tiagopog / jsonapi-resources

JSONAPI::Resources

JSONAPI::Resources, or "JR", provides a framework for developing a server that complies with the JSON API specification.

Like JSON API itself, JR's design is focused on the resources served by an API. JR needs little more than a definition of your resources, including their attributes and relationships, to make your server compliant with JSON API.

JR is designed to work with Rails 4.0+, and provides custom routes, controllers, and serializers. JR's resources may be backed by ActiveRecord models or by custom objects.

Table of Contents

• [Demo App] (#demo-app)
• [Client Libraries] (#client-libraries)
• [Installation] (#installation)
• [Usage] (#usage)
  • [Resources] (#resources)
    • [JSONAPI::Resource] (#jsonapiresource)
    • [Attributes] (#attributes)
    • [Primary Key] (#primary-key)
    • [Model Name] (#model-name)
    • [Relationships] (#relationships)
    • [Filters] (#filters)
    • [Pagination] (#pagination)
    • [Included relationships (side-loading resources)] (#included-relationships-side-loading-resources)
    • [Callbacks] (#callbacks)
  • [Controllers] (#controllers)
    • [Namespaces] (#namespaces)
    • [Error Codes] (#error-codes)
    • [Handling Exceptions] (#handling-exceptions)
  • [Serializer] (#serializer)
• [Configuration] (#configuration)
• [Contributing] (#contributing)
• [License] (#license)

Demo App

We have a simple demo app, called Peeps, available to show how JR is used.

Client Libraries

JSON API maintains a (non-verified) listing of client libraries which should be compatible with JSON API compliant server implementations such as JR.

Installation

Add JR to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'jsonapi-resources'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install jsonapi-resources

Usage

Resources

Resources define the public interface to your API. A resource defines which attributes are exposed, as well as relationships to other resources.

Resource definitions should by convention be placed in a directory under app named resources, app/resources. The class name should be the single underscored name of the model that backs the resource with _resource.rb appended. For example, a Contact model's resource should have a class named ContactResource defined in a file named contact_resource.rb.

JSONAPI::Resource

Resources must be derived from JSONAPI::Resource, or a class that is itself derived from JSONAPI::Resource.

For example:

class ContactResource < JSONAPI::Resource
end

A jsonapi-resource generator is avaliable

rails generate jsonapi:resource contact

Abstract Resources

Resources that are not backed by a model (purely used as base classes for other resources) should be declared as abstract.

Because abstract resources do not expect to be backed by a model, they won't attempt to discover the model class or any of its relationships.

class BaseResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  abstract

  has_one :creator
end

class ContactResource < BaseResource
end

Attributes

Any of a resource's attributes that are accessible must be explicitly declared. Single attributes can be declared using the attribute method, and multiple attributes can be declared with the attributes method on the resource class.

For example:

class ContactResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attribute :name_first
  attributes :name_last, :email, :twitter
end

This resource has 4 defined attributes: name_first, name_last, email, twitter, as well as the automatically defined attributes id and type. By default these attributes must exist on the model that is handled by the resource.

A resource object wraps a Ruby object, usually an ActiveModel record, which is available as the @model variable. This allows a resource's methods to access the underlying model.

For example, a computed attribute for full_name could be defined as such:

class ContactResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attributes :name_first, :name_last, :email, :twitter
  attribute :full_name

  def full_name
    "#{@model.name_first}, #{@model.name_last}"
  end
end

Fetchable Attributes

By default all attributes are assumed to be fetchable. The list of fetchable attributes can be filtered by overriding the fetchable_fields method.

Here's an example that prevents guest users from seeing the email field:

class AuthorResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attributes :name, :email
  model_name 'Person'
  has_many :posts

  def fetchable_fields
    if (context[:current_user].guest)
      super - [:email]
    else
      super
    end
  end
end

Context flows through from the controller to the resource and can be used to control the attributes based on the current user (or other value).

Creatable and Updatable Attributes

By default all attributes are assumed to be updatable and creatable. To prevent some attributes from being accepted by the update or create methods, override the self.updatable_fields and self.creatable_fields methods on a resource.

This example prevents full_name from being set:

class ContactResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attributes :name_first, :name_last, :full_name

  def full_name
    "#{@model.name_first}, #{@model.name_last}"
  end

  def self.updatable_fields(context)
    super - [:full_name]
  end

  def self.creatable_fields(context)
    super - [:full_name]
  end
end

The context is not by default used by the ResourceController, but may be used if you override the controller methods. By using the context you have the option to determine the creatable and updatable fields based on the user.

Sortable Attributes

JR supports sorting primary resources by multiple sort criteria.

By default all attributes are assumed to be sortable. To prevent some attributes from being sortable, override the self.sortable_fields method on a resource.

