data-driven extendable API middleware for Node.js/Express

Expressa makes it easy to create basic APIs by using JSON schema:

• django-like admin interface for creating collection-REST endpoints and managing permissions
• collection schema's can be edited and added through the admin interface
• re-use collection schema's in your frontend to generate forms
• easily extendable so you can add complex features as well
• define collections as JSON schema instead of custom code
• per-collection database storage: MongoDB, PostgreSQL, or JSON-files (useful for version control)

Best of all: it's just middleware, not a framework

• mix-and-mash: easily throw in other express middleware and endpoints
• decorate expressa-endpoints: add event listeners which stop/modify requests (responses)

Getting Started

It's very easy to install expressa in your project directory:

mkdir myapp
cd myapp
npm init
npm install expressa express

Create a file app.js with the following code (or just copy the middle 3 lines into your existing express app)

var express = require('express');
var app = express();

var expressa = require('expressa');
app.use('/admin', expressa.admin({ apiurl: '/api/' }));
app.use('/api', expressa.api());

app.listen(3000, function () {
  console.log('Example app listening on port 3000!');
});

Now start the server by running node --use-strict app.js and navigate your browser to http://localhost:3000/admin/

API endpoints

Once you add a collections in the admin interface, every collection will have the following endpoints:

Supported Data: Only standard JSON (strings, numbers, booleans, null) is supported. Dates can be stored as strings using ISO 8601

Documentation

• Requests
  • Querying
  • Making authenticated requests
  • Pagination and sorting
• Collections
  • Automatic fields
• Server-side implementation
  • Modifying behavior using listeners
  • Adding custom endpoints
  • Accessing the database
• Admin Panel
  • Relationships
  • Permissions
  • Uploading files
• Testing / CI integrating your expressa app

Folder Structure

The Expressa configuration is in a folder called "data" in your project. There is a subfolder for the collections that you choose to persist to disk. By default, the following will be added once you finish the installation.

Note: The files in these data folders are JSON so they can be manually updated or you can edit them in the Admin UI. Generally these files should be checked into version control.

Admin UI Examples/Screenshots

• Example: Creating a blog collection and post in the UI
• Managing CRUD permissions in the UI

Expressa ecosystem

• expressa-folder easily extend expressa collections with ORM-ish js-code (get.js/post.js/functions.js/etc) & setup sub-endpoints
• expressa-swagger middleware to generate online api documentation
• expressa-client middleware to generate browser REST-client (+nodejs client)
• expressa-cli commandline interface for expressa

Roadmap

• Automatic GraphQL Support
• JWT token expiration
• Support cookie based authentication as well
• File uploads

Alternatives

Expressa is not primarily built for simple blog websites or mostly static content websites. For those a cms like Keystone.js and enduro.js could work or maybe you could build you site with a static site generator like Hugo. For database-driven websites that need a strong CRUD backend where you want a clear separation between the frontend and backend, expressa.js is a great choice.

Changelog

Inspired by

• deployd (API design)
• Django (admin UI)
• Drupal (roles/permissions)