Morest

Allows developers to quickly create RESTful APIs using a mix of MongoDB, Express and NodeJS.

Using Morest

Morest generator

The quickest way to get started with Morest is by using the Morest generator.

Manually

Install using npm: npm install morest --save

The basic idea behind Morest is to write as little boilerplate code as possible. To get started all you have to do is define the MongoDB schema using Mongoose and add the routes to an Express Router.

app/controllers/bear.js:

var mongoose = require('mongoose'), 
    Schema = mongoose.Schema,
    morest = require('morest'),
    Controller = morest.Controller;

var BearSchema = new Schema({
    name: {type: String, required: true},
    type: String
});

mongoose.model('Bear', BearSchema);

var BearController = new Controller({
    model: 'Bear',
    availableOperations: [
        'GET_ALL',
        'GET'
    ]
});

module.exports = BearController;

Then set up a server to use the controller.

server.js:

var express = require('express'),
    app = express(),
    router = express.Router(),
    mongoose = require('mongoose'),
    bodyParser = require('body-parser'),
    morest = require('morest').Morest;

mongoose.connect('mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/bears');

var BearController = require('./app/controllers/bear');

app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({extended: true}));
app.use(bodyParser.json());

var port = 8000;

app.use('/api', morest(router, mongoose, {controllers: [BearController]}));
app.listen(port);

Defining a controller

Morest comes with its own controllers that allow Morest to easily generate routes.

Before defining a controller, a Mongoose schema is required.

The following options can be passed into the controller:

model: the name of the Mongoose model

availableOperations: array of operations that can be performed with this controller, e.g.: GET_ALL, GET, POST, UPDATE, DELETE. By default, all operations are enabled.

Generating the routes

Generating CRUD routes is simple.

First create an Express router by doing: var router = express.Router().

Then generate the routes by adding them to your app: app.use('/api', morest(router, mongoose, {controllers: [ControllerObject1, ControllerObject2]})).

The routes are generated based on the Mongoose collection names, e.g. bear is turned into /bears, and cave is turned into /caves.

Filtering routes

There is a basic implementation of filtering available by default in each collection. This allows someone to filter items based on the URL.

For example, searching for just grizzly bears could be done by navigating to the endpoint /bears/?type=grizzly bear.

You can also limit results by using ?limit=10 or skip results by using ?skip=10.

If you want to perform more advanced filtering you can also use Javascript filtering by using $where in the URL, e.g.: /bears/?$where=this.type.indexOf("Grizzly")>-1.

Customizing controllers

The base controller has one function for each operation. In case more advanced features are required for a certain controller they can easily be overwritten.

For example:

var BearController = new Controller({
    model: 'Bear'
});

BearController.GET = function(req, res){
    res.send('We dont have any bears yet!');
};

Contribute

If you are willing to contribute, feel free to open an issue or create a pull request.

Running tests

The tests can be run with npm test. This will start the mocha tests.