ngx-resource-factory

ngx-resource-factory is an Angular library that enables you to work with RESTful APIs in an easy way. The main features include a resource store for holding changes on resource instances and related resource instances to commit them at once, and an advanced resource caching.

Note: This library is for Angular 5.x and above!

In development

This library is currently in an early stage of development and is missing lots of features as well as a proper documentation.

Usage

Install

To use ngx-resource-factory in your project you have to install it via npm:

npm i ngx-resource-factory --save

Add resource

The next step is defining a resource. Typically you create a services folder which will hold a ServicesModule in which the resources will be declared. Resources should also have their own directory. E.g. the UserResource would be located in app/services/resources/user.resource.ts

import { Injectable } from "@angular/core";

import { environment } from '../../../environments/environment';

import { Resource } from 'ngx-resource-factory/resource/resource';
import { ResourceConfiguration } from 'ngx-resource-factory/resource/resource-configuration';
import { ResourceInstance } from 'ngx-resource-factory/resource/resource-instance';


export class User extends ResourceInstance {
    pk: number;
    url: string;
    username: string;
    email: string;
}

@Injectable()
@ResourceConfiguration({
    name: 'UserResource',
    url: environment.apiUrl + 'user/:pk/',
    pkAttr: 'pk',
    instanceClass: User,
    stripTrailingSlashes: false,
})
export class UserResource extends Resource<User> {

}

Create Service module

After defining the first resource service it is required to declare it in a module so that we can inject it into components. Here, in app/services/services.module.ts, we are going to define the ServicesModule, which will load the UserResource.

import { ModuleWithProviders, NgModule } from '@angular/core';

import { UserResource } from './resources/user.resource';


@NgModule({
    imports: [],
    exports: [],
    declarations: [],
    providers: [/* declare in `forRoot()` */],
})
export class ServicesModule {

    static forRoot(): ModuleWithProviders {
        return {
            ngModule: ServicesModule,
            providers: [
                UserResource
            ]
        }
    }

}

Add module

Finally we have to add the NgxResourceFactoryModule and the ServicesModule to the main Angular module.

import { NgxResourceFactoryModule } from 'ngx-resource-factory';
import { ServicesModule } from './services/services.module';


@NgModule({
declarations: [
    AppComponent
],
imports: [
    BrowserModule,
    
    // ...
    NgxResourceFactoryModule.forRoot(),
    ServiceModule.forRoot(),
    // ...
],
providers: [],
bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})
export class AppModule { 

}

Usage

You can now inject the resource into your component and start using it.

import { Component, OnInit } from '@angular/core';

import { ResourceModel } from 'ngx-resource-factory/resource/resource-model';

import { UserResource, User } from './services/resources/user.resource';


@Component({
    selector: 'app-root',
    templateUrl: './app.component.html',
    styleUrls: ['./app.component.scss']
})
export class AppComponent implements OnInit {
    title = 'app';

    users: ResourceModel<User>[] = [];

    constructor(private userResource: UserResource) {
    }

    ngOnInit() {
        const queryParam = {};

        this.userResource.query(queryParam).$promise
            .then((data) => {
                this.users = data;

                console.log(data);
            })
            .catch((error) => {
                console.log(error);
            });
    }

}

Action methods

ngx-resource-factory exposes the REST APIs methods via its ActionMethod methods. The default defines the typical RESTful methods on the resource class as follows:

• .query() executes GET for getting lists
• .get() executes GET for getting instances
• .save() executes POST for creating instances
• .update() executes PATCH for updating instances
• .remove() executes DELETE for removing instances

Each of this resource methods can take the parameters, in the given order, as follows:

• query optional parameter for URL query data as object
• payload optional parameter for the requests payload as object
• successCb optional parameter for the success callback as function
• errorCb optional parameter for the error callback as function

Each of this resource methods is also available on a resource instance, prefixed with a $:

• .$query() executes GET for getting lists
• .$get() executes GET for getting instances
• .$save() executes POST for creating instances
• .$update() executes PATCH for updating instances
• .$remove() executes DELETE for removing instances

