jQuery REST Client

v0.0.4

Summary

A jQuery plugin for easy consumption of REST APIs

Downloads

• Development Version
• Production Version

Features

• Simple
• Uses jQuery Deferred for Asynchonous chaining
• Basic Auth Support
• Helpful Error Messages

Basic Usage

1. Create a client.
2. Construct your API.
3. Make requests.

First setup your page:

<!-- jQuery -->
<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js"></script>

<!-- jQuery rest -->
<script src="http://jpillora.github.com/jquery.rest/dist/jquery.rest.js"></script>
<!-- WARNING: I advise not using this link, instead download and host this library on your own server as GitHub has download limits -->

<script>
  // Examples go here...
</script>

Hello jquery.rest

var client = new $.RestClient('/rest/api/');

client.add('foo');

client.foo.read();
// GET /rest/api/foo/
client.foo.read(42);
// GET /rest/api/foo/42/

Retrieving Results (Uses jQuery's $.Deferred)

var client = new $.RestClient('/rest/api/');

client.add('foo');

var request = client.foo.read();
// GET /rest/api/foo/
request.done(function (data){ 
  alert('I have data: ' + data);
});

// OR simply:
client.foo.read().done(function (data){ 
  alert('I have data: ' + data);
});

More Examples

Nested Resources

var client = new $.RestClient('/rest/api/');

client.add('foo');
client.foo.add('baz');

client.foo.read();
// GET /rest/api/foo/
client.foo.read(42);
// GET /rest/api/foo/42/

client.foo.baz.read();
// GET /rest/api/foo/???/baz/???/
// !ERROR! Invalid number of ID arguments, required 1 or 2, provided 0
client.foo.baz.read(42);
// GET /rest/api/foo/42/baz/
client.foo.baz.read(42,21);
// GET /rest/api/foo/42/baz/21/

Basic CRUD Verbs

var client = new $.RestClient('/rest/api/');

client.add('foo');

// C
client.foo.create({a:21,b:42});
// POST /rest/api/foo/ (with data a=21 and b=42)
// Note: data can also be stringified to: {"a":21,"b":42} in this case, see options below

// R
client.foo.read();
// GET /rest/api/foo/
client.foo.read(42);
// GET /rest/api/foo/42/

// U
client.foo.update(42, {my:"updates"});
// PUT /rest/api/42/   my=updates

// D
client.foo.delete(42);
client.foo.del(42); // if JSLint is complaining...
// DELETE /rest/api/foo/42/

Adding Custom Verbs

var client = new $.RestClient('/rest/api/');

client.add('foo');
client.foo.addVerb('bang', 'PATCH');

client.foo.bang({my:"data"});
//PATCH /foo/bang/   my=data
client.foo.bang(42,{my:"data"});
//PATCH /foo/42/bang/   my=data

Basic Authentication

var client = new $.RestClient('/rest/api/', {
  username: 'admin',
  password: 'secr3t'
});

client.add('foo');

client.foo.read();
// GET /rest/api/foo/
// With header "Authorization: Basic YWRtaW46c2VjcjN0"

Caching

var client = new $.RestClient('/rest/api/', {
  cache: 5 //This will cache requests for 5 seconds
  cachableTypes: ["GET"] //This defines what method types can be cached (this is already set by default)
});

client.add('foo');

client.foo.read().done(function(data) {
  //'client.foo.read' is now cached for 5 seconds
});

// wait 3 seconds...

client.foo.read().done(function(data) {
  //data returns instantly from cache
});

// wait another 3 seconds (total 6 seconds)...

client.foo.read().done(function(data) {
  //'client.foo.read' cached result has expired
  //data is once again retrieved from the server
});

// Note: the cache can be cleared with:
client.cache.clear();

Override Options

var client = new $.RestClient('/rest/api/');

client.add('foo', {
  stringifyData: true,
  cache: 5
});

client.foo.add('bar', {
  cache: 10,
});

client.foo.create({a:1});
// POST /rest/api/foo/ (stringifies data and uses a cache timeout of 5)

client.bar.create(42,{a:2});
// POST /rest/api/foo/42/bar/ (still stringifies data though now uses a cache timeout of 10)

Fancy URLs

var client = new $.RestClient('/rest/api/');

