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Foxx

@NAVIGATE_UserManualFoxx @EMBEDTOC{UserManualFoxxTOC}

Foxx: Build APIs and simple web applications in ArangoDB

Foxx is an easy way to create APIs and simple web applications from within ArangoDB. It is inspired by Sinatra, the classy Ruby web framework. If Foxx is Sinatra, @ref UserManualActions are the corresponding Rack. They provide all the HTTP goodness.

If you just want to install an existing application, please use the @ref UserManualFoxxManager. If you want to create your own application, please continue.

So let's get started, shall we?

Overview

The typical request to a Foxx application will work as follows (only conceptually, a lot of the steps are cached in reality):

  1. The request is routed to a Foxx application depending on the mount point
  2. The according controller of this application is determined (via something called the manifest file)
  3. The request is then routed to a specific handler in this controller

The handler will now parse the request. This includes determining all parameters from the body (which is typically JSON encoded) to the path parameters of the URL. It is then up to you to handle this request and generate a response. In this process you will probably access the database. This is done via the Repository: This is an entity that is responsible for a collection and specifically:

  1. Creating new entries in this collection
  2. Modify or delete existing entries in this collection
  3. Search for entries in this collection

To represent an entry in this collection it will use a Model, which is a wrapper around the raw data from the database. Here you can implement helper functions or simple access methods.

Now let's get into the details.

Creating the application files

An application built with Foxx is written in JavaScript and deployed to ArangoDB directly. ArangoDB serves this application, you do not need a separate application server.

So given you want to build an application that sends a plain-text response "Hello YourName!" for all requests to /dev/my_app/hello/YourName. How would you achieve that with Foxx?

First, create a directory apps somewhere in your filesystem. Let's assume from now on that the absolute path for this directory is /home/user/apps.

After that, create a sub-directory my_app in the apps directory and save the following content in a file named app.js there:

(function() {
    "use strict";

    var Foxx = require("org/arangodb/foxx"),
        controller = new Foxx.Controller(applicationContext)

    controller.get("/hello/:name", function(req, res) {
        res.set("Content-Type", "text/plain");
        res.body = "Hello " + req.params("name");
    }); 

}());

Beside the app.js we need a manifest file. In order to achieve that, we create a file called manifest.json in our my_app directory with the following content:

{
  "name": "my_app",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "author": "me and myself",
  "controllers": {
    "/": "app.js"
  }
}

You must specify a name and a version number for your application, otherwise it won't be loaded into ArangoDB.

You should now have the following files and directories with your application (starting at /home/user in our example):

apps/
  my_app/
    manifest.json
    app.js

This is your application.

Testing the application

Now your application is ready to be tested. Start ArangoDB as follows:

$ arangod --javascript.dev-app-path /home/user/apps /tmp/fancy_db

This will start the ArangoDB server in a development mode using the directory /home/user/apps as the workspace and /tmp/fancy_db as your database directory. In development mode the server automatically monitors the workspace and detects any change made to the files. Production application are installed using the Foxx manager and changes will not be reloaded automatically.

Replace /home/user/apps with the apps path that you initially created. This is the path that you created the my_app directory in. Replace /tmp/fancy_db with the directory your database is located in.

Now point your browser to http://localhost:8529/dev/my_app/hello/YourName and you should see "Hello YourName".

After this short overview, let's get into the details. There are several example apps available on Github. You can install them via Foxx manager (covered in the chapter on Foxx manager) or simply clone them from https://github.com/arangodb/.

Start with "hello-foxx" (https://github.com/arangodb/hello-foxx) as it contains several basic usage examples. "aye-aye" and "fugu" are more advanced apps showing how to use Backbone, Underscore and Jquery together with Foxx. foxx-authentication shows how to register users, login and check permissions.

Handling Requests

In development mode all available applications from the application directory /home/user/apps are visible under http://localhost:8529/dev/DIRNAME where DIRNAME is the name of the directory of your application.

When applications are installed in production mode, you can change the /dev prefix to whatever you like, see @ref UserManualFoxxManager.

If you do not redefine it, all requests that go to the root of your application will be redirected to index.html.

