😎 A REST api templating engine 👻
With a focus on designing before building and separating concerns.
_{Available for Typescript.}

ALPHA SOFTWARE

WARNING - this software is in alpha and is subject to change. The api will be undergoing breaking changes until the release of v1.0.0

About

design-first is a command line tool for helping you to build better http REST api's with Typescript.

Spec your api, first, in design.json and let design-first take care of the boring work leaving you to code up the important bits.

Full Documentation

The full documentation can be found, here.

Examples

A TODO's example, backed by postgres, with passport.js for authentication backed by a redis cache can be found, here.

Installation

$ npm install -g design-first

Quickstart

Initialize

To start a new design-first api, use the initialize command:

$ design-first init my-first-api

This will create a new directory for you at ./my-first-api/.

Next, change directories to this new folder and npm install:

$ cd my-first-api
$ npm install

In order to run, a design-first api needs a .env file and a design.json file. Two example files have been provided for you.

$ cp .env.example .env
$ cp design.example.json design.json

Design

Edit the design.json file to fit your needs.

{
  "api": {
    "name": "design-first-example",
    "description": "A well-designed REST api",
    "baseURL": "",
    "version": "0.0.1"
  },
  "services": [
    {
      "name": "foos",
      "path": "/foos",
      "description": "",
      "actions": [
        {
          "name": "show",
          "description": "",
          "method": "GET",
          "path": "/:fooID",
          "payload": "ShowFooPayload",
          "response": "Foo"
        },
        ...
      ]
    ...
    }
  ]
}

Generate

Next, after editing your design.json file, generate the templates:

$ design-first gen

Code

Finally, make the necessary changes to the auto-generated files.

Models / Types

./src/models/foos/index.ts

import { RequestPayload, MalformedPayloadError } from 'design-first';
import { IsInt, Min } from 'class-validator';

export class Foo { ... }

export class ShowFooPayload {
  constructor(props: RequestPayload) {
    try {
      this.fooID = parseInt(props.params.fooID);
    } catch (e) {
      throw new MalformedPayloadError("fooID must be an integer");
    }
  }

  @IsInt()
  @Min(0)
  public fooID: number;
}

./src/models/index.ts

// note: all of your models should be exported, here

export * from './foos';

Database

./src/db/index.ts

import { resolve } from 'path';
import { Pool } from 'pg';
import { migrate } from 'postgres-migrations';

export default class {
  constructor(private user: string, private password: string, private host: string, private database: string, private port: number) {
    this.pool = new Pool({
      user,
      host,
      database,
      password,
      port,
    })
  }

  public async doesUserOwnFoo (fooID: number, userID: string): Promise<boolean> { ... }

  public async showFoo (fooID: string): Promise<boolean> { ... }

  public async migrate () {
    await migrate({
      user: this.user,
      password: this.password,
      host: this.host,
      database: this.database,
      port: this.port,
    }, resolve(__dirname, './migrations/'), undefined);
  }

  private pool: Pool
}

./src/server.ts

import app from './internal/app';
import routes from './internal/routes';
import appContext from './context/app';
import DB from './db';

// Create the db
const db: DB = new DB(
  process.env.POSTGRES_USER,
  process.env.POSTGRES_PASSWORD,
  process.env.POSTGRES_HOST,
  process.env.POSTGRES_DATABASE,
  parseInt(process.env.POSTGRES_PORT),
);

let appCtx: appContext = new appContext();
appCtx.db = db;
app.set('context', appCtx);

/**
 * Primary app routes.
 */
app.use('/', routes);

/**
 *  * Start Express server.
 */
const server = async () => {
  // Migrate the db.
  try {
    console.log('migrating db');
    await db.migrate();
  } catch (e) {
    console.error('err migrating the database\n', e);
    process.exit(1);
  }

  app.listen(app.get('port'), app.get('host'), () => {
    console.log(
      '  App is running at http://%s:%d in %s mode',
      app.get('host'),
      app.get('port'),
      app.get('env')
    );
    console.warn('  Press CTRL-C to stop\n');
  });
}

export default server();

Context

Global

./src/context/app/index.ts

import DB from '../../db';

export default class appContext {
  // note: add your app-wide context, here
  db: DB;
}

Request Scoped

./src/context/request/foos/show/index.ts

import defaultRequestContext from '../../../request';

export default class extends defaultRequestContext {
  public userID: string;
  public isAdmin: boolean;
}

Authentication

./src/authentication/foos/show/index.ts

import { Request, Response } from 'express';
import appContext from '../../../context/app';
import requestContext from '../../../context/request/foos/show';
import { HttpReturn } from '../../../internal/utils';
import { ShowTodoPayload } from '../../../models';

export default async (
  appCtx: appContext,
  requestCtx: requestContext,
  payload: ShowTodoPayload,
  req: Request,
  res: Response,
): Promise<HttpReturn | void> => {
  // check session
  if (!req.session.userID)
    return new HttpReturn(401, 'unauthorized');

  requestCtx.isAdmin = req.session.isAdmin;
  requestCtx.userID = req.session.userID;
}

Authorization

import { Request, Response } from 'express';
import appContext from '../../../context/app';
import requestContext from '../../../context/request/foos/show';
import { HttpReturn } from '../../../internal/utils';
import { ShowTodoPayload } from '../../../models';

export default async (
  appCtx: appContext,
  requestCtx: requestContext,
  payload: ShowTodoPayload,
  req: Request,
  res: Response,
): Promise<HttpReturn | void> => {
  if (requestCtx.isAdmin)
    return

  const authorized = await appCtx.db.doesUserOwnFoo(payload.fooID, requestContext.userID);
  if (!authorized)
    return new HttpReturn(401, 'unauthorized');
}

Business Logic

./src/handlers/foos/show/index.ts

import appContext from '../../../context/app';
import { HttpReturn } from '../../../internal/utils';
import requestContext from '../../../context/request/foos/show';
import {
  Foo,
  ShowFooPayload,} from '../../../models';

export const Handler = async (appCtx: appContext, requestCtx: requestContext, payload: ShowFoooPayload): Promise<HttpReturn> => {
  let result: Foo;

  try {
    // your code, here...
    result = await appCtx.db.showFoo(payload.fooID);

    return new HttpReturn(200, result);
  } catch (e) {
    console.error('err in show action of foos service', e);

    return new HttpReturn(500, 'internal server error');
  }
}

Run

$ npm run dev

License

MIT.

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Adam Hanna

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.