data-structure.md

Data structure

The Router requires two MongoDB collections: routes and backends.

Routes

The routes collection uses the following data structure:

{
  "_id"           : ObjectId(),
  "route_type"    : ["prefix","exact"],
  "incoming_path" : "/url-path/here",
  "handler"       : ["backend", "redirect", "gone"],
  "disabled"      : false
}

Incoming paths with special characters must be in their % encoded form in the database (eg spaces must be stored as %20).

The behaviour of an enabled route is determined by handler. See below for extra fields corresponding to handler types.

If a route is disabled, the router will return a 503 for all matching requests. This is typically used if a service needs to be taken offline for maintenance etc.

backend handler

The backend handler causes the Router to reverse proxy to a named backend. The following extra fields are supported:

{
  "backend_id" : "backend-id-corresponding-to-backends-collection"
}

redirect handler

The redirect handler causes the Router to redirect the given incoming_path to the path stored in redirect_to. The following extra fields are supported:

{
  "redirect_to"   : "/target-of-redirect",
  "redirect_type" : ["permanent", "temporary"]
}

gone handler

The gone handler causes the Router to return a 410 response.

Backends

The backends collection uses the following data structure:

{
  "_id"         : ObjectId(),
  "backend_id"  : "arbitrary-slug-or-name",
  "backend_url" : "https://example.com:port/"
}