Details on FoxxController

@copydetails JSF_foxx_controller_initializer

HTTP Methods

Get

@copydetails JSF_foxx_controller_get

Head

@copydetails JSF_foxx_controller_head

Post

@copydetails JSF_foxx_controller_post

Put

@copydetails JSF_foxx_controller_put

Patch

@copydetails JSF_foxx_controller_patch

Delete

@copydetails JSF_foxx_controller_delete

Documenting and constraining a specific route

If you now want to document your route, you can use JSDoc style comments (a multiline comment block with the first line starting with /** instead of /*) above your routes to do that:

/** Get all Foxes
 * 
 * If you want to get all foxes, please use this
 * method to do that.
 */
app.get("/foxes", function () {
  //...
});

The first line will be treated as a summary (For optical reasons in the produced documentation, the summary is restricted to 60 characters). All following lines will be treated as additional notes shown in the detailed view of the route documentation. With the provided information, Foxx will generate a nice documentation for you. Furthermore you can describe your API by chaining the following methods onto your path definition:

Path Param

@copydetails JSF_foxx_RequestContext_pathParam

Query Param

@copydetails JSF_foxx_RequestContext_queryParam

Body Param

@copydetails JSF_foxx_RequestContext_bodyParam

Error Response

@copydetails JSF_foxx_RequestContext_errorResponse

onlyIf

@copydetails JSF_foxx_RequestContext_onlyIf

onlyIfAuthenticated

@copydetails JSF_foxx_RequestContext_onlyIfAuthenticated

Documenting and constraining all routes of a controller

In addition to documenting a specific route, you can also do the same for all routes of a controller. For this purpose use the allRoutes object of the according controller. The following methods are available:

Error Response

@copydetails JSF_foxx_RequestContextBuffer_errorResponse

onlyIf

@copydetails JSF_foxx_RequestContextBuffer_onlyIf

onlyIfAuthenticated

@copydetails JSF_foxx_RequestContextBuffer_onlyIfAuthenticated

Before and After Hooks

You can use the following two functions to do something before or respectively after the normal routing process is happening. You could use that for logging or to manipulate the request or response (translate it to a certain format for example).

Before

@copydetails JSF_foxx_controller_before

After

@copydetails JSF_foxx_controller_after

The Request and Response Objects

When you have created your FoxxController you can now define routes on it. You provide each with a function that will handle the request. It gets two arguments (four, to be honest. But the other two are not relevant for now):

  • The request object
  • The response object

These objects are provided by the underlying ArangoDB actions and enhanced by the BaseMiddleware provided by Foxx.

The Request Object

Every request object has the path method from the underlying Actions. This is the complete path as supplied by the user as a String.

Body

@copydetails JSF_foxx_BaseMiddleware_request_body

Raw Body

@copydetails JSF_foxx_BaseMiddleware_request_rawBody

Params

@copydetails JSF_foxx_BaseMiddleware_request_params

The Response Object

Every response object has the body attribute from the underlying Actions to set the raw body by hand.

You provide your response body as a String here.

Status

@copydetails JSF_foxx_BaseMiddleware_response_status

Set

@copydetails JSF_foxx_BaseMiddleware_response_set

JSON

@copydetails JSF_foxx_BaseMiddleware_response_json

Details on FoxxModel

The model doesn't know anything about the database. It is just a representation of the data as an JavaScript object. You can add and overwrite the methods of the prototype in your model prototype via the object you give to extend. In your model file, export the model as model.

var Foxx = require("org/arangodb/foxx");

var TodoModel = Foxx.Model.extend({
});

exports.model = TodoModel;

A Foxx Model can be initialized with an object of attributes and their values.

There's also the possibility of annotation: The second hash you give to the extend method are properties of the prototype. You can define an attributes property there:

var Foxx = require("org/arangodb/foxx");

var PersonModel = Foxx.Model.extend({
  // Your instance properties
}, {
  // Your prototype properties
  attributes: {
    name: { type: "string", required: true },
    age: { type: "integer" },
    active: { type: "boolean", defaultValue: true }
});

exports.model = TodoModel;

This has two effects: On the one hand it provides documentation. If you annotated your model, you can use it in the bodyParam method for documentation. On the other hand it will influence the behavior of the constructor: If you provide an object to the constructor, it will only take those attributes that are listed in the attributes object. This is especially useful if you want to to initialize the Model from user input. On the other hand it will set the default value for all attributes that have not been set by hand. An example:

var person = new PersonModel({
  name: "Pete",
  admin: true
});

person.attributes // => { name: "Pete", active: true }

Extend

@copydetails JSF_foxx_model_extend

Initialize

@copydetails JSF_foxx_model_initializer

Get

@copydetails JSF_foxx_model_get

Set

@copydetails JSF_foxx_model_set

Has

@copydetails JSF_foxx_model_has

Attributes

@copydetails JSF_foxx_model_attributes

forDB

@copydetails JSF_foxx_model_forDB

forClient

@copydetails JSF_foxx_model_forClient

Details on FoxxRepository

A repository is a gateway to the database. It gets data from the database, updates it or saves new data. It uses the given model when it returns a model and expects instances of the model for methods like save. In your repository file, export the repository as repository.

