Kansas Express

Kansas API usage limiter Middleware for Express.

Install

Install the module with: npm install kansas-express --save

Overview

Kansas Express offers the following types of Middleware:

• Consume Limit your API usage based on available units per period.
• Count No limits on API usage, just count.
• Manage CRUD operations for tokens.

The Consume Middleware

Add the consume middleware on every resource you want to apply Rate Usage Limiting. The Consume middleware requires a Kansas instance.

var kansas = require('kansas');
var kansasConsume = require('kansas-express/consume');
 
// initialize kansas
exports.kansas = kansas();
 
// initialize Consume Middleware
var consume = kansasConsume(exports.kansas);
 
// add to any route
app.get('/api/clients', consume.use());
app.get('/api/clients', theAppLogicHandler);

The Consume Middleware will check that the API Token is properly set in the request Headers. If it exists and it has available units to consume, then the API call will be allowed and the remaining usage units will be propagated on the response Headers.

Configuring the Consume Middleware

Use the method setup() to configure the Consume Middleware, it accepts an Object with any of the following properties

• consumeUnits number default: 1 How many units to consume per request.
• headerToken string default: 'X-Api-Token' Header key to expect the API token.
• headerRemaining string default: 'X-RateLimit-Remaining' Header key to populate the response with.
• handleError Function(res, err) You can overwrite the default Error handler.
• handleSuccess Function(res, next, remaining) You can overwrite the default Success handler.
• behindProxy boolean default: false Set to true if node is running beind a reverse-proxy configuration like Heroku for e.g, this is used for fetching the correct Client IP when debug logging occurs.

var kansasConsume = require('kansas-express/consume');
 
// create two instances of Consume Middleware
var consume = kansasConsume(api);
var consumeHeavy = kansasConsume(api);
 
// The heavy API call will consume 5 units
consumeHeavy.setup({
    consumeUnits: 5,
});
 
// add route for paginated clients
app.get('/api/clients', consume.use());
app.get('/api/clients', theAppLogicHandler);
 
// add route for all clients
app.get('/api/allclients', consumeHeavy.use());
app.get('/api/allclients', anotherAppLogicHandler);

Consume Error Handling and Types of errors

By default the Consume Middleware will generate these HTTP Codes on error:

If you define your own Error Handler it will be invoked with two arguments, res the response object and error the error object. All errors will have a httpcode property, a number indicating the suggested HTTP error Code.

Consume Success Handling

The Consume Middleware will add a response HTTP Header named X-RateLimit-Remaining and have as value the remaining usage units. You can change the Header's name using the setup() method or you can have your own Success Handler.

The custom Success Handler will be invoked with the following three arguments:

• res Object The Express response Object.
• next Function The Express callback to pass controll to the next Express Middleware.
• remaining number The number or remaining usage units.
• behindProxy boolean default: false Set to true if node is running beind a reverse-proxy configuration like Heroku for e.g, this is used for fetching the correct Client IP when debug logging occurs.

The Count Middleware

Add the Count middleware on every resource you want to count usage. The Count middleware requires a Kansas instance.

var kansas = require('kansas');
var kansasCount = require('kansas-express/count');
 
// initialize kansas
exports.kansas = kansas();
 
// initialize Count Middleware
var apiCount = kansasCount(exports.kansas);
 
// add to any route
app.get('/api/clients', apiCount.use());
app.get('/api/clients', theAppLogicHandler);

Configuring the Count Middleware

Use the method setup() to configure the Count Middleware, it accepts an Object with any of the following properties

• consumeUnits number default: 1 How many units to consume per request.
• headerToken string default: 'X-Api-Token' Header key to expect the API token.
• headerCount string default: 'none' Define to populate the Usage Count on the response Header.
• handleError Function(res, err) You can overwrite the default Error handler.
• handleSuccess Function(res, next, remaining) You can overwrite the default Success handler.
• behindProxy boolean default: false Set to true if node is running beind a reverse-proxy configuration like Heroku for e.g, this is used for fetching the correct Client IP when debug logging occurs.

var kansasCount = require('kansas-express/count');
 
// create an instance of the Count Middleware
var apiCount = kansasCount(kansas);
 
// Consume 5 units by default
apiCount.setup({
    consumeUnits: 5,
});

Count Error Handling and Types of errors

By default the Count Middleware will generate these HTTP Codes on error:

If you define your own Error Handler it will be invoked with two arguments, res the response object and error the error object. All errors will have the httpcode property, a number indicating the suggested HTTP error Code.

