How to wrap responses?

[arqex]

Hi, thanks for your wonderful json server.

I was wondering if it is possible to modify the server response. For example, if I get /posts currently I receive an array of posts. I would like to receive an object with one property posts and the list of post as the value of the property:

{ posts: [ /* list of posts here */ ] }

I have been playing with the middleware but I can't hijack the server response. Any clues?

[typicode]

Hi @arqex, thanks for the nice words :)
Right now you can't, but I plan to release something this week.

[arqex]

Hi,

That is really good news. I tweaked json-server locally in order to get it working as I need, but something official is much better :)

Thanks

[typicode]

Just did a quick release (v0.7.15).

You can now override the new router.render method to customize the response. Here's a test showing how it can be used:
https://github.com/typicode/json-server/blob/v0.7.15/test/index.js#L392

You can access data before it's returned to the browser using res.locals.data.

I'll add it to the README later.

Feedbacks are welcome :)

[arqex]

Hi typicode,

I looks great, a simple proxy function, not only for wrapping the data, but for customizing the reponse before it is sent. Perfect.

Thanks for your awesome work!

[typicode]

Hi @arqex, You're welcome. I'm happy if it helps.

[csibar]

Hi, could you please help me out with a simple tutorial on how to wrap the /posts response's array with a { posts : [ ]} object? I'm a little bit confused. Thanks.

[typicode]

Hi @csibar

This code should do the job

var jsonServer = require('json-server')

var server = jsonServer.create()
var router = jsonServer.router('db.json')

server.use(jsonServer.defaults)
server.use(router)

// If you want to target /posts specifically
router.render = function (req, res) {
  if (req.url === '/posts') {
    res.jsonp({
      posts: res.locals.data
    })
  } else {
    res.jsonp(res.locals.data)
  }
}

// Or /resources in general
router.render = function (req, res) {
  if (req.method === 'GET' && !req.params.id) {
    var obj = {}
    obj[req.params.resource] = res.locals.data
    res.jsonp(obj)
  } else {
    res.jsonp(res.locals.data)
  }
}

server.listen(3000)

[csibar]

Hi, thank you very much, now I get it, but it throws an error:

Loading database from server.js

/usr/lib/node_modules/json-server/bin/index.js:156
  var object = require(process.cwd() + '/' + source)()
                                                    ^
TypeError: object is not a function
    at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/lib/node_modules/json-server/bin/index.js:156:53)
    at Module._compile (module.js:456:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:497:10)
    at startup (node.js:119:16)
    at node.js:906:3

[typicode]

I think it's because your js file doesn't export a function. You can use the README example as a starting point:

module.exports = function() {
  var data = { users: [] }

  // Create 1000 users
  for (var i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {
    data.users.push({ id: i, name: 'user' + i })
  }

  return data
}

If you need help with that or if it doesn't work, you can paste your server.js.

[csibar]

Oh OK, my bad, works like a charm, thank you very much!

[csibar]

One more thing: req.params.resource at obj[req.params.resource] = res.locals.data returns undefined, so your second piece of code (to wrap all responses in general) doesn't work. I mean, it does, but it puts undefined to the JSON response.

[typicode]

Oh sorry about that, thanks for letting me know. I've not tested code.
Did you manage to get it work?

[csibar]

Unfortunately no, req.params returns just the path, tried to replace the slash/slashes by regexp, but it's not an elegant way. Do you have a solution for this?

[Codermar]

@typicode Hi, Great package! Thanks!
Is running by module the only way to simply customize the response?
For example if I wanted the POST, PUT, and DELETE to respond with:

{ 
   success: true/false, // based on the result of the operation
   data: res.locals.data
}