Here's an example that prevents sorting by post's body:

class PostResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attributes :title, :body

  def self.sortable_fields(context)
    super(context) - [:body]
  end
end

Attribute Formatting

Attributes can have a Format. By default all attributes use the default formatter. If an attribute has the format option set the system will attempt to find a formatter based on this name. In the following example the last_login_time will be returned formatted to a certain time zone:

class PersonResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attributes :name, :email
  attribute :last_login_time, format: :date_with_timezone
end

The system will lookup a value formatter named DateWithTimezoneValueFormatter and will use this when serializing and updating the attribute. See the Value Formatters section for more details.

Flattening a Rails relationship

It is possible to flatten Rails relationships into attributes by using getters and setters. This can become handy if a relation needs to be created alongside the creation of the main object which can be the case if there is a bi-directional presence validation. For example:

# Given Models
class Person < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_many :spoken_languages
  validates :name, :email, :spoken_languages, presence: true
end

class SpokenLanguage < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :person, inverse_of: :spoken_languages
  validates :person, :language_code, presence: true
end

# Resource with getters and setter
class PersonResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attributes :name, :email, :spoken_languages

  # Getter
  def spoken_languages
    @model.spoken_languages.pluck(:language_code)
  end

  # Setter (because spoken_languages needed for creation)
  def spoken_languages=(new_spoken_language_codes)
    @model.spoken_languages.destroy_all
    new_spoken_language_codes.each do |new_lang_code|
      @model.spoken_languages.build(language_code: new_lang_code)
    end
  end
end

Primary Key

Resources are always represented using a key of id. The resource will interrogate the model to find the primary key. If the underlying model does not use id as the primary key and does not support the primary_key method you must use the primary_key method to tell the resource which field on the model to use as the primary key. Note: this must be the actual primary key of the model.

By default only integer values are allowed for primary key. To change this behavior you can set the resource_key_type configuration option:

JSONAPI.configure do |config|
  # Allowed values are :integer(default), :uuid, :string, or a proc
  config.resource_key_type = :uuid
end

Override key type on a resource

You can override the default resource key type on a per-resource basis by calling key_type in the resource class, with the same allowed values as the resource_key_type configuration option.

class ContactResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attribute :id
  attributes :name_first, :name_last, :email, :twitter
  key_type :uuid
end

Custom resource key validators

If you need more control over the key, you can override the #verify_key method on your resource, or set a lambda that accepts key and context arguments in config/initializers/jsonapi_resources.rb:

JSONAPI.configure do |config|
  config.resource_key_type = -> (key, context) { key && String(key) }
end

Model Name

The name of the underlying model is inferred from the Resource name. It can be overridden by use of the model_name method. For example:

class AuthorResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attribute :name
  model_name 'Person'
  has_many :posts
end

Relationships

Related resources need to be specified in the resource. These may be declared with the relationship or the has_one and the has_many methods.

Here's a simple example using the relationship method where a post has a single author and an author can have many posts:

class PostResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attribute :title, :body

  relationship :author, to: :one
end

And the corresponding author:

class AuthorResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attribute :name

  relationship :posts, to: :many
end

And here's the equivalent resources using the has_one and has_many methods:

class PostResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attribute :title, :body

  has_one :author
end

And the corresponding author:

class AuthorResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attribute :name

  has_many :posts
end

Options

The relationship methods (relationship, has_one, and has_many) support the following options:

• class_name - a string specifying the underlying class for the related resource. Defaults to the class_name property on the underlying model.
• foreign_key - the method on the resource used to fetch the related resource. Defaults to <resource_name>_id for has_one and <resource_name>_ids for has_many relationships.
• acts_as_set - allows the entire set of related records to be replaced in one operation. Defaults to false if not set.
• polymorphic - set to true to identify relationships that are polymorphic.
• relation_name - the name of the relation to use on the model. A lambda may be provided which allows conditional selection of the relation based on the context.

to_one relationships support the additional option:

• foreign_key_on - defaults to :self. To indicate that the foreign key is on the related resource specify :related.

Examples:

class CommentResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attributes :body
  has_one :post
  has_one :author, class_name: 'Person'
  has_many :tags, acts_as_set: true
end

class ExpenseEntryResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attributes :cost, :transaction_date

  has_one :currency, class_name: 'Currency', foreign_key: 'currency_code'
  has_one :employee
end

class TagResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attributes :name
  has_one :taggable, polymorphic: true
end

class BookResource < JSONAPI::Resource

  # Only book_admins may see unapproved comments for a book. Using
  # a lambda to select the correct relation on the model
  has_many :book_comments, relation_name: -> (options = {}) {
    context = options[:context]
    current_user = context ? context[:current_user] : nil

    unless current_user && current_user.book_admin
      :approved_book_comments
    else
      :book_comments
    end
  }
  ...
end

The polymorphic relationship will require the resource and controller to exist, although routing to them will cause an error.

class TaggableResource < JSONAPI::Resource; end
class TaggablesController < JSONAPI::ResourceController; end

Filters

Filters for locating objects of the resource type are specified in the resource definition. Single filters can be declared using the filter method, and multiple filters can be declared with the filters method on the resource class.

