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Endpoints

Endpoints are returned by the use, all and HTTP verb (e.g. get, post) methods of routers as well as the use method of the service context. They can be used to attach metadata to mounted routes, middleware and child routers that affects how requests and responses are processed or provides API documentation.

Endpoints should only be used to invoke the following methods. Endpoint methods can be chained together (each method returns the endpoint itself).

endpoint.header(name, [schema], [description]): this

Defines a request header recognized by the endpoint. Any additional non-defined headers will be treated as optional string values. The definitions will also be shown in the route details in the API documentation.

If the endpoint is a child router, all routes of that router will use this header definition unless overridden.

Arguments

  • name: string

    Name of the header. This should be considered case insensitive as all header names will be converted to lowercase.

  • schema: Schema (optional)

    A schema describing the format of the header value. This can be a joi schema or anything that has a compatible validate method.

    The value of this header will be set to the value property of the validation result. A validation failure will result in an automatic 400 (Bad Request) error response.

  • description: string (optional)

    A human readable string that will be shown in the API documentation.

Returns the endpoint.

Examples

router.get(/* ... */)
.header('arangoVersion', joi.number().min(30000).default(30000));

pathParam

endpoint.pathParam(name, [schema], [description]): this

Defines a path parameter recognized by the endpoint. Path parameters are expected to be filled as part of the endpoint’s mount path. Any additional non-defined path parameters will be treated as optional string values. The definitions will also be shown in the route details in the API documentation.

If the endpoint is a child router, all routes of that router will use this parameter definition unless overridden.

Arguments

  • name: string

    Name of the parameter.

  • schema: Schema (optional)

    A schema describing the format of the parameter. This can be a joi schema or anything that has a compatible validate method.

    The value of this parameter will be set to the value property of the validation result. A validation failure will result in the route failing to match and being ignored (resulting in a 404 (Not Found) error response if no other routes match).

  • description: string (optional)

    A human readable string that will be shown in the API documentation.

Returns the endpoint.

Examples

router.get('/some/:num/here', /* ... */)
.pathParam('num', joi.number().required());

queryParam

endpoint.queryParam(name, [schema], [description]): this

Defines a query parameter recognized by the endpoint. Any additional non-defined query parameters will be treated as optional string values. The definitions will also be shown in the route details in the API documentation.

If the endpoint is a child router, all routes of that router will use this parameter definition unless overridden.

Arguments

  • name: string

    Name of the parameter.

  • schema: Schema (optional)

    A schema describing the format of the parameter. This can be a joi schema or anything that has a compatible validate method.

    The value of this parameter will be set to the value property of the validation result. A validation failure will result in an automatic 400 (Bad Request) error response.

  • description: string (optional)

    A human readable string that will be shown in the API documentation.

Returns the endpoint.

Examples

router.get(/* ... */)
.queryParam('num', joi.number().required());

body

endpoint.body([model], [mimes], [description]): this

Defines the request body recognized by the endpoint. There can only be one request body definition per endpoint. The definition will also be shown in the route details in the API documentation.

In the absence of a request body definition, the request object’s body property will be initialized to the unprocessed rawBody buffer.

If the endpoint is a child router, all routes of that router will use this body definition unless overridden. If the endpoint is a middleware, the request body will only be parsed once (i.e. the MIME types of the route matching the same request will be ignored but the body will still be validated again).

Arguments

  • model: Model | Schema | null (optional)

    A model or joi schema describing the request body. A validation failure will result in an automatic 400 (Bad Request) error response.

    If the value is a model with a fromClient method, that method will be applied to the parsed request body.

    If the value is a schema or a model with a schema, the schema will be used to validate the request body and the value property of the validation result of the parsed request body will be used instead of the parsed request body itself.

    If the value is a model or a schema and the MIME type has been omitted, the MIME type will default to JSON instead.

    If the value is explicitly set to null, no request body will be expected.

    If the value is an array containing exactly one model or schema, the request body will be treated as an array of items matching that model or schema.

  • mimes: Array<string> (optional)

    An array of MIME types the route supports.

    Common non-mime aliases like “json” or “html” are also supported and will be expanded to the appropriate MIME type (e.g. “application/json” and “text/html”).

    If the MIME type is recognized by Foxx the request body will be parsed into the appropriate structure before being validated. Currently only JSON, application/x-www-form-urlencoded and multipart formats are supported in this way.

    If the MIME type indicated in the request headers does not match any of the supported MIME types, the first MIME type in the list will be used instead.

    Failure to parse the request body will result in an automatic 400 (Bad Request) error response.

  • description: string (optional)

    A human readable string that will be shown in the API documentation.

Returns the endpoint.

Examples

router.post('/expects/some/json', /* ... */)
.body(
  joi.object().required(),
  'This implies JSON.'
);

router.post('/expects/nothing', /* ... */)
.body(null); // No body allowed

router.post('/expects/some/plaintext', /* ... */)
.body(['text/plain'], 'This body will be a string.');

response

endpoint.response([status], [model], [mimes], [description]): this

Defines a response body for the endpoint. When using the response object’s send method in the request handler of this route, the definition with the matching status code will be used to generate the response body. The definitions will also be shown in the route details in the API documentation.

If the endpoint is a child router, all routes of that router will use this response definition unless overridden. If the endpoint is a middleware, this method has no effect.

