Example of how to scaffold API endpoints for Posts in a Keystone project (based on the yo keystone example).

KeystoneApiExample.md

This is an example of how to scaffold API endpoints to list / get / create / update / delete Posts in a Keystone website.

It's a modification of the default project created with the yo keystone generator (see https://github.com/JedWatson/generator-keystone)

Gists don't let you specify full paths, so in the project structure the files would be:

routes-index.js        -->    /routes/index.js         // modified to add the api endpoints
routes-api-posts.js    -->    /routes/api/posts.js     // new file containing the Post API route controllers

It creates JSON endpoints for:

• /api/post/list - lists all posts
• /api/post/create - creates a new post
• /api/post/{id} - returns the details of posts by id
• /api/post/{id}/update - updates a post by id and returns the details
• /api/post/{id}/delete - deletes a post by id

The create and update routes accept either GET or POST requests for simplicity, and look in either the URL parameters of the request body for data using the same paths as set on the models.

You can add your own logic in for security, default values, limiting fields etc. by configuring the functions exported by /routes/api/posts.js

routes-api-posts.js

var async = require('async'),
	keystone = require('keystone');

var Post = keystone.list('Post');

/**
 * List Posts
 */
exports.list = function(req, res) {
	Post.model.find(function(err, items) {
		
		if (err) return res.apiError('database error', err);
		
		res.apiResponse({
			posts: items
		});
		
	});
}

/**
 * Get Post by ID
 */
exports.get = function(req, res) {
	Post.model.findById(req.params.id).exec(function(err, item) {
		
		if (err) return res.apiError('database error', err);
		if (!item) return res.apiError('not found');
		
		res.apiResponse({
			post: item
		});
		
	});
}


/**
 * Create a Post
 */
exports.create = function(req, res) {
	
	var item = new Post.model(),
		data = (req.method == 'POST') ? req.body : req.query;
	
	item.getUpdateHandler(req).process(data, function(err) {
		
		if (err) return res.apiError('error', err);
		
		res.apiResponse({
			post: item
		});
		
	});
}

/**
 * Get Post by ID
 */
exports.update = function(req, res) {
	Post.model.findById(req.params.id).exec(function(err, item) {
		
		if (err) return res.apiError('database error', err);
		if (!item) return res.apiError('not found');
		
		var data = (req.method == 'POST') ? req.body : req.query;
		
		item.getUpdateHandler(req).process(data, function(err) {
			
			if (err) return res.apiError('create error', err);
			
			res.apiResponse({
				post: item
			});
			
		});
		
	});
}

/**
 * Delete Post by ID
 */
exports.remove = function(req, res) {
	Post.model.findById(req.params.id).exec(function (err, item) {
		
		if (err) return res.apiError('database error', err);
		if (!item) return res.apiError('not found');
		
		item.remove(function (err) {
			if (err) return res.apiError('database error', err);
			
			return res.apiResponse({
				success: true
			});
		});
		
	});
}

routes-index.js

var _ = require('underscore'),
	keystone = require('keystone'),
	middleware = require('./middleware'),
	importRoutes = keystone.importer(__dirname);

// Common Middleware
keystone.pre('routes', middleware.initLocals);
keystone.pre('render', middleware.flashMessages);

// Import Route Controllers
var routes = {
	views: importRoutes('./views'),
	api: importRoutes('./api')
};

// Setup Route Bindings
exports = module.exports = function(app) {
	
	// Views
	app.get('/', routes.views.index);
	app.get('/blog/:category?', routes.views.blog);
	app.get('/blog/post/:post', routes.views.post);
	app.get('/gallery', routes.views.gallery);
	app.all('/contact', routes.views.contact);
	
	app.get('/api/post/list', keystone.initAPI, routes.api.posts.list);
	app.all('/api/post/create', keystone.initAPI, routes.api.posts.create);
	app.get('/api/post/:id', keystone.initAPI, routes.api.posts.get);
	app.all('/api/post/:id/update', keystone.initAPI, routes.api.posts.update);
	app.get('/api/post/:id/remove', keystone.initAPI, routes.api.posts.remove);
	
}