For example:

class ContactResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attributes :name_first, :name_last, :email, :twitter

  filter :id
  filters :name_first, :name_last
end

Then a request could pass in a filter for example http://example.com/contacts?filter[name_last]=Smith and the system will find all people where the last name exactly matches Smith.

Default Filters

A default filter may be defined for a resource using the default option on the filter method. This default is used unless the request overrides this value.

For example:

 class CommentResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attributes :body, :status
  has_one :post
  has_one :author

  filter :status, default: 'published,pending'
end

The default value is used as if it came from the request.

Finders

Basic finding by filters is supported by resources. This is implemented in the find and find_by_key finder methods. Currently this is implemented for ActiveRecord based resources. The finder methods rely on the records method to get an Arel relation. It is therefore possible to override records to affect the three find related methods.

Customizing base records for finder methods

If you need to change the base records on which find and find_by_key operate, you can override the records method on the resource class.

For example to allow a user to only retrieve his own posts you can do the following:

class PostResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attribute :title, :body

  def self.records(options = {})
    context = options[:context]
    context[:current_user].posts
  end
end

When you create a relationship, a method is created to fetch record(s) for that relationship, using the relation name for the relationship.

class PostResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  has_one :author
  has_many :comments

  # def record_for_author
  #   relation_name = relationship.relation_name(context: @context)
  #   records_for(relation_name, context: @context)
  # end

  # def records_for_comments
  #   relation_name = relationship.relation_name(context: @context)
  #   records_for(relation_name, context: @context)
  # end
end

For example, you may want raise an error if the user is not authorized to view the related records. See the next section for additional details on raising errors.

class BaseResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  def records_for(relation_name, options={})
    context = options[:context]
    records = model.public_send(relation_name)

    unless context[:current_user].can_view?(records)
      raise NotAuthorizedError
    end

    records
  end
end

Raising Errors

Inside the finder methods (like records_for) or inside of resource callbacks (like before_save) you can raise an error to halt processing. JSONAPI::Resources has some built in errors that will return appropriate error codes. By default any other error that you raise will return a 500 status code for a general internal server error.

To return useful error codes that represent application errors you should set the exception_class_whitelist config varible, and then you should use the Rails rescue_from macro to render a status code.

For example, this config setting allows the NotAuthorizedError to bubble up out of JSONAPI::Resources and into your application.

# config/initializer/jsonapi-resources.rb
JSONAPI.configure do |config|
  config.exception_class_whitelist = [NotAuthorizedError]
end

Handling the error and rendering the appropriate code is now the resonsiblity of the application and could be handled like this:

class ApiController < ApplicationController
  rescue_from NotAuthorizedError, with: :reject_forbidden_request
  def reject_forbidden_request
    render json: {error: 'Forbidden'}, :status => 403
  end
end

Applying Filters

The apply_filter method is called to apply each filter to the Arel relation. You may override this method to gain control over how the filters are applied to the Arel relation.

This example shows how you can implement different approaches for different filters.

def self.apply_filter(records, filter, value, options)
  case filter
    when :visibility
      records.where('users.publicly_visible = ?', value == :public)
    when :last_name, :first_name, :name
      if value.is_a?(Array)
        value.each do |val|
          records = records.where(_model_class.arel_table[filter].matches(val))
        end
        return records
      else
        records.where(_model_class.arel_table[filter].matches(value))
      end
    else
      return super(records, filter, value)
  end
end

Override finder methods

Finally if you have more complex requirements for finding you can override the find and find_by_key methods on the resource class.

Here's an example that defers the find operation to a current_user set on the context option:

class AuthorResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attribute :name
  model_name 'Person'
  has_many :posts

  filter :name

  def self.find(filters, options = {})
    context = options[:context]
    authors = context[:current_user].find_authors(filters)

    return authors.map do |author|
      self.new(author)
    end
  end
end

Pagination

Pagination is performed using a paginator, which is a class responsible for parsing the page request parameters and applying the pagination logic to the results.

Paginators

JSONAPI::Resource supports several pagination methods by default, and allows you to implement a custom system if the defaults do not meet your needs.

Paged Paginator

The paged paginator returns results based on pages of a fixed size. Valid page parameters are number and size. If number is omitted the first page is returned. If size is omitted the default_page_size from the configuration settings is used.

Offset Paginator

The offset paginator returns results based on an offset from the beginning of the resultset. Valid page parameters are offset and limit. If offset is omitted a value of 0 will be used. If limit is omitted the default_page_size from the configuration settings is used.

Custom Paginators

Custom paginators can be used. These should derive from Paginator. The apply method takes a relation and order_options and is expected to return a relation. The initialize method receives the parameters from the page request parameters. It is up to the paginator author to parse and validate these parameters.

