SimpleData

This is a tool for serving data from JSON files. It is meant to be used as a Mock API. This can be useful when you need to develop the front-end separate from the backend.

Installation

npm install -g simple-data

Commands

* sdata can be used in place of simple-data

Initialize a new project in the current folder - simple-data init

Start the server - simple-data start

Generate a resource type in the db - simple-data generate <resource_name>

Import data from a local file - simple-data import <file_path>

Import data from a url - simple-data import <url>

Settings

Initializing a project is not required. When a project is initialized, it creates a simple.json file that includes all settings, and generates a blank database file in data/db.json. The default settings are as follows:

{
  "portNumber": 9000,
  "dataDirectory": "data",
  "dataSource": "db.json",
  "apiStandard": false,
  "namespace": ""
}

Description of Settings

portNumber - Allows you to set the port number that the server will listen on

dataDirectory - The directory that the server will put the data file in. In the future this will also be the location of all factories also.

dataSource - The filename for the actual data file

apiStandard - This is the standard that is used for the API. In the future there will be options for json:api and swagger, but for now only false is allowed. Also feel free to request other standards.

namespace - This is text that should be prepended to all requests. Ex. If you wanted to access a resource called "users", and you set the namespace to "api/v1", you would make the request to http://localhost:<portNumber>/api/v1/users

Requests

At this time the server supports the GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE methods. It also has sort and filter functionality for GET requests.

Example Requests

GET http://localhost:9000/users/1

GET (with filters) http://localhost:9000/posts?tag=development&author=4

GET (with sortBy) http://localhost:9000/posts?sortBy=created

POST http://localhost:9000/users/1

PUT http://localhost:9000/users/1

PATCH http://localhost:9000/users/1

DELETE http://localhost:9000/users/1

Data Storage

Currently all data is entered in one file, but this will be optional in the future. A data file currently uses the following format.

Data Format

{
  "resource_example": [
    {
      "id": "1",
      "some_field": "some field value"
    },
    {
      "id": "2",
      "some_field": "a different field value"
    }
  ],
  "other_resource_example": [
    {
      "id": "1",
      "some_field": "some field value"
    },
    {
      "id": "2",
      "some_field": "a different field value"
    }
  ]
}

Data Example

{
  "todos": [
    {
      "id": "1",
      "description": "Get the milk",
      "owner_id": "2"
    },
    {
      "id": "2",
      "description": "Clean out the garage",
      "owner_id": "1"
    },
    {
      "id": "3",
      "description": "Mow the lawn",
      "owner_id": "1"
    }
  ],
  "users": [
    {
      "id": "1",
      "username": "suzyq123"
    },
    {
      "id": "2",
      "username": "johnnie_doe"
    }
  ]
}