Count Success Handling

The custom Success Handler will be invoked with the following three arguments:

• res Object The Express response Object.
• next Function The Express callback to pass control to the next Express Middleware.
• consumed number The number or consumed usage units.

The Manage Middleware

The Manage Middleware will add Token managing routes as a convenience for creating your manage panels and dashboards. By default the following routes will be created when the middleware is initialized:

var kansas = require('kansas');
var kansasManage = require('kansas-express/manage');
 
// initialize kansas
var api = kansas();
 
var manage = kansasManage(api);
manage.setup({
  // the provide callback is required
  // it will provide the ownerId and policyName
  // to the middleware
  provide: function(req, res) {
    return {
      ownerId: 'hip',
      policyName: 'free',
    };
  }
});
 
// pass the express instance to initialize routes
manage.addRoutes(app);

Configuring the Manage Middleware

Use the method setup() to configure the Manage Middleware, it accepts an Object with any of the following properties

• provide function Required Will get invoked on each request, needs to provide the ownerId and policyName.
• prefix string default: "" A prefix to use in the routes.
• handleError Function(res, err) You can overwrite the default Error handler.
• handleSuccess Function(res, next, remaining) You can overwrite the default Success handler.

About the "provide" Callback

Kansas Express is agnostic to the stack used to track sessions, user objects or authentication. So you need to provide the ownerId and the policy the owner belongs to for each request. This happens with the provide callback.

The Provide callback will get invoked with two arguments, the Request and Response Express objects. Thus you have complete control on how the request will turn out, you can perform authentication checks and reject it there and then or provide the required data and pass control to next.

It is expected that the Provide callback will produce an Object with two keys ownerId and policyName either synchronously or asynchronously. To provide the result asynchronously you need to return a Promise that conforms to the Promises/A+ spec.

manage.setup({
    provide: function(req, res) {
      return new Promise(function(resole, reject) {
        doSomethingAsync(function(udo){
          resolve({
              ownerId: udo.id,
              policyName: udo.policy,
          });
        });
      });
    }
});

Manage Error Handling and Types of errors

By default the Manage middleware will generate these HTTP Codes on error:

If you define your own Error Handler it will be invoked with two arguments, res the response object and error the error object. All errors will have a httpcode property, a number indicating the suggested HTTP error Code.

Manage Success Handling

By default the Manage Middleware will send these HTTP Codes on success:

All responses will be JSON encoded and the Content-Type Header will have a forced value of application/json. You can change all that by using your own Success Handler.

The custom Success Handler will be invoked with the following three arguments:

• res Object The Express response Object.
• result Object The result of the operation.
• action Manage.Action An enum of strings with the following possible values:
  • create
  • readOne
  • readAll
  • delete

Release History

• v0.2.4, 12 Nov 2014
  • Updated Kansas peerDependency to latest (0.3.2).
• v0.2.2, 02 Oct 2014
  • Added debug logging on all failure cases.
  • Added behindProxy option for better IP reporting on the debug logging.
• v0.2.1, 14 Jun 2014
  • express 4.0 OK!
• v0.2.0, 04 Apr 2014
  • Update to Kansas v0.2.x
  • Added the Count Middleware.
• v0.0.5, 09 Mar 2014
  • Update to Kansas v0.1.10
• v0.0.3, 08 Mar 2014
  • Fix not passing req/res to provide method
  • Update Kansas to latest.
• v0.0.1, 03 Mar 2014
  • Big Bang

License

Copyright (c) 2014 Thanasis Polychronakis. Licensed under the MIT license.