socketful

Reflects socket.io servers from resourceful resources. Can be used as a stand-alone module or as a Flatiron plugin.

Explanation

The socketful project removes the process of writing boilerplate socket.io event mapping code for interacting with resourceful resources. socketful uses reflection to reflect a socket.io server interface that maps all socket.io events needed to perform basic real-time CRUD operations with resourceful. socketful also has the ability to expose additional arbitrary remote resource methods in socket.io

Through the removal of this boilerplate code, socketful creates a robust, standardized, and re-usable socket.io interface for any resourceful resource.

Remark: If you require RESTful HTTP routing instead of sockets, try the restful library.

Installation

 npm install socketful

Usage

Define resource(s)

var resourceful = require('resourceful'),
    Creature    = resourceful.define('creature');
 
Creature.property('type', String, { default: "dragon" });
Creature.property('life', Number, { default: 10, min: 0, max: 20 });

additional API documentation for defining resources

As a Flatiron Plugin

To use socketful as a Flatiron plugin you will have to:

• Define resource(s) in your Flatiron app
• Use the Flatiron http plugin
• Pass the Flatiron app.server instance to socketful.createServer

Here is a code example of using socketful as a Flatiron plugin: https://github.com/flatiron/socketful/blob/master/examples/app.js

As a stand-alone server

To use socketful as a stand-alone server you will have to:

• Define resource(s)
• Create a new server based on the resource(s) using socketful.createServer

Here is a code example of using socketful as a stand-alone server: https://github.com/flatiron/socketful/blob/master/examples/server.js

Connecting to socketful

Browser

<script src="/socket.io/socket.io.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script>
  var socket = io.connect('http://localhost');
  var name = prompt('creature name?');
  var type = prompt('creature type?');
  socket.emit('creature', 'create', { id: name, type: type }, function(err, result) {
    if(err) {
      alert('Error \n\n' + JSON.stringify(err, true, 2));
    } else {
      alert('Created creature! \n\n' +  JSON.stringify(result, true, 2));
    }
  })
</script> 

see: https://github.com/flatiron/socketful/blob/master/examples/public/index.html

Node.js Client Script

var io = require('socket.io-client');
var socket = io.connect('http://localhost:8000');
 
var user =  { id: 'bob', type: 'dragon' };
 
socket.emit('creature', 'create', user, function(err, result) {
  if(err) {
    console.log('Error \n\n' + JSON.stringify(err, true, 2));
  } else {
    console.log('Created creature! \n\n' +  JSON.stringify(result, true, 2));
  }
});

see: https://github.com/flatiron/socketful/blob/master/examples/client.js

Core Socket.io Mappings

By default, socketful will map all Resourceful methods in the following signature:

server.on(resource, action, payload, callback);

Example:

socket.emit('creature', 'create', { id: 'bob' } , function(err, bob) {
  console.log('created: ', bob);
};

Socket       Resource     Action    Payload  Callback        Resource Method

socket.emit('creature', 'create',  data,    callback)   =>  Creature.create()
socket.emit('creature', 'get',     data,    callback)   =>  Creature.get()
socket.emit('creature', 'all',     data,    callback)   =>  Creature.all()
socket.emit('creature', 'update',  data,    callback)   =>  Creature.update()
socket.emit('creature', 'destroy', data,    callback)   =>  Creature.destroy()

The socket.io server will delegate all incoming Creature events to the resource and respond back with the appropriate result.

<a name"remote">

Exposing Arbitrary Resource Methods

In many cases, you'll want to expose additional methods on a Resource through socket.io outside of the included CRUD operations: create, all, get, update, destroy.

socketful has built in support for easily exposing arbitrary remote resource methods.

Consider the example of a Creature. We've already defined all the socketful CRUD events, but a Creature also needs to eat!

Simply create a new method on the Creature resource called feed.

Creature.feed = function (_id, options, callback) {
  callback(null, 'I have been fed');
}

This feed method is consider private by default, in that it will not be exposed to the web unless it's set to a remote function. To set a resource method to remote, simply:

Creature.feed.remote = true

It's easy as that! By setting the feed method to remote, the following events will exist in the socket.io server.

socket.emit('creature', 'feed', data, callback)  => Creature.feed()

Resource Security

There are several ways to provide security and authorization for accessing resource methods exposed with socketful. The recommended pattern for authorization is to use resourceful's ability for before and after hooks. In these hooks, you can add additional business logic to restrict access to the resource's methods.

TL;DR; For security and authorization, you should use resourceful's before and after hooks.

Tests

 npm test

TODO

• Cleanup create / extend code for flatiron plugin
• Better browser / isomorphic support via resourceful socketful engine
• Add ability to specify schemas for remote method argument payloads
• Improve Tests
• Add better error support via errs library