StandardAPI makes it easy to expose a REST interface to your Rails models.
gem install standardapi
In your Gemfile:
gem 'standardapi', require: 'standard_api'
Optionally in config/application.rb:
module MyApplication
class Application < Rails::Application
# Initialize configuration defaults for originally generated Rails version.
config.load_defaults 7.0
# QueryEncoding middleware intercepts and parses the query string
# as MessagePack if the `Query-Encoding` header is set to `application/msgpack`
# which allows GET request with types as opposed to all values being interpeted
# as strings
config.middleware.insert_after Rack::MethodOverride, StandardAPI::Middleware::QueryEncoding
end
end
StandardAPI is a module that can be included into any controller to expose a API
for. Alternatly, it can be included into ApplicationController, giving all
inherited controllers an exposed API.
class PhotosController < ApplicationController
include StandardAPI
# Allowed paramaters
# By default any paramaters passed to update and create are whitelisted by
# the method named after the model the controller represents. For example,
# the following will only allow the `caption` attribute of the `Photo`
# model to be set on update or create.
def photo_params
[:caption]
end
# Allowed orderings
# The ordering is whitelisted as well, you will mostly likely want to
# ensure indexes have been created on these columns. In this example the
# response can be ordered by any permutation of `id`, `created_at`, and
# `updated_at`.
def photo_orders
[:id, :created_at, :updated_at]
end
# Allowed includes
# Similarly, the includes (including of relationships in the reponse) are
# whitelisted. Note how includes can also support nested includes. In this
# case when including the author, the photos that the author took can also
# be included.
def photo_includes
{ author: [:photos] }
end
end
For greater control of the allowed paramaters and nesting of paramaters
StandardAPI::AccessControlList is available. To use it include it in your base
controller:
class ApplicationController
include StandardAPI::Control
include StandardAPI::AccessControlList
end
Then create an ACL file for each model you want in app/controllers/acl.
Taking the above example we would remove the photo_* methods and create the
following files:
app/controllers/acl/photo_acl.rb:
module PhotoACL
# Allowed attributes
def attributes
[ :caption ]
end
# Allowed saving / creating nested attributes
def nested
[ :camera ]
end
# Allowed orders
def orders
[ :id, :created_at, :updated_at ]
end
# Allowed includes
def includes
[ :author ]
end
end
app/controllers/acl/author_acl.rb:
module AuthorACL
def includes
[ :photos ]
end
end
All of these methods are optional and will be included in ApplicationController for StandardAPI to determine allowed attributes, nested attributes, orders and includes.
includes now returns a shallow Array, StandardAPI can how determine including
an author and the author's photos is allowed by looking at what includes are
allowed on photo and author.
The nested function tells StandardAPI what relations on Photo are allowed to
be set with the API and will determine what attributes are allowed by looking
for a camera_acl file.
Resources can be queried via REST style end points
GET /records/:id fetch record
PATCH /records/:id update record
GET /records/ fetch records
GET /records/calculate apply count and other functions on record(s)
POST /records create record
DELETE /records destroy record
All resource end points can be filtered, ordered, limited, offset, and have includes. All options are passed via query string in a nested URI encoded format.
// Example
params = {
limit: 5,
offset: 0,
where: {
region_ids: {
contains: newyork.id
}
},
include: {
property: {
addresses: true
},
photos: true
},
order: {
created_at: 'desc'
}
}
// should be
'limit=5&offset=0&where%5Bregion_ids%5D%5Bcontains%5D=20106&include%5Bproperty%5D%5Baddresses%5D=true&include%5Bphotos%5D=true&order%5Bcreated_at%5D=desc'Preload some relationships and have it delivered with each record in the resource.
id: 5 WHERE properties.id = 5
id: [5, 10, 15] WHERE properties.id IN (5, 10, 15)
id: {gt: 5} WHERE properties.id > 5
id: {gte: 5} WHERE properties.id >= 5
id: {lt: 5} WHERE properties.id < 5
id: {lte: 5} WHERE properties.id <= 5
address_id: nil WHERE properties.address_id IS NULL
address_id: false WHERE properties.address_id IS NULL..."
address_id: true WHERE properties.address_id IS NOT NULL..."