For example, here is a very simple single record at a time paginator:

class SingleRecordPaginator < JSONAPI::Paginator
  def initialize(params)
    # param parsing and validation here
    @page = params.to_i
  end

  def apply(relation, order_options)
    relation.offset(@page).limit(1)
  end
end

Paginator Configuration

The default paginator, which will be used for all resources, is set using JSONAPI.configure. For example, in your config/initializers/jsonapi_resources.rb:

JSONAPI.configure do |config|
  # built in paginators are :none, :offset, :paged
  config.default_paginator = :offset

  config.default_page_size = 10
  config.maximum_page_size = 20
end

If no default_paginator is configured, pagination will be disabled by default.

Paginators can also be set at the resource-level, which will override the default setting. This is done using the paginator method:

class BookResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attribute :title
  attribute :isbn

  paginator :offset
end

To disable pagination in a resource, specify :none for paginator.

Included relationships (side-loading resources)

JR supports request include params out of the box, for side loading related resources.

Here's an example from the spec:

GET /articles/1?include=comments HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/vnd.api+json

Will get you the following payload by default:

{
  "data": {
    "type": "articles",
    "id": "1",
    "attributes": {
      "title": "JSON API paints my bikeshed!"
    },
    "links": {
      "self": "http://example.com/articles/1"
    },
    "relationships": {
      "comments": {
        "links": {
          "self": "http://example.com/articles/1/relationships/comments",
          "related": "http://example.com/articles/1/comments"
        },
        "data": [
          { "type": "comments", "id": "5" },
          { "type": "comments", "id": "12" }
        ]
      }
    }
  },
  "included": [{
    "type": "comments",
    "id": "5",
    "attributes": {
      "body": "First!"
    },
    "links": {
      "self": "http://example.com/comments/5"
    }
  }, {
    "type": "comments",
    "id": "12",
    "attributes": {
      "body": "I like XML better"
    },
    "links": {
      "self": "http://example.com/comments/12"
    }
  }]
}

You can also pass an include option to Serializer#serialize_to_hash if you want to define this inline.

Callbacks

ActiveSupport::Callbacks is used to provide callback functionality, so the behavior is very similar to what you may be used to from ActiveRecord.

For example, you might use a callback to perform authorization on your resource before an action.

class BaseResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  before_create :authorize_create

  def authorize_create
    # ...
  end
end

The types of supported callbacks are:

• before
• after
• around

JSONAPI::Resource Callbacks

Callbacks can be defined for the following JSONAPI::Resource events:

• :create
• :update
• :remove
• :save
• :create_has_many_link
• :replace_has_many_links
• :create_has_one_link
• :replace_has_one_link
• :remove_has_many_link
• :remove_has_one_link
• :replace_fields

JSONAPI::OperationsProcessor Callbacks

Callbacks can also be defined for JSONAPI::OperationsProcessor events:

• :operations: The set of operations.
• :operation: Any individual operation.
• :find_operation: A find_operation.
• :show_operation: A show_operation.
• :show_relationship_operation: A show_relationship_operation.
• :show_related_resource_operation: A show_related_resource_operation.
• :show_related_resources_operation: A show_related_resources_operation.
• :create_resource_operation: A create_resource_operation.
• :remove_resource_operation: A remove_resource_operation.
• :replace_fields_operation: A replace_fields_operation.
• :replace_has_one_relationship_operation: A replace_has_one_relationship_operation.
• :create_has_many_relationship_operation: A create_has_many_relationship_operation.
• :replace_has_many_relationship_operation: A replace_has_many_relationship_operation.
• :remove_has_many_relationship_operation: A remove_has_many_relationship_operation.
• :remove_has_one_relationship_operation: A remove_has_one_relationship_operation.

The operation callbacks have access to two meta data hashes, @operations_meta and @operation_meta, two links hashes, @operations_links and @operation_links, the full list of @operations, each individual @operation and the @result variables.

Custom OperationsProcessor Example to Return total_count in Meta

Note: this can also be accomplished with the top_level_meta_include_record_count option, and in most cases that will be the better option.

To return the total record count of a find operation in the meta data of a find operation you can create a custom OperationsProcessor. For example:

class CountingActiveRecordOperationsProcessor < ActiveRecordOperationsProcessor
  after_find_operation do
    @operation_meta[:total_records] = @operation.record_count
  end
end

Set the configuration option operations_processor to use the new CountingActiveRecordOperationsProcessor by specifying the snake cased name of the class (without the OperationsProcessor).

JSONAPI.configure do |config|
  config.operations_processor = :counting_active_record
end

The callback code will be called after each find. It will use the same options as the find operation, without the pagination, to collect the record count. This is stored in the operation_meta, which will be returned in the top level meta element.

Controllers

There are two ways to implement a controller for your resources. Either derive from ResourceController or import the ActsAsResourceController module.

ResourceController

JSONAPI::Resources provides a class, ResourceController, that can be used as the base class for your controllers. ResourceController supports index, show, create, update, and destroy methods. Just deriving your controller from ResourceController will give you a fully functional controller.

For example:

class PeopleController < JSONAPI::ResourceController

end

Of course you are free to extend this as needed and override action handlers or other methods.