Arguments

  • status: number | string (Default: 200 or 204)

    HTTP status code the response applies to. If a string is provided instead of a numeric status code it will be used to look up a numeric status code using the statuses module.

  • model: Model | Schema | null (optional)

    A model or joi schema describing the response body.

    If the value is a model with a forClient method, that method will be applied to the data passed to response.send within the route if the response status code matches (but also if no status code has been set).

    If the value is a schema or a model with a schema, the actual schema will not be used to validate the response body and only serves to document the response in more detail in the API documentation.

    If the value is a model or a schema and the MIME type has been omitted, the MIME type will default to JSON instead.

    If the value is explicitly set to null and the status code has been omitted, the status code will default to 204 (“no content”) instead of 200.

    If the value is an array containing exactly one model or schema, the response body will be an array of items matching that model or schema.

  • mimes: Array<string> (optional)

    An array of MIME types the route might respond with for this status code.

    Common non-mime aliases like “json” or “html” are also supported and will be expanded to the appropriate MIME type (e.g. “application/json” and “text/html”).

    When using the response.send method the response body will be converted to the appropriate MIME type if possible.

  • description: string (optional)

    A human-readable string that briefly describes the response and will be shown in the endpoint’s detailed documentation.

Returns the endpoint.

Examples

// This example only provides documentation
// and implies a generic JSON response body.
router.get(/* ... */)
.response(
  joi.array().items(joi.string()),
  'A list of doodad identifiers.'
);

// No response body will be expected here.
router.delete(/* ... */)
.response(null, 'The doodad no longer exists.');

// An endpoint can define multiple response types
// for different status codes -- but never more than
// one for each status code.
router.post(/* ... */)
.response('found', 'The doodad is located elsewhere.')
.response(201, ['text/plain'], 'The doodad was created so here is a haiku.');

// Here the response body will be set to
// the querystring-encoded result of
// FormModel.forClient({some: 'data'})
// because the status code defaults to 200.
router.patch(function (req, res) {
  // ...
  res.send({some: 'data'});
})
.response(FormModel, ['application/x-www-form-urlencoded'], 'OMG.');

// In this case the response body will be set to
// SomeModel.forClient({some: 'data'}) because
// the status code has been set to 201 before.
router.put(function (req, res) {
  // ...
  res.status(201);
  res.send({some: 'data'});
})
.response(201, SomeModel, 'Something amazing happened.');

error

endpoint.error(status, [description]): this

Documents an error status for the endpoint.

If the endpoint is a child router, all routes of that router will use this error description unless overridden. If the endpoint is a middleware, this method has no effect.

This method only affects the generated API documentation and has not other effect within the service itself.

Arguments

  • status: number | string

    HTTP status code for the error (e.g. 400 for “bad request”). If a string is provided instead of a numeric status code it will be used to look up a numeric status code using the statuses module.

  • description: string (optional)

    A human-readable string that briefly describes the error condition and will be shown in the endpoint’s detailed documentation.

Returns the endpoint.

Examples

router.get(function (req, res) {
  // ...
  res.throw(403, 'Validation error at x.y.z');
})
.error(403, 'Indicates that a validation has failed.');

summary

endpoint.summary(summary): this

Adds a short description to the endpoint’s API documentation.

If the endpoint is a child router, all routes of that router will use this summary unless overridden. If the endpoint is a middleware, this method has no effect.

This method only affects the generated API documentation and has not other effect within the service itself.

Arguments

  • summary: string

    A human-readable string that briefly describes the endpoint and will appear next to the endpoint’s path in the documentation.

Returns the endpoint.

Examples

router.get(/* ... */)
.summary('List all discombobulated doodads')

description

endpoint.description(description): this

Adds a long description to the endpoint’s API documentation.

If the endpoint is a child router, all routes of that router will use this description unless overridden. If the endpoint is a middleware, this method has no effect.

This method only affects the generated API documentation and has not other effect within the service itself.

Arguments

  • description: string

    A human-readable string that describes the endpoint in detail and will be shown in the endpoint’s detailed documentation.

Returns the endpoint.

Examples

// The "dedent" library helps formatting
// multi-line strings by adjusting indentation
// and removing leading and trailing blank lines
const dd = require('dedent');
router.post(/* ... */)
.description(dd`
  This route discombobulates the doodads by
  frobnicating the moxie of the request body.
`)

deprecated

endpoint.deprecated([deprecated]): this

Marks the endpoint as deprecated.

If the endpoint is a child router, all routes of that router will also be marked as deprecated. If the endpoint is a middleware, this method has no effect.

This method only affects the generated API documentation and has not other effect within the service itself.

Arguments

  • deprecated: boolean (Default: true)

    Whether the endpoint should be marked as deprecated. If set to false the endpoint will be explicitly marked as not deprecated.

Returns the endpoint.

Examples

router.get(/* ... */)
.deprecated();

tag

endpoint.tag(...tags): this

Marks the endpoint with the given tags that will be used to group related routes in the generated API documentation.

If the endpoint is a child router, all routes of that router will also be marked with the tags. If the endpoint is a middleware, this method has no effect.

This method only affects the generated API documentation and has not other effect within the service itself.

Arguments

  • tags: string

    One or more strings that will be used to group the endpoint’s routes.

Returns the endpoint.

Examples

router.get(/* ... */)
.tag('auth', 'restricted');
❮  Routers

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