Say we want to create an endpoint /rest/api/foo-fancy-1337-url/, instead of doing:

client.add('foo-fancy-1337-url');

client.['foo-fancy-1337-url'].read(42);
// GET /rest/api/foo-fancy-1337-url/42

Which is bad and ugly, we do:

client.add('foo', { url: 'foo-fancy-1337-url' });

client.foo.read(42);
// GET /rest/api/foo-fancy-1337-url/42

Query Parameters

var client = new $.RestClient('/rest/api/');

client.add('foo');

client.read({bar:42});
// GET /rest/api/foo?bar=42

Note: Convience option for query parameters when POSTing is in progress

Show API Example

var client = new $.RestClient('/rest/api/');

client.add('foo');
client.add('bar');
client.foo.add('baz');

client.show();

Console should say:

ROOT: /rest/api/
  foo: /rest/api/foo/:ID_1/
    create: POST
    read: GET
    update: PUT
    delete: DELETE
    baz: /rest/api/foo/:ID_1/baz/:ID_2/
      create: POST
      read: GET
      update: PUT
      delete: DELETE
  bar: /rest/api/bar/:ID_1/
    create: POST
    read: GET
    update: PUT
    delete: DELETE 

Global/Singleton Example

$.client = new $.RestClient('/rest/api/');

// in another file...

$.client.add('foo');

// Note: Not best practise though, use RequireJS !

API

Note: This API is subject to change.

new $.RestClient( [ url ], [ options ] )

Instantiates and returns the root resource. Below denoted as client.

client.add( name, [ options ] )

Instaniates a nested resource on client. Internally this does another new $.RestClient though instead of setting it as root, it will add it as a nested (or child) resource as a property on the current client.

Newly created nested resources iterate through their options.verbs and addVerb on each.

Note: The url of each of these verbs is set to "".

See default options.verbs here.

client.addVerb( name, method, [ options ] )

Instaniates a new Verb function property on the client.

Note: name is used as the url if options.url is not set.

client.verb( [id1], ..., [idN], [data])

All verbs use this signature. Internally, they are all essentially calls to $.ajax with custom options depending on the parent client and options.

ids must be a string or number.

data is a jQuery Ajax Options Object's data property.

Note: A helpful error will be thrown when invalid arguments are used.

Options

The options object is a plain JavaScript option that may only contain the properties listed below.

See defaults here

Important: Both resources and verbs inherit their parent's options !

cache

A number reprenting the number of seconds to used previously cached requests. When set to 0, no requests are stored.

cachableTypes

An array of strings reprenting the HTTP method types that can be cached. Is ["GET"] by default.

verbs

A plain object used as a name to method mapping.

The default verbs object is set to:

{
  'create': 'POST',
  'read'  : 'GET',
  'update': 'PUT',
  'delete': 'DELETE'
}

For example, to change the default behaviour of update from using PUT to instead use POST, set the verbs property to { update: 'POST' }

url

A string representing the URL for the given resource or verb.

Note: url is not inherited, if it is not set explicitly, the name is used as the URL.

stringifyData

When set, will pass all POST data through JSON.stringify (polyfill required for IE<=8).

username and password

When both username and password are set, all ajax requests will add an 'Authorization' header. Encoded using btoa (polyfill required not non-webkit).

ajax

A jQuery Ajax Options Object

Note: Want more options ? Open up a New Feature Issue above.

Conceptual Overview

This plugin is made up nested 'Resource' classes. Resources contain options, child Resources and child Verbs. Verbs are functions that execute various HTTP requests. Both new $.RestClient and client.add construct new instances of Resource, however the former will create a root Resource with no Verbs attached, whereas the latter will create child Resources with all of it's options.verbs attached.

Since each Resource can have it's own set of options, at instantiation time, options are inherited from parent Resources, allowing one default set of options with custom options on child Resources.

Todo

• CSRF
• Method Override Header
• Add Tests

Contributing

Issues and pull-requests welcome. To build: cd *dir* then npm install then grunt.

Change Log

v0.0.4

• Simplified API

v0.0.3

• Added into the jQuery Plugin Repo

v0.0.2

• Manually Tested

v0.0.1

• Alpha Version