launch (working title)

launch transforms Typescript interfaces into usable client / server code.

It simplifies the process of writing clients and servers and lets you launch your code faster. Instead of describing REST APIs, launch abstracts away REST and HTTP and gives you a simple typescript interface.

Behind the scenes it uses simple HTTP POST with JSON payload and is validated using JSONSchema. The heavy lifting is done by typescript-json-schema.

Usage

1. Create the interface file.

   interface.ts

   export interface Example {
     add: {
       params: {
         a: number;
         b: number;
       };
       returns: number;
     };
   }

2. Compile the schema.

   mkdir -p ./generated && launch example@0.0.1 interface.ts -o ./generated

3. Write the server code.

   server.ts

   import { ExampleServer } from './generated/server';
   
   class Handler {
     public async add(a: number, b: number): Promise<number> {
       return a + b;
     }
   }
   
   const h = new Handler();
   
   const server = new ExampleServer(h);
   server.listen(8080);

4. Write the client code.

   client.ts

   import { ExampleClient } from './generated/client';
   
   async function main() {
     const client = new ExampleClient('http://localhost:8080');
     try {
       const x = await client.add(1, 2);
       console.log(x);
     } catch (err) {
       console.error(err);
     }
   }
   
   main();

5. Run (make sure tsconfig.json is properly configured for node and is present in the current directory) TODO: Test this process

   tsc
   ./server.js &
   ./client.js

   Alternatively with ts-node:

   ts-node ./server.ts &
   ts-node ./client.ts

Advanced usage

Creating an npm package

Launch can create an npm package for you and publish it if instead of specifying an output dir you give it a publish target. In the following example launch will publish the generated server files to npm as example-server@0.0.1:

launch -p -r server example@0.0.1 interface.ts

Calling with curl # TODO

Calling with httpie # TODO

Object params

Complex nested object types are supported.

Date parameter types or return type are validated by JSON schema and cast into back to Date objects when deserialized.

export interface User {
  name: string;
  createdAt: Date;
}

export interface Example {
  lastSeen: {
    params: {
      u: User;
    };
    returns: Date;
  };
}

Context

Some use cases require context to be passed on to handlers (i.e. for authentication / extracting the request IP).

There are 2 types of contexts in launch, ClientContext and ServerOnlyContext.

• ClientContext is prepended to the client call signature and is exported as Context from the generated client file.
• ServerOnlyContext is extracted by the server using a custom provided function that accepts a request object (depends on the runtime) and returns a context object. Handler methods receive a context which is an intersection of ClientContext and ServerOnlyContext and is exported as Context from the generated server code.

To use contexts simply add them to your interfaces file.

interface.ts

export interface ClientContext {
  token: string;
}

export interface ServerOnlyContext {
  ip: string;
}

export interface Example {
  hello: {
    params: {
      name: string;
    };
    returns: integer;
  };
}

server.ts

import * as koa from 'koa';
import { ExampleServer, Context, ServerOnlyContext } from './generated/server';

export class Handler {
  public async extractContext({ ip }: koa.Context): Promise<ServerOnlyContext> {
    return { ip };
  }

  public async hello({ token, ip }: Context, name: string): Promise<string> {
    return `Hello, ${name} from ${ip}, token: ${token}`;
  }
}

const h = new Handler();

const server = new ExampleServer(h);
server.listen(8080);

client.ts

import { ExampleClient, Context } from './generated/client';

async function main() {
  const client = new ExampleClient('http://localhost:8080');
  await client.hello({ token: 'abc' }, 'baba'); // Hello, baba from 127.0.0.1, token: abc
}

main();

Generating only client / server

launch --role client -o ./generated interfaces.ts
launch --role server -o ./generated interfaces.ts

Mounting the app with a different prefix and adding custom middleware

server.ts

// ...
import { ExampleRouter } from './generated/server';

// ... implement Handler class ...
const h = new Handler();
const router = new ExampleRouter(h);
const app = new