The context that's used for serialization and resource configuration is set by the controller's context method.

For example:

class ApplicationController < JSONAPI::ResourceController
  def context
    {current_user: current_user}
  end
end

# Specific resource controllers derive from ApplicationController
# and share its context
class PeopleController < ApplicationController

end

Note: This gem uses the filter chain to set up the request. In some instances, variables that are set in the filter chain (such as current_user) may not be set at the right time. If this happens (i.e. current_user is nil in context but it's set properly everywhere else), you may want to have your authentication occur earlier in the filter chain, using prepend_before_action instead of before_action.

ActsAsResourceController

JSONAPI::Resources also provides a module, JSONAPI::ActsAsResourceController. You can include this module to mix in all the features of ResourceController into your existing controller class.

For example:

class PostsController < ActionController::Base
  include JSONAPI::ActsAsResourceController
end

Namespaces

JSONAPI::Resources supports namespacing of controllers and resources. With namespacing you can version your API.

If you namespace your controller it will require a namespaced resource.

In the following example we have a resource that isn't namespaced, and one the has now been namespaced. There are slight differences between the two resources, as might be seen in a new version of an API:

class PostResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attribute :title
  attribute :body
  attribute :subject

  has_one :author, class_name: 'Person'
  has_one :section
  has_many :tags, acts_as_set: true
  has_many :comments, acts_as_set: false
  def subject
    @model.title
  end

  filters :title, :author, :tags, :comments
  filter :id
end

...

module Api
  module V1
    class PostResource < JSONAPI::Resource
      # V1 replaces the non-namespaced resource
      # V1 no longer supports tags and now calls author 'writer'
      attribute :title
      attribute :body
      attribute :subject

      has_one :writer, foreign_key: 'author_id'
      has_one :section
      has_many :comments, acts_as_set: false

      def subject
        @model.title
      end

      filters :writer
    end

    class WriterResource < JSONAPI::Resource
      attributes :name, :email
      model_name 'Person'
      has_many :posts

      filter :name
    end
  end
end

The following controllers are used:

class PostsController < JSONAPI::ResourceController
end

module Api
  module V1
    class PostsController < JSONAPI::ResourceController
    end
  end
end

You will also need to namespace your routes:

Rails.application.routes.draw do

  jsonapi_resources :posts

  namespace :api do
    namespace :v1 do
      jsonapi_resources :posts
    end
  end
end

When a namespaced resource is used, any related resources must also be in the same namespace.

Error codes

Error codes are provided for each error object returned, based on the error. These errors are:

module JSONAPI
  VALIDATION_ERROR = 100
  INVALID_RESOURCE = 101
  FILTER_NOT_ALLOWED = 102
  INVALID_FIELD_VALUE = 103
  INVALID_FIELD = 104
  PARAM_NOT_ALLOWED = 105
  PARAM_MISSING = 106
  INVALID_FILTER_VALUE = 107
  COUNT_MISMATCH = 108
  KEY_ORDER_MISMATCH = 109
  KEY_NOT_INCLUDED_IN_URL = 110
  INVALID_INCLUDE = 112
  RELATION_EXISTS = 113
  INVALID_SORT_CRITERIA = 114
  INVALID_LINKS_OBJECT = 115
  TYPE_MISMATCH = 116
  INVALID_PAGE_OBJECT = 117
  INVALID_PAGE_VALUE = 118
  INVALID_FIELD_FORMAT = 119
  INVALID_FILTERS_SYNTAX = 120
  SAVE_FAILED = 121
  FORBIDDEN = 403
  RECORD_NOT_FOUND = 404
  UNSUPPORTED_MEDIA_TYPE = 415
  LOCKED = 423
end

These codes can be customized in your app by creating an initializer to override any or all of the codes.

In addition textual error codes can be returned by setting the configuration option use_text_errors = true. For example:

JSONAPI.configure do |config|
  config.use_text_errors = true
end

Handling Exceptions

By default, all exceptions raised downstream from a resource controller will be caught, logged, and a 500 Internal Server Error will be rendered. Exceptions can be whitelisted in the config to pass through the handler and be caught manually, or you can pass a callback from a resource controller to insert logic into the rescue block without interrupting the control flow. This can be particularly useful for additional logging or monitoring without the added work of rendering responses.

Pass a block, refer to controller class methods, or both. Note that methods must be defined as class methods on a controller and accept one parameter, which is passed the exception object that was rescued.

  class ApplicationController < JSONAPI::ResourceController

    on_server_error :first_callback

    #or

    # on_server_error do |error|
      #do things
    #end

    def self.first_callback(error)
      #env["airbrake.error_id"] = notify_airbrake(error)
    end
  end

Serializer

The ResourceSerializer can be used to serialize a resource into JSON API compliant JSON. ResourceSerializer must be initialized with the primary resource type it will be serializing. ResourceSerializer has a serialize_to_hash method that takes a resource instance or array of resource instances to serialize. For example:

post = Post.find(1)
JSONAPI::ResourceSerializer.new(PostResource).serialize_to_hash(PostResource.new(post))

