BackboneREST minimal example using bog standard express code, combined with swagger for documentation.

Install

In the root of the project:

  npm install
  node app.js

Navigate to:  http://localhost:8002/docs

Notes

This is a coffeescript program, so to modify it, you will need to know coffeescript and how to compile it. :)

A few obvious things that need to be stated to be clear:

• Make sure the header contains Content-Type=application/json in all requests. Without it, the server will just make new records with no fields and just return an id.
• To create a record, just send the fields you want in the record as a JSON object in the body of the request:

  POST /pet/

  Content-Type: application/json
  {
    "name": "butch",
    "category": "rabbit",
    "status": "available"
  }

The server will send the object back in the response with the primary id assigned (say 52bc781a2448cc0000000004).

• To update a record, use PUT. The ID is sent in the url, and the updated fields are put in the body of the message.

  PUT /pet/52bc781a2448cc0000000004

  Content-Type: application/json
  {
    "name": "really-butch",
    "status": "not available"
  }

• Use GET to retrieve the object in various ways using mongodb like query by example with the query parameters in the url.

  GET /pet?id=52bc781a2448cc0000000004

  GET /pet??category=dog&name="really-butch"

• Use DELETE to remove an object pass the id of the object in the url.

  DELETE /pet/52bc781a2448cc0000000004

• Make sure you have mongodb installed. This example assumes a standard mongodb install on port 27017. You won't have to create the database or the collection.
• If you are playing around with the in memory Models and the MongoDB models, be aware that the sync property changes between backbone-orm and backbone-mongo.

I have grafted on Swagger for documentation and demonstration purposes. Swagger creates a REST documenation website by creating an /api-docs endpoint with some JSON that describes the interface. Swagger-UI queries this endpoint and generates on the fly a nice looking documentation website where you can try out the API.

To make swagger work, I create a "Model" and a "Resource" file along side the backbone-rest object. These are just Swagger style definitions of the REST model and the methods available to get the resource representation.

Built with:

from vidigami: https://github.com/vidigami

Swagger is here: https://github.com/wordnik/swagger-js Swagger-UI is here: https://github.com/wordnik/swagger-ui See Swagger-Node-Express for more useful information: https://github.com/wordnik/swagger-node-express