Foxx = require("org/arangodb/foxx");

TodosRepository = Foxx.Repository.extend({
});

exports.repository = TodosRepository;

Initialize

@copydetails JSF_foxx_repository_initializer

Collection

@copydetails JSF_foxx_repository_collection

Prefix

@copydetails JSF_foxx_repository_prefix

ModelPrototype

@copydetails JSF_foxx_repository_modelPrototype

Save

@copydetails JSF_foxx_repository_save

Remove By Id

@copydetails JSF_foxx_repository_removeById

Remove By Example

@copydetails JSF_foxx_repository_removeByExample

Replace

@copydetails JSF_foxx_repository_replace

ReplaceById

@copydetails JSF_foxx_repository_replaceById

By Id

@copydetails JSF_foxx_repository_byId

By Example

@copydetails JSF_foxx_repository_byExample

First Example

@copydetails JSF_foxx_repository_firstExample

The Manifest File

In the manifest.json you define the components of your application. The content is a JSON object with the following keys:

  • name: Name of the application (Meta information)
  • version: Current version of the application (Meta information)
  • description: A short description of the application (Meta information)
  • license: Short form of the license (MIT, GPL...)
  • author: the author name
  • contributors: An array containing objects, each represents a contributor (with name and optional email)
  • thumbnail: Path to a thumbnail that represents the application (Meta information)
  • repository: An object with information about where you can find the repository: type and url
  • keywords: An array of keywords to help people find your Foxx app
  • engines: Should be an object with arangodb set to the ArangoDB version your Foxx app is compatible with.
  • controllers: Map routes to FoxxControllers
  • lib: Base path for all required modules
  • files: Deliver files
  • assets: Deliver pre-processed files
  • isSystem: Mark an application as a system application
  • setup: Path to a setup script
  • teardown: Path to a teardown script

A more complete example for a Manifest file:

{
  "name": "my_website",
  "version": "1.2.1",
  "description": "My Website with a blog and a shop",
  "thumnail": "images/website-logo.png",

  "controllers": {
    "/blog": "apps/blog.js",
    "/shop": "apps/shop.js"
  },

  "lib": "lib",

  "files": {
    "/images": "images"
  },

  "assets": {
    "application.js": {
      "files": [
        "vendor/jquery.js",
        "assets/javascripts/*"
      ]
    }
  },

  "setup": "scripts/setup.js",
  "teardown": "scripts/teardown.js"
}

The setup and teardown scripts

You can provide a path to a JavaScript file that prepares ArangoDB for your application (or respectively removes it entirely). These scripts have access to appCollection and appCollectionName. Use the setup script to create all collections your application needs and fill them with initial data if you want to. Use the teardown script to remove all collections you have created.

controllers is an object that matches routes to files

  • The key is the route you want to mount at

  • The value is the path to the JavaScript file containing the FoxxController you want to mount

You can add multiple controllers in one manifest this way.

The files

Deliver all files in a certain folder without modifying them. You can deliver text files as well as binaries:

"files": {
  "/images": "images"
}

The assets

The value for the asset key is an object consisting of paths that are matched to the files they are composed of. Let's take the following example:

"assets": { "application.js": { "files": [ "vendor/jquery.js", "assets/javascripts/*" ] } }

If a request is made to /application.js (in development mode), the file array provided will be processed one element at a time. The elements are paths to files (with the option to use wildcards). The files will be concatenated and delivered as a single file.

The content-type (or mime type) of the HTTP response when requesting application.js is automatically determined by looking at the filename extension in the asset name (application.js in the above example). If the asset does not have a filename extension, the content-type is determined by looking at the filename extension of the first file in the files list. If no file extension can be determined, the asset will be delived with a content-type of text/plain.

