Let’s install Phobos.js: npm install phobosjs
The first thing to do is to create some models. Let’s create a User and Task models:
As you notice, these are normal Mongoose model objects, the only quirk is they’re placed in a single object and returned from the exported function. This allows Phobos.js to initialize the database connection and model objects in an efficient manner, as well as inject them where required as a DS variable.
Now, let’s create a scope file. Scopes are essentially permission levels that are configurable and fine-grained, allowing you to control exactly what the current user is allowed to do (and what they are not).
The format here is the root object contains model names, which in turn hold the permissions for each level - read, edit, create, delete, corresponding to the normal CRUD operations of a RESTful API. The searchableBy field allows you to whitelist how a client application will be able to search the resource. Through the owners field, you can specify an ownership relation - this corresponds to the field name in the model.
That’s it - the basic app is almost complete. But now, we should make some controllers and wrap it all in an entry point file for us to launch.
A controller allows you to define the actual resource that will be associated to your model. So, let’s create one:
Here, we’re creating an exported function closure that accepts DS as an argument. DS stands for “data store” - this is essentially the collection of models we created earlier. Using this object, we can directly access any of the collections in the database.
The _mountedAt property is the endpoint that will be used for this resource, and should correspond to the model name. For example, with the model User, the _mountedAt should be users, which is the plural lowercase version of the same noun. Phobos.js figures out these connections by using an inflection library. Two word model names would be converted to underscored versions (so ContentElement becomes content_elements).
Of course, a controller should be created for Task as well:
Now, we should include all the files and try launching our test app. Not a lot of code is needed to do this, so let’s get to it:
Notice we instantiated the Phobos object with a few properties - these should be self explanatory except perhaps bearerTokenSignature, which is the string used as the “secret” used to generate the bearer tokens. Make sure to keep these in a safe place!
NOTE: in the example, we used environment variables to store the properties, but perhaps you may want to use a different method.
Run your app.js file via node app.js and your API is running! Simple, right?