This resource instance methods can take the parameters, in the given order, as follows:

• query optional parameter for URL query data as object
• successCb optional parameter for the success callback as function
• errorCb optional parameter for the error callback as function

Define custom action methods

For a better understanding how to define custom action methods, have a look at the Resource<T> type that defines the default methods.

import { Injectable } from "@angular/core";

import { ResourceBase } from "ngx-resource-factory/resource/resource";
import { ResourceInstance } from "ngx-resource-factory/resource/resource-instance";
import { ResourceAction } from "ngx-resource-factory/resource/resource-action";
import { ResourceActionMethod } from "ngx-resource-factory/resource/resource-action-method";
import { ResourceActionHttpMethod } from "ngx-resource-factory/resource/resource-action-http-method";


@Injectable()
export abstract class Resource<T extends ResourceInstance> extends ResourceBase {

    @ResourceAction({
        method: ResourceActionHttpMethod.GET,
        paramDefaults: [],
        isList: true,
    })
    query: ResourceActionMethod<any, any, T[]>;

    @ResourceAction({
        method: ResourceActionHttpMethod.GET,
        isList: false,
    })
    get: ResourceActionMethod<any, any, T>;

    @ResourceAction({
        method: ResourceActionHttpMethod.POST,
        paramDefaults: [],
        isList: false,
        invalidateCache: true,
    })
    save: ResourceActionMethod<any, any, T>;

    @ResourceAction({
        method: ResourceActionHttpMethod.PATCH,
        isList: false,
        invalidateCache: true,
    })
    update: ResourceActionMethod<any, any, T>;

    @ResourceAction({
        method: ResourceActionHttpMethod.DELETE,
        isList: false,
        invalidateCache: true,
    })
    remove: ResourceActionMethod<any, any, T>;

}

Your resource class may inherit from Resource<T> or from ResourceBase, if you do not want to have the default action methods. Define custom action methods on your resource class as shown above.

@Injectable()
@ResourceConfiguration({
    name: 'UserResource',
    url: environment.apiUrl + 'user/:pk/',
    pkAttr: 'pk',
    instanceClass: User,
    stripTrailingSlashes: false,
})
export class UserResource extends Resource<User> {
    @ResourceAction({
        method: ResourceActionHttpMethod.POST,
        isList: false,
        invalidateCache: true,
        urlSuffix: 'deactive/'
    })
    deactivate: ResourceActionMethod<any, any, T>;
}

Handle responses

Action methods give you three ways to handle responses. You can use the stub object returned by an action method, that gets filled with data as soon as the response was received, you can use the .$promise property to handle the response with a Promise, or you can use the .$observable property to handle the response with an Observable.

This may look as follows:

import { Component, OnInit } from '@angular/core';

import { ResourceModel } from 'ngx-resource-factory/resource/resource-model';

import { UserResource, User } from './services/resources/user.resource';


@Component({
    selector: 'app-my',
    templateUrl: './my.component.html',
    styleUrls: ['./my.component.scss']
})
export class MyComponent implements OnInit {
    users: ResourceModel<User>[] = [];

    constructor(private userResource: UserResource) {
    }

    ngOnInit() {
        // Stub
        this.users = this.userResource.query();
        
        // Promise
        this.userResource.query().$promise
            .then((data) => {
                this.users = data;
            });
        
        // Observable
        this.userResource.query().$observable
            .subscribe((data) => {
                this.users = data;
            });
    }

}

Notes

Usage with Angular 6.x

Angular 6.x is using RxJS 6.x. This has brings some changes in the API of RxJS and requires to additionally install rxjs-compat. Make sure the version of rxjs and rxjs-compat are compatible.

This can be removed and rxjs-compat can be moved to peer dependencies once the support for Angular 5.x will be dropped.

Internet Explorer Support

The package makes use of the URL API, which is not provided in IE11 or earlier: https://caniuse.com/#feat=url Make sure to install the URL API polyfill (npm install url-polyfill --save) and add it into polyfills.ts:

import 'url-polyfill';