It is possible to explicitly override the content-type for an asset by setting the optional contentType attribute of an asset as follows:

"assets": { "myincludes": { "files": [ "vendor/jquery.js", "assets/javascripts/*" ], "contentType": "text/javascript" } }

Development Mode

If you start ArangoDB with the option --javascript.dev-app-path followed by the path to a directory containing a manifest file and the path to the database, you are starting ArangoDB in development mode with the application loaded. This means that on every request:

  1. All routes are dropped
  2. All module caches are flushed
  3. Your manifest file is read
  4. All files in your lib folder are loaded
  5. An app in DIRNAME is mounted at /dev/DIRNAME
  6. The request will be processed

This means that you do not have to restart ArangoDB if you change anything in your app. It is of course not meant for production, because the reloading makes the app relatively slow.

Production Mode

To run a Foxx app in production first copy your app code to the directory given in the config variable --javascript.app-path. After that use Foxx manager to mount the app. You can also use Foxx manager to find out your current app-path.

Controlling Access to Foxx Applications

Access to Foxx applications is controlled by the regular authentication mechanisms present in ArangoDB. The server can be run with or without HTTP authentication.

If authentication is turned on, then every access to the server is authenticated via HTTP authentication. This includes Foxx applications. The global authentication can be toggled via the configuration option @ref CommandLineArangoDisableAuthentication "server.disable-authentication".

Since ArangoDB 1.4, there is an extra option to restrict the authentication to just system API calls, such as /_api/... and /_admin/.... This option can be turned on using the @ref CommandLineArangoAuthenticateSystemOnly "server.authenticate-system-only" configuration option. If it is turned on, then only system API requests need authentication whereas all requests to Foxx applications and routes will not require authentication. This is recommended if you want your frontend to directly talk to your Foxx application. The other option is to turn of the admin and system API completely.

If you need more fine grained control over the access to your Foxx application, we built an authentication system you can use (but you can of course roll your own if you want). Deactivate ArangoDB's authentication for your Foxx apps and then use Foxx.Authentication.

Currently we only support cookie-based authentication, but we will add the possibility to use Auth Tokens and external OAuth providers in the near future. We also built a small demo application for the authentication functionality.

To use the authentication in your app, first activate it:

@copydetails JSF_foxx_controller_activateAuthentication

Adding a login route

@copydetails JSF_foxx_controller_login

Adding a logout route

@copydetails JSF_foxx_controller_logout

Adding a register route

@copydetails JSF_foxx_controller_register

Restricting routes

To restrict routes, see the documentation for Documenting and Restraining the routes.

Optional Functionality: FormatMiddleware

To use this plugin, please require it first:

FormatMiddleware = require("org/arangodb/foxx/template_middleware").FormatMiddleware;

This Middleware gives you Rails-like format handling via the extension of the URL or the accept header. Say you request an URL like /people.json:

The FormatMiddleware will set the format of the request to JSON and then delete the .json from the request. You can therefore write handlers that do not take an extension into consideration and instead handle the format via a simple String. To determine the format of the request it checks the URL and then the accept header. If one of them gives a format or both give the same, the format is set. If the formats are not the same, an error is raised.

Use it by calling:

FormatMiddleware = require('foxx').FormatMiddleware;
app.before(FormatMiddleware.new(['json']));

In both forms you can give a default format as a second parameter, if no format could be determined. If you give no defaultFormat this case will be handled as an error.

Optional Functionality: TemplateMiddleware

To use this plugin, please require it first:

TemplateMiddleware = require("org/arangodb/foxx/template_middleware").TemplateMiddleware;

The TemplateMiddleware can be used to give a Foxx.Controller the capability of using templates. Currently you can only use Underscore Templates. It expects documents in the following form in this collection:

{
  path: "high/way",
  content: "hello <%= username %>",
  contentType: "text/plain",
  templateLanguage: "underscore"
}

The content is the string that will be rendered by the template processor. The contentType is the type of content that results from this call. And with the templateLanguage you can choose your template processor. There is only one choice now: underscore. Which would set the body of the response to hello Controller with the template defined above. It will also set the contentType to text/plain in this case. In addition to the attributes you provided, you also have access to all your view helpers.

Initialize

@copydetails JSF_foxx_TemplateMiddleware_initializer

Render

@copydetails JSF_foxx_TemplateMiddleware_response_render