structr-4-tasks

-- A library that provides simplified access to a Structr's REST interfaces. It also can help streamline some of your maintenance tasks by enabling simple backup publishing to a remote location (currenty only implemented with AWS S3. Hopefully you find this library useful for standalone operations as well as for use in conjunction with other libraries (like Gulp)

Getting Started

From the commandline, with node & npm already installed: npm install structr-4-tasks

Usage Examples

//a variable to hold the structr utility object
var structr;

//simultaneously require and initialize the connection
require('structr-4-tasks').init("notyourusername", "notyourpassword") //<-- by default presumes your running from localhost
   .then(function(newStructrObject){
      structr = newStructrObject;
   })
   .then(yourStuff) //<--the entry point into your work that ensures that a valid connection will be available
   .catch(function(e){
      //Oops!  you ended up here if connection failed or you have an untrapped error in yourStuff();
      JSON.stringify(e, null, '\t')
      
      //some automation/scheduling systems like a proper error to correctly understand that this process failed.
      process.exit(-1);
   });

var yourStuff = function(){
   //lets get to work
   //requests the json-schema definition of an entity in your structr
   structr.rest.getSchema("MyEntity", "default").then(function(response){
      //if you specify an optional logger (like with gulp-utils), it is available throught the structr.log member;
      //this is handy if you're using the library with gulp and would like get the pretty logging      
      structr.log(response.result.result_count) 
      })  
};

Dependencies

structr-4-tasks uses the following NPM packages internally

argv lodash minimist q request request-promise s3 simple-publishers

Interfaces

.init(username, password, logger, options) the logger input

structr-4-tasks.rest

.get(entity, view, urlOptions) simple get function, optionally allow you specify additional argument

.getById(entity, view, urlOptions) simple get function, optionally allow you specify additional argument

.post(entity, data) post data to the

.putById(entity, id, data) note: not yet implemented //todo

.delete performs a delete post against a single ID. will not allow you to delete all nodes at onces

.getSchema(entity, optionalView) get entity metadata from the system for a specific entity/view

Backup structr-4-tasks.backup[...]

.run(fileName, publishOptions)

Example publish options

  var publishOptions = {
      "method": "s3",
      "destination": {
          Bucket: "mybucketname/folder1",
          //Key: filename.split(path.sep).pop()
          // other options supported by putObject, except Body and ContentLength.
          // See: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSJavaScriptSDK/latest/AWS/S3.html#putObject-property
      },
      "forceOverwrite":true,  //<--overwrite the file if it already exists in the target
      "bucketSubfolder": "thatServer",
      // Your AWS access token(s)
      "credentials": {
          accessKey: "NOTYOURACCESSKEY",
          secretAccessKey: "NOTYOURSECRETACCESSKEY"
      },
      "cleanUpOnSuccess":true  //<--delete the backup after it's been successfully uploaded
  };

Initialization (struct.init)

By omitting an options object, you are implicitly accepting the following defaults;

var defaultOptions = {
    protocol : ['http://', 'https://'].indexOf(argv['protocol']) > -1 ? argv['protocol'] : "http://",
    server : argv['server'] || "127.0.0.1",
    port : argv['port'] || undefined,
    loginResource : "structr/rest/login",
    maintenanceResource : "structr/rest/maintenance/sync",
    restBase : "structr/rest",
    installLocation : argv['structr-install'] || '/usr/lib/structr-ui',
    verbose: false,
    logger: console
};

This means that you can provide command line options to overrise the following properties

• protocol
• server
• port
• installLocation typically /usr/lib/structr-ui on most linux systems

Optionally you can set the logger to be your preferred logging function. if you don't provide a value, the default console logger will be used. this is helpful if you are using another library which uses a specialised logging function, as is commonly done when using Gulp.

You can provide a reference to any the top level object, in so much as it has a log() function. For example if used in a regular node context, if you omit the logger argument, providing console or console.log (either will work). the following are functionally equivalent

alternatively, if you're using structr-4-tasks with a library like 'gulp-utils' you can provide your utils reference example

var structr = require('structr-4-tasks')
structr.init("myusername", "mypassword", console)

//Or all at once
var structr = require('structr-4-tasks').init("myusername", "mypassword", console)

//if you're using gulp-util
var gulp = require('gulp');
var gulpUtils = require('gulp-util');
var structr = require('structr-4-tasks').init("myusername", "mypassword", gulpUtils)

Initialization

Credentials Best practice

Don't: put your username and password in your project Do: Use environment variables in your code to handle the username and password so that you don't have credentials in your code. example:

// For example use the process.env object to retrieve value that's you've previously Exported
var structr = require('structr-4-tasks').init(process.env.username process.env.password)

To Do:

• change delete to be deleteById
• ensure all rest method require valida authenticated connection with a common function
• Add usage example of how to publish to s3
• Add Publish option example