ATTENTION: This library is no longer supported because it is overly simplistic for most applications. Please consider using Ember Data instead. @dgeb 2014-02-19

Ember-REST

A very simple library for RESTful resources in Ember.js.

This was extracted from a simple example app: https://github.com/dgeb/ember_rest_example

Requirements

Ember.js and jQuery.js

Changes

This library is a work in progress. All breaking changes and significant updates will be reported in CHANGELOG

Usage

Ember.Resource

Create models that extend Ember.Resource. For example:

App.Contact  = Ember.Resource.extend({
  resourceUrl:        '/contacts',
  resourceName:       'contact',
  resourceProperties: ['first_name', 'last_name'],

  validate: function() {
    if (this.get('first_name') === undefined || this.get('first_name') === '' ||
        this.get('last_name') === undefined  || this.get('last_name') === '') {
      return 'Contacts require a first and a last name.';
    }
  },

  fullName: Ember.computed(function() {
    return this.get('first_name') + ' ' + this.get('last_name');
  }).property('first_name', 'last_name')
});

Define the following properties for your models:

• resourceIdField -- the id field for this resource ('id' by default)
• resourceUrl -- the base url of the resource (e.g. '/contacts'); will append '/' + id for individual resources
• resourceName -- the name used to contain the serialized data in this object's JSON representation (required only for serialization)
• resourceProperties -- an array of property names to be returned in this object's JSON representation (required only for serialization)

Note that because resourceName and resourceProperties are only used for serialization, they aren't required for read-only resources.

You may wish to override / define the following methods:

• serialize() - generate this resource's JSON representation
• serializeProperty(prop) - generate an individual property's JSON representation
• deserialize(json)
• deserializeProperty(prop, value)
• validate() - parse values and return an error string or object if appropriate
• isNew() - determines whether this a new resource based on the presence of its id

The following CRUD methods are available on resources:

• findResource() - loads a resource
• saveResource() - create a new resource or update an existing one
• destroyResource() - delete an existing resource

Here's an example of loading a single resource with findResource():

  var contact = Contact.create({id: 1});

  contact.findResource()
    .fail( function(e) {
      App.displayError(e);
    })
    .done(function() {
      alert("Loaded!");
    });

Here's an example of creating a new resource with saveResource():

  submit: function(event) {
    var self = this;
    var contact = this.get("contact");

    event.preventDefault();

    contact.saveResource()
      .fail( function(e) {
        App.displayError(e);
      })
      .done(function() {
        App.contactsController.pushObject(contact);
        self.get("parentView").hideNew();
      });
  }

Here's an almost identical example of updating an existing resource with saveResource():

  submit: function(event) {
    var self = this;
    var contact = this.get("contact");

    event.preventDefault();

    contact.saveResource()
      .fail( function(e) {
        App.displayError(e);
      })
      .done( function() {
        var parentView = self.get("parentView");
        parentView.get("contact").duplicateProperties(contact);
        parentView.hideEdit();
      });
  }

And an example of deleting an existing resource with destroyResource():

  destroyRecord: function() {
    var contact = this.get("contact");

    contact.destroyResource()
      .done(function() {
        App.contactsController.removeObject(contact);
      });
  }

Ember.ResourceController

Extend Ember.ResourceController to create controllers of resources. For example:

App.contactsController = Ember.ResourceController.create({
  resourceType: App.Contact
});

Define the following properties for your controller:

• resourceType -- an Ember.Resource class; the class must have a serialize() method that returns a JSON representation of the object
• resourceUrl -- (optional) the base url of the resource (e.g. '/contacts/active'); will default to the resourceUrl for resourceType

The following methods are available:

• load(json) -- create and load a single Ember.Resource from JSON
• loadAll(json) -- create and load Ember.Resource objects from a JSON array
• findAll() -- replace contents with an ajax call to resourceUrl
• clearAll() -- clear contents (without deleting resources)

Ember.ResourceAdapter

Ember.ResourceAdapter is mixed in to both Ember.Resource and Ember.ResourceController to perform resource requests. The default implementation is a thin wrapper around jQuery.ajax().

If you would like to completely override Ember.ResourceAdapter, define your own version before including ember-rest.js. For example:

  Ember.ResourceAdapter = Ember.Mixin.create({
    _resourceRequest: function(params) {
      // TODO - your implementation here
    }
  });

If you would just like to modify the behavior of Ember.ResourceAdapter, just reopen it. A _prepareResourceRequest() hook has been provided to allow modifications to the params passed to jQuery.ajax().

Here's an example that adds oauth support (note: this is not completely generalized - it depends on MyApp.oauthToken):

  Ember.ResourceAdapter.reopen({
    _prepareResourceRequest: function(params) {
      params.beforeSend = function (xhr, settings) {
        xhr.withCredentials = true;
        xhr.setRequestHeader('Authorization', 'Bearer ' + MyApp.oauthToken);
      }
    }
  });

Tests

QUnit and Sinon are used for tests. Simply open tests/index.html in your browser to run all the tests. No local server required.

Contributions

Please file issues on Github. Pull requests are welcome too.

License

Copyright 2012 Cerebris Corporation. MIT License (see LICENSE for details).