distracteddev / restful

Experimental / Unreleased RESTful resource router for resourceful models

Experimental / Unreleased v0.0.0

---

# Restful

Creates RESTful Director routers for resourceful models. Can be used as a stand-alone module or as a Flatiron plugin.

Installation

 npm install restful

Usage

var http        = require('http'),
    restful     = require('../lib/restful'),
    resourceful = require('resourceful');

//
// Create a new Creature resource using the Resourceful library
//
var Creature = resourceful.define('creature', function () {
  //
  // Specify a storage engine
  //
  this.use('memory');
  //
  // Specify some properties with validation
  //
  this.string('type');
  this.string('description');
});

//
// Create a new Director routing map based on "Creature" resource
//
var router = restful.createRouter(Creature);

//
// Setup a very simple HTTP server to serve our routing map!
//
var server = http.createServer(function (req, res) {
  req.chunks = [];
  req.on('data', function (chunk) {
    req.chunks.push(chunk.toString());
  });
  /*

   Router will now dispatch all RESTFul urls for the Creature resource

     POST    /Creature    => Creature.create()
     GET     /Creature    => Creature.all()
     GET     /Creature/1  => Creature.show()
     PUT     /Creature/1  => Creature.update()
     DELETE  /Creature/1  => Creature.destroy()

   Since not all HTTP clients support PUT and DELETE verbs ( such as forms in web browsers ),
   restful will also map the following browser friendly routes:

   If you prefer to not use this option, set { strict: true }

     POST  /Creature/1/update  => Creature.update()
     POST  /Creature/1/destroy => Creature.destroy()


  You might also want to consider using a rails-like approach which uses
  the convention of a reserved <form> input field called "_method" which contains either "PUT" or "DELETE"

    see: https://github.com/senchalabs/connect/blob/master/lib/middleware/methodOverride.js

  */
  router.dispatch(req, res, function (err) {
    if (err) {
      res.writeHead(404);
      res.end();
    }
    console.log('Served ' + req.url);
  });
});

server.listen(8000);

Tests

 npm test

TODO

• Integrate as Flatiron plugin via app.use(flatiron.plugins.http.restful);
• Full resourceful property type support ( numeric, boolean, array, object )
• Full resourceful nested property schema support
• Implement and document browser support
• Improve Tests
• Add better error support via errs library