This returns results like this:

{
  "data": {
    "type": "posts",
    "id": "1",
    "links": {
      "self": "http://example.com/posts/1"
    },
    "attributes": {
      "title": "New post",
      "body": "A body!!!",
      "subject": "New post"
    },
    "relationships": {
      "section": {
        "links": {
          "self": "http://example.com/posts/1/relationships/section",
          "related": "http://example.com/posts/1/section"
        },
        "data": null
      },
      "author": {
        "links": {
          "self": "http://example.com/posts/1/relationships/author",
          "related": "http://example.com/posts/1/author"
        },
        "data": {
          "type": "people",
          "id": "1"
        }
      },
      "tags": {
        "links": {
          "self": "http://example.com/posts/1/relationships/tags",
          "related": "http://example.com/posts/1/tags"
        }
      },
      "comments": {
        "links": {
          "self": "http://example.com/posts/1/relationships/comments",
          "related": "http://example.com/posts/1/comments"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

serialize_to_hash method options

The serialize_to_hash method also takes some optional parameters:

include

An array of resources. Nested resources can be specified with dot notation.

Purpose: determines which objects will be side loaded with the source objects in an included section

Example: include: ['comments','author','comments.tags','author.posts']

fields

A hash of resource types and arrays of fields for each resource type.

Purpose: determines which fields are serialized for a resource type. This encompasses both attributes and relationship ids in the links section for a resource. Fields are global for a resource type.

Example: fields: { people: [:email, :comments], posts: [:title, :author], comments: [:body, :post]}

post = Post.find(1)
include_resources = ['comments','author','comments.tags','author.posts']

JSONAPI::ResourceSerializer.new(PostResource, include: include_resources,
  fields: {
    people: [:email, :comments],
    posts: [:title, :author],
    tags: [:name],
    comments: [:body, :post]
  }
).serialize_to_hash(PostResource.new(post))

context

Context data can be provided to the serializer, which passes it to each resource as it is inspected.

Routing

JR has a couple of helper methods available to assist you with setting up routes.

jsonapi_resources

Like resources in ActionDispatch, jsonapi_resources provides resourceful routes mapping between HTTP verbs and URLs and controller actions. This will also setup mappings for relationship URLs for a resource's relationships. For example:

Rails.application.routes.draw do
  jsonapi_resources :contacts
  jsonapi_resources :phone_numbers
end

gives the following routes

                     Prefix Verb      URI Pattern                                               Controller#Action
contact_relationships_phone_numbers GET       /contacts/:contact_id/relationships/phone-numbers(.:format)       contacts#show_relationship {:relationship=>"phone_numbers"}
                            POST      /contacts/:contact_id/relationships/phone-numbers(.:format)       contacts#create_relationship {:relationship=>"phone_numbers"}
                            DELETE    /contacts/:contact_id/relationships/phone-numbers/:keys(.:format) contacts#destroy_relationship {:relationship=>"phone_numbers"}
      contact_phone_numbers GET       /contacts/:contact_id/phone-numbers(.:format)             phone_numbers#get_related_resources {:relationship=>"phone_numbers", :source=>"contacts"}
                   contacts GET       /contacts(.:format)                                       contacts#index
                            POST      /contacts(.:format)                                       contacts#create
                    contact GET       /contacts/:id(.:format)                                   contacts#show
                            PATCH     /contacts/:id(.:format)                                   contacts#update
                            PUT       /contacts/:id(.:format)                                   contacts#update
                            DELETE    /contacts/:id(.:format)                                   contacts#destroy
 phone_number_relationships_contact GET       /phone-numbers/:phone_number_id/relationships/contact(.:format)   phone_numbers#show_relationship {:relationship=>"contact"}
                            PUT|PATCH /phone-numbers/:phone_number_id/relationships/contact(.:format)   phone_numbers#update_relationship {:relationship=>"contact"}
                            DELETE    /phone-numbers/:phone_number_id/relationships/contact(.:format)   phone_numbers#destroy_relationship {:relationship=>"contact"}
       phone_number_contact GET       /phone-numbers/:phone_number_id/contact(.:format)         contacts#get_related_resource {:relationship=>"contact", :source=>"phone_numbers"}
              phone_numbers GET       /phone-numbers(.:format)                                  phone_numbers#index
                            POST      /phone-numbers(.:format)                                  phone_numbers#create
               phone_number GET       /phone-numbers/:id(.:format)                              phone_numbers#show
                            PATCH     /phone-numbers/:id(.:format)                              phone_numbers#update
                            PUT       /phone-numbers/:id(.:format)                              phone_numbers#update
                            DELETE    /phone-numbers/:id(.:format)                              phone_numbers#destroy

jsonapi_resource

Like jsonapi_resources, but for resources you lookup without an id.

