Issue on reaching out to new routes established using the WriteAPI

KnickKnack

Hi community first and foremost thank for your valuable support.

I need to retrieve custom data I've written to mongoDB and I'd like them to be returned as JSON string via a custom WriteAPI-enabled route.

A few notes to give a better context:

I'm currently on Ubuntu 18 / nodebb 1.16.2 / Mongo DB 4.0.22 / npm 6.14.10
I've already read
- extends nodebb write-api?
- Extending routes into the write api plugin
I've looked at
- nodebb-plugin-friends on GitHub
- WriteAPI doc
- ReadAPI doc
and, in the end, I've created an API Access token bound to the forum administrator which works nicely to read and write in the forum (e.g. retrieving the topics or creating a new one)

Issues:

Upon installing nodebb-plugin-friends (clone and npm link) and activating in a pristine test forum I can see the hook in Advanced -> Hooks but:
- why looking at the nodebb log (run as ./nodebb dev) I can't see [plugins/friends] Write API integration enabled, routes added. as specified here?
- assuming I'm using Postman for testing purposes how should i reach these routes? (none of these - <url/to/nodebb>/api/v3/friends/:uid, <url/to/nodebb>/api/friends/:uid, <url/to/nodebb>/friends/:uid, <url/to/nodebb>api/v3/plugins/friends/:uid - worked for me)
Upon creating a test plugin (see below library.js and plugin.json) I'm not able to reach any of the established new routes (as much as reported above): how can I debug the issue? Log is silent and

library.js

'use strict';

(function(routes) {

  routes.initWriteRoutes = function(data, callback) {

    data.router.get('/route1', data.apiMiddleware.requireUser, data.apiMiddleware.requireAdmin, middleware.verifyUserExists, function(req, res) {
      console.log("/route1 reached via get");
      res.sendStatus(200);
    });

    data.router.post('/route2', data.apiMiddleware.requireUser, middleware.verifyUserExists, function(req, res) {
      console.log("/route2 reached via post");
      res.sendStatus(200);
    });

    data.router.delete('/route3', data.apiMiddleware.requireUser, middleware.verifyUserExists, function(req, res) {
      console.log("/route3 reached via delete");
      res.sendStatus(200);
    });

    console.log('[plugins/test] Write API integration enabled, routes added.');
    callback(null, data);
  };

}(module.exports));

plugin.json


{
  "library": "./library.js",
  "hooks": [
      { "hook": "filter:plugin.write-api.routes", "method": "initWriteRoutes" }
  ]
}

assuming nodebb-plugin-friends is installed why the log reports info: [api] Adding 0 route(s) to 'api/v3/plugins' with 0 new routes? Shouldn't it include at least the new routes coming with this plugin?

I apologise for the length of this post, but I think this might help you to steer me in the right direction.

Best, Riccardo

PitaJ

You're attaching to the wrong hook. You need to use static:api.routes

https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/blob/949f043a966bca5dc04cc1c674dfca4132650f5c/src/routes/write/index.js#L53

It looks like the friends plugin integrates with the write API plugin, not the new write API.

julian

@pitaj is correct, the friends plugin is likely adding new routes to api/v2, the Write API plugin (if it is installed and enabled).

If you want it to add routes to v3, you'll need to use the hook he suggested.

KnickKnack

Thanks a lot @PitaJ and @julian, changing the hook worked.

Moving to api/v3 looks like I can't use what @julian mentioned

It passes in router, apiMiddleware, middleware, and errorHandler, so given that you can style your own routes like I do in the write api, e.g.:
var addRoutes = function(data, callback) {
  data.router.get('/awesome', apiMiddleware.requireUser, function(req, res) {
    console.log('lorem ipsum!');
    res.sendStatus(200);
  });

  callback(null, data);
});
In the above example, I used the requireUser middleware, which, provided by the write-api, means you have to pass in an user/master token just like the other routes. It also sets req.user.uid for you to use.

How can I check that the bearer Token coming with the req.header is valid and corresponds to a certain user to which the bearer token is bound to?

Any snippet to look at?

Thanks, Riccardo

julian

@knickknack I've updated the friends plugin to compatibility with latest NodeBB.

This is the commit that introduces write API v3 integration

Perhaps this will give you some pointers.

KnickKnack

@julian that's awesome thanks a lot!