// Array columns
tags: 'Skyscraper' WHERE properties.tags = {"Skyscraper"}
tags: ['Skyscraper', 'Brick'] WHERE properties.tags = '{"Skyscraper", "Brick"}'
tags: {overlaps: ['Skyscraper', 'Brick']} WHERE properties.tags && '{"Skyscraper", "Brick"}'
tags: {contains: ['Skyscraper', 'Brick']} WHERE accounts.tags @> '{"Skyscraper", "Brick"}'
// Geospatial
location: {within: 0106000020e6...} WHERE ST_Within("listings"."location", ST_GeomFromEWKB(E'\\x0106000020e6...)
// On Relationships
property: {size: 10000} JOIN properties WHERE properties.size = 10000"
The only change on calculate routes is the selects paramater contains the functions to apply. Currently just minimum, maximum, average, sum, and count.
{ count: '*' } SELECT COUNT(*)
[{ count: '*' }] SELECT COUNT(*)
[{ count: '*', maximum: :id, minimum: :id }] SELECT COUNT(*), MAXIMUM(id), MINIMUM(id)
[{ maximum: :id }, { maximum: :count }] SELECT MAXIMUM(id), MAXIMUM(count)
And example contoller and it's tests.
class PhotosController < ApplicationController
include StandardAPI
# If you have actions you don't want include be sure to hide them,
# otherwise if you include StandardAPI::TestCase and you don't have the
# action setup, the test will fail.
hide_action :destroy
# Allowed params
def photo_params
[:id, :file, :caption]
end
# Allowed orderings
def photo_orders
[:id, :created_at, :updated_at, :caption]
end
# Allowed includes
# You can include the author and the authors photos in the JSON response
def photo_includes
{ :author => [:photos] }
end
# Mask for Photo. Provide this method if you want to mask some records
# The mask is then applyed to all actions when querring ActiveRecord
# Will only allow photos that have id one. For more on the syntax see
# the activerecord-filter gem.
def mask_for(table_name)
{ id: 1 }
end
end
StandardAPI Resource Interface
| PATH | JSON | SQL | RESULT |
|---|---|---|---|
/models |
{} |
SELECT * FROM models |
[{ id: 1 }, { id: 2 }] |
/models?limit=1 |
{ "limit": 1 } |
SELECT * FROM models LIMIT 1 |
[{ id: 1 }] |
/models?offset=1 |
{ "offset": 1 } |
SELECT * FROM models OFFSET 1 |
[{ id: 2 }] |
/models?order[id]=asc |
{ "order": { "id": "asc" } } |
SELECT * FROM models ORDER BY models.id ASC |
[{ id: 1 }, { id: 2 }] |
/models?order[id]=desc |
{ "order": { "id": "desc" } } |
SELECT * FROM models ORDER BY models.id DESC |
[{ id: 2 }, { id: 1 }] |
/models?order[id][asc]=nulls_first |
{ "order": { "id": { "asc": "nulls_first" } } } |
SELECT * FROM models ORDER BY models.id ASC NULLS FIRST |
[{ id: null }, { id: 1 }] |
/models?order[id][asc]=nulls_last |
{ "order": { "id": { "asc": "nulls_last" } } } |
SELECT * FROM models ORDER BY models.id ASC NULLS FIRST |
[{ id: 1 }, { id: null }] |
/models?where[id]=1 |
{ where: { id: 1 } } |
SELECT * FROM models WHERE id = 1 |
[{ id: 1 }] |
/models?where[id][]=1&where[id][]=2 |
{ where: { id: [1,2] } } |
SELECT * FROM models WHERE id IN (1, 2) |
[{ id: 1 }, { id: 2 }] |