Nested Routes

By default nested routes are created for getting related resources and manipulating relationships. You can control the nested routes by passing a block into jsonapi_resources or jsonapi_resource. An empty block will not create any nested routes. For example:

Rails.application.routes.draw do
  jsonapi_resources :contacts do
  end
end

gives routes that are only related to the primary resource, and none for its relationships:

      Prefix Verb   URI Pattern                  Controller#Action
    contacts GET    /contacts(.:format)          contacts#index
             POST   /contacts(.:format)          contacts#create
     contact GET    /contacts/:id(.:format)      contacts#show
             PATCH  /contacts/:id(.:format)      contacts#update
             PUT    /contacts/:id(.:format)      contacts#update
             DELETE /contacts/:id(.:format)      contacts#destroy

To manually add in the nested routes you can use the jsonapi_links, jsonapi_related_resources and jsonapi_related_resource inside the block. Or, you can add the default set of nested routes using the jsonapi_relationships method. For example:

Rails.application.routes.draw do
  jsonapi_resources :contacts do
    jsonapi_relationships
  end
end

jsonapi_links

You can add relationship routes in with jsonapi_links, for example:

Rails.application.routes.draw do
  jsonapi_resources :contacts do
    jsonapi_links :phone_numbers
  end
end

Gives the following routes:

contact_relationships_phone_numbers GET    /contacts/:contact_id/relationships/phone-numbers(.:format)       contacts#show_relationship {:relationship=>"phone_numbers"}
                            POST   /contacts/:contact_id/relationships/phone-numbers(.:format)       contacts#create_relationship {:relationship=>"phone_numbers"}
                            DELETE /contacts/:contact_id/relationships/phone-numbers/:keys(.:format) contacts#destroy_relationship {:relationship=>"phone_numbers"}
                   contacts GET    /contacts(.:format)                                       contacts#index
                            POST   /contacts(.:format)                                       contacts#create
                    contact GET    /contacts/:id(.:format)                                   contacts#show
                            PATCH  /contacts/:id(.:format)                                   contacts#update
                            PUT    /contacts/:id(.:format)                                   contacts#update
                            DELETE /contacts/:id(.:format)                                   contacts#destroy

The new routes allow you to show, create and destroy the relationships between resources.

jsonapi_related_resources

Creates a nested route to GET the related has_many resources. For example:

Rails.application.routes.draw do
  jsonapi_resources :contacts do
    jsonapi_related_resources :phone_numbers
  end
end

gives the following routes:

               Prefix Verb   URI Pattern                                   Controller#Action
contact_phone_numbers GET    /contacts/:contact_id/phone-numbers(.:format) phone_numbers#get_related_resources {:relationship=>"phone_numbers", :source=>"contacts"}
             contacts GET    /contacts(.:format)                           contacts#index
                      POST   /contacts(.:format)                           contacts#create
              contact GET    /contacts/:id(.:format)                       contacts#show
                      PATCH  /contacts/:id(.:format)                       contacts#update
                      PUT    /contacts/:id(.:format)                       contacts#update
                      DELETE /contacts/:id(.:format)                       contacts#destroy

A single additional route was created to allow you GET the phone numbers through the contact.

jsonapi_related_resource

Like jsonapi_related_resources, but for has_one related resources.

Rails.application.routes.draw do
  jsonapi_resources :phone_numbers do
    jsonapi_related_resource :contact
  end
end

gives the following routes:

              Prefix Verb   URI Pattern                                       Controller#Action
phone_number_contact GET    /phone-numbers/:phone_number_id/contact(.:format) contacts#get_related_resource {:relationship=>"contact", :source=>"phone_numbers"}
       phone_numbers GET    /phone-numbers(.:format)                          phone_numbers#index
                     POST   /phone-numbers(.:format)                          phone_numbers#create
        phone_number GET    /phone-numbers/:id(.:format)                      phone_numbers#show
                     PATCH  /phone-numbers/:id(.:format)                      phone_numbers#update
                     PUT    /phone-numbers/:id(.:format)                      phone_numbers#update
                     DELETE /phone-numbers/:id(.:format)                      phone_numbers#destroy

Formatting

JR by default uses some simple rules to format (and unformat) an attribute for (de-)serialization. Strings and Integers are output to JSON as is, and all other values have .to_s applied to them. This outputs something in all cases, but it is certainly not correct for every situation.

If you want to change the way an attribute is (de-)serialized you have a couple of ways. The simplest method is to create a getter (and setter) method on the resource which overrides the attribute and apply the (un-)formatting there. For example:

class PersonResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attributes :name, :email, :last_login_time

  # Setter example
  def email=(new_email)
    @model.email = new_email.downcase
  end

  # Getter example
  def last_login_time
    @model.last_login_time.in_time_zone(@context[:current_user].time_zone).to_s
  end
end

This is simple to implement for a one off situation, but not for example if you want to apply the same formatting rules to all DateTime fields in your system. Another issue is the attribute on the resource will always return a formatted response, whether you want it or not.

