BLEST Ruby

The Ruby reference implementation of BLEST (Batch-able, Lightweight, Encrypted State Transfer), an improved communication protocol for web APIs which leverages JSON, supports request batching and selective returns, and provides a modern alternative to REST.

To learn more about BLEST, please visit the website: https://blest.jhunt.dev

For a front-end implementation in React, please visit https://github.com/jhuntdev/blest-react

Features

• Built on JSON - Reduce parsing time and overhead
• Request Batching - Save bandwidth and reduce load times
• Compact Payloads - Save more bandwidth
• Selective Returns - Save even more bandwidth
• Single Endpoint - Reduce complexity and improve data privacy
• Fully Encrypted - Improve data privacy

Installation

Install BLEST Ruby from Rubygems.

gem install blest

Usage

This core class of this library has an interface somewhat similar to Sinatra. It also provides a Router class with a handle method for use in an existing Ruby API and an HttpClient class with a request method for making BLEST HTTP requests.

require 'blest'

app = Blest.new(timeout: 1000, port: 8080, host: 'localhost', cors: 'http://localhost:3000')

# Create some middleware (optional)
app.before do |params, context|
  if params['name'].present?
    context['user'] = {
      name: params['name']
    }
    nil
  else
    raise RuntimeError, "Unauthorized"
  end
end

# Create a route controller
app.route('greet') do |params, context|
  {
    greeting: "Hi, #{context['user']['name']}!"
  }
end

# Start the server
app.listen

Router

The following example uses Sinatra.

require 'sinatra'
require 'json'
require 'blest'

# Instantiate the Router
router = Router.new(timeout: 1000)

# Create some middleware (optional)
router.before do |params, context|
  if params['name'].present?
    context['user'] = {
      name: params['name']
    }
    nil
  else
    raise RuntimeError, "Unauthorized"
  end
end

# Create a route controller
router.route('greet') do |params, context|
  {
    greeting: "Hi, #{context['user']['name']}!"
  }
end

# Handle BLEST requests
post '/' do
  json_body = JSON.parse(request.body.read)
  headers = request.env.select { |k, _| k.start_with?('HTTP_') }
  result, error = router.handle.call(json_body, { 'headers' => headers })
  content_type :json
  if error
    raise Sinatra::Error.new(error.status || 500, error)
  else
    result
  end
end

HttpClient

require 'blest'

# Create a client
client = HttpClient.new('http://localhost:8080', max_batch_size = 25, buffer_delay = 10, headers = {
  'Authorization': 'Bearer token'
})

# Send a request
begin
  result = client.request('greet', { 'name': 'Steve' }, ['greeting']).value
  # Do something with the result
rescue => error
  # Do something in case of error
end

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.