StandardAPI

StandardAPI makes it easy to expost a REST interface to your Rails models.

Installation

gem install standardapi

In your Gemfile:

gem 'standardapi', require: 'standard_api'

In `config/application.rb:

require_relative 'boot'

require 'rails/all'
require 'standard_api/middleware/query_encoding'

# Require the gems listed in Gemfile, including any gems
# you've limited to :test, :development, or :production.
Bundler.require(*Rails.groups)

module Tester
  class Application < Rails::Application
    # Initialize configuration defaults for originally generated Rails version.
    config.load_defaults 5.2

    # Settings in config/environments/* take precedence over those specified here.
    # Application configuration can go into files in config/initializers
    # -- all .rb files in that directory are automatically loaded after loading
    # the framework and any gems in your application.
    config.middleware.insert_after Rack::MethodOverride, StandardAPI::Middleware::QueryEncoding
  end
end

Implementation

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 ApplicationController < ActiveController::Base
    include StandardAPI::Controller

end

By default any paramaters passed to update and create are whitelisted with 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 updated.

class PhotosController < ApplicationController
  include StandardAPI

  def photo_params
    [:caption]
  end
end

If greater control of the allowed paramaters is required, the model_params method can be overridden. It simply returns a set of StrongParameters.

class PhotosController < ApplicationController
  include StandardAPI

  def model_params
    if @photo.author == current_user
      [:caption]
    else
      [:comment]
    end
  end
end

Similarly, the ordering and includes (including of relationships in the reponse) is whitelisted as well.

Full Example:

class PhotosController < ApplicationController
  including StandardAPI

  # Allowed paramaters
  def photo_params
    [:caption]
  end

  # Allowed orderings
  def photo_orders
    [:id, :created_at, :updated_at]
  end

  # Allowed includes
  def photo_includes
    { author: [:photos] }
  end

end

Note how includes can also support nested includes. So in this case when including the author, the photos that the author took can also be included.

API Usage

Resources can be queried via REST style end points

GET     /records/:id    fetch record
PATCH   /records/:id    update record
GET     /records        fetch records
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'

Include Options

Preload some relationships and have it delivered with each record in the resource.

Where Options

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"

// 

Testing

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 current_mask
        { id: 1 }
    end

end

Usage

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 }]