Value Formatters

To overcome the above limitations JR uses Value Formatters. Value Formatters allow you to control the way values are handled for an attribute. The format can be set per attribute as it is declared in the resource. For example:

class PersonResource < JSONAPI::Resource
  attributes :name, :email, :spoken_languages
  attribute :last_login_time, format: :date_with_utc_timezone

  # Getter/Setter for spoken_languages ...
end

A Value formatter has a format and an unformat method. Here's the base ValueFormatter and DefaultValueFormatter for reference:

module JSONAPI
  class ValueFormatter < Formatter
    class << self
      def format(raw_value)
        super(raw_value)
      end

      def unformat(value)
        super(value)
      end
      ...
    end
  end
end

class DefaultValueFormatter < JSONAPI::ValueFormatter
  class << self
    def format(raw_value)
      case raw_value
        when String, Integer
          return raw_value
        else
          return raw_value.to_s
      end
    end
  end
end

You can also create your own Value Formatter. Value Formatters must be named with the format name followed by ValueFormatter, i.e. DateWithUTCTimezoneValueFormatter and derive from JSONAPI::ValueFormatter. It is recommended that you create a directory for your formatters, called formatters.

The format method is called by the ResourceSerializer as is serializing a resource. The format method takes the raw_value parameter. raw_value is the value as read from the model.

The unformat method is called when processing the request. Each incoming attribute (except links) are run through the unformat method. The unformat method takes a value, which is the value as it comes in on the request. This allows you process the incoming value to alter its state before it is stored in the model.

Use a Different Default Value Formatter

Another way to handle formatting is to set a different default value formatter. This will affect all attributes that do not have a format set. You can do this by overriding the default_attribute_options method for a resource (or a base resource for a system wide change).

  def default_attribute_options
    {format: :my_default}
  end

and

class MyDefaultValueFormatter < JSONAPI::ValueFormatter
  class << self
    def format(raw_value)
      case raw_value
        when String, Integer
          return raw_value
        when DateTime
          return raw_value.in_time_zone('UTC').to_s
        else
          return raw_value.to_s
      end
    end
  end
end

This way all DateTime values will be formatted to display in the UTC timezone.

Key Format

By default JR uses dasherized keys as per the JSON API naming recommendations. This can be changed by specifying a different key formatter.

For example, to use camel cased keys with an initial lowercase character (JSON's default) create an initializer and add the following:

JSONAPI.configure do |config|
  # built in key format options are :underscored_key, :camelized_key and :dasherized_key
  config.json_key_format = :camelized_key
end

This will cause the serializer to use the CamelizedKeyFormatter. You can also create your own KeyFormatter, for example:

class UpperCamelizedKeyFormatter < JSONAPI::KeyFormatter
  class << self
    def format(key)
      super.camelize(:upper)
    end
  end
end

You would specify this in JSONAPI.configure as :upper_camelized.

Configuration

JR has a few configuration options. Some have already been mentioned above. To set configuration options create an initializer and add the options you wish to set. All options have defaults, so you only need to set the options that are different. The default options are shown below.

JSONAPI.configure do |config|
  #:underscored_key, :camelized_key, :dasherized_key, or custom
  config.json_key_format = :dasherized_key

  #:underscored_route, :camelized_route, :dasherized_route, or custom
  config.route_format = :dasherized_route

  #:basic, :active_record, or custom
  config.operations_processor = :active_record

  #:integer, :uuid, :string, or custom (provide a proc)
  config.resource_key_type = :integer

  # optional request features
  config.allow_include = true
  config.allow_sort = true
  config.allow_filter = true

  # How to handle unsupported attributes and relationships which are provided in the request
  # true => raises an error
  # false => allows the request to continue. A warning is included in the response meta data indicating
  # the fields which were ignored. This is useful for client libraries which send extra parameters.
  config.raise_if_parameters_not_allowed = true

  # :none, :offset, :paged, or a custom paginator name
  config.default_paginator = :none

  # Output pagination links at top level
  config.top_level_links_include_pagination = true

  config.default_page_size = 10
  config.maximum_page_size = 20

  # Output the record count in top level meta data for find operations
  config.top_level_meta_include_record_count = false
  config.top_level_meta_record_count_key = :record_count

  config.use_text_errors = false

  # List of classes that should not be rescued by the operations processor.
  # For example, if you use Pundit for authorization, you might
  # raise a Pundit::NotAuthorizedError at some point during operations
  # processing. If you want to use Rails' `rescue_from` macro to
  # catch this error and render a 403 status code, you should add
  # the `Pundit::NotAuthorizedError` to the `exception_class_whitelist`.
  # Subclasses of the whitelisted classes will also be whitelisted.
  config.exception_class_whitelist = []

  # Resource Linkage
  # Controls the serialization of resource linkage for non compound documents
  # NOTE: always_include_to_many_linkage_data is not currently implemented
  config.always_include_to_one_linkage_data = false
end

Contributing

1. Fork it ( http://github.com/cerebris/jsonapi-resources/fork )
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create a new Pull Request

License

Copyright 2014 Cerebris Corporation. MIT License (see LICENSE for details).