLogs()
function accepts:
req
Request object
pathParams
Any search parameters to apply
queryParams
Query parameters from API Gateway
req
Request object
key
Resource key to search on
value
Resource value to search on
queryParams
Query parameters from API Gateway
actions
List of actions to filter on
There are two levels of filtering that are supported:
- Path-based filtering
- Querystring-based filtering
The List()
function accepts a single req
argument as a Request object. For filtering to be
applied, its PathParams
and QueryParams
fields should contain values. These are intended to contain the values
of PathParameters
and QueryStringParameters
, respectively, that API Gateway passed into Lambda. In the case of
net/http, these values should be set using the request.URL.Query()
function and any path parameters that
are set by the httprouter
package. Refer to the net/http example and the
InitHTTPServer function to see usage.
The List()
function also supports dynamic path filtering. When search_key
and search_value
are passed into
the method as PathParams
, it will dynamically modify the path parameters to construct a search filter where
search_key = search_value
To configure this in API Gateway, setup path parameters on the resource:
/endpoint/{search_key}/{search_value}
Or when using serverless:
events:
- http:
path: endpoint
method: get
private: true
- http:
path: endpoint/{search_key}/{search_value}
method: get
private: true
When using the dynamic path filters, there is no need to construct additional endpoints that support filtering by a specific key. However, using this method provides no limitations over what fields can be used as a filter. If that is a concern for your API, you will need to construct static path filters.
Static path filters can be constructed in a similar manner to the dynamic path filters, except that the search key is manually specified:
/endpoint/status/{status}
In order to properly work, the path variable must exactly match the key in the backend table that you want to perform the filter against.
In addition to path filters, querystring filtering is also supported. The List()
endpoint accepts all
querystrings via the QueryParams
field of the request object. Each querystring should be a
field_name=search_value
format:
/endpoint?status=Active&type=ABC
Path parameters always take precedence over querystring parameters. The below query:
/endpoint/type/ABC?status=Active&type=Azure
Would result in this filter criteria:
type = ABC AND status = Active
For more complex queries, querystring search supports the below magic operations:
in
(value is in list)notin
(value is not in list)ne
(not equal)startswith
(string starts with)contains
(string contains)notcontains
(string does not contain)exists
(attribute exists)gt
(greater than)lt
(less than)ge
(greater than or equal)le
(less than or equal)between
(value is between)
Note that DynamoDBAPI does not support the in
operation and FirestoreAPI only accepts the following magic operations:
- in
- gt
- lt
- ge
- le
- between
The MongoDBAPI supports these operations:
- in
- notin
- ne
- startswith
- contains
- exists
- gt
- ge
- lt
- le
- between
To use a magic operator, append __operator
to the key name. For example:
To search for all items with the product
key containing the word "Product"
/items?product__contains=Product
To search for all items with the product
key starting with the word "Product"
/items?sku__startswith=Product
Usage of all the magic operators is straightforward, with the exception of the in
and between
operators. The in
operators checks to see if the the value is included in a list of options. It should follow the JSON list syntax:
/items?product__in=["Product A", "Product B"]
The between
operator checks to see if the value is, inclusively, between a low and high value. It should also follow
a JSON list syntax:
/items?num__between=[0, 3]
It also works for string values, such as two dates:
/items?date__between=["2019-01-01", "2019-12-31"]
To find items that have an attribute:
/items?name__exists=true
To search for items that do not have an attribute:
/items?name__exists=false
For convenience, support for data validation on all create and update calls is supported. In order to implement the
validation, a map[string]utils.FieldValidation
should be passed to the validation
map of the Create()
or
Update()
functions. The syntax of this object is outlined below.
On Create()
calls, all items specified in the validation
map are assumed to be required fields. If a
field is missing from the user input, an error will be thrown saying that the field is required.
validation := map[string]utils.FieldValidation{
"field1": func(value string, item map[string]string, existingItem map[string]string) (bool, string, error) {
if value != "hello" {
return false, fmt.Sprintf("Invalid value '%s' for attribute 'field1'", value), nil
}
return true, "", nil
},
"field2": func(value string, item map[string]string, existingItem map[string]string) (bool, string, error) {
if value != "world" {
return false, fmt.Sprintf("Invalid value '%s' for attribute 'field2'", value), nil
}
return true, "", nil
},
}
The key of each item in the dictionary should match a field name that you want to perform validation against. The
corresponding value for the key should be a callable that returns a boolean, string, and error. The boolean should be
true
if the field validated successfully, or false
if it did not. The string
should contain the error message
that should be displayed to the user. The error
should be nil
if there were not any errors while running validation.
If an error was encountered, this error value will be returned to the user.
The callable that you provide must accept three arguments:
value
- Contains the input value for this fielditem
- Contains the entire data object that was passed from the userexistingItem
- Contains the existing data object. This will only have a value on update calls. For create calls, this will beNone
.
func validateUser(value string, item map[string]string, existingItem map[string]string) (bool, string, error) {
var itemType string
if existingItem != nil {
itemType = existingItem["type"]
} else {
itemType = item["type"]
}
if _, ok := item["type"]; !ok {
return false, "Type field is required", nil
}
if itemType == "Type1" {
re := regexp.MustCompile("^\d{10}$")
if re.MatchString(value) {
return true, "", nil
} else {
return false, "Value does not match pattern", nil
}
} else if itemType == "Type2" {
re := regexp.MustCompile("^[a-z]+$")
if re.MatchString(value) {
return true, "", nil
} else {
return false, "Value does not match pattern", nil
}
} else {
return false, "Validation failed", nil
}
}
fieldValidation := map[string]utils.FieldValidation{
"user": validateUser,
"type": func(value string, item map[string]string, existingItem map[string]string) (bool, string, error) {
validOptions := []string{"ABC", "DEF"}
found := false
for _, item := range validOptions {
if item == value {
found = true
break
}
}
if !found {
return false, fmt.Sprintf("Invalid value. Supported options are %s", validOptions), nil
}
}
}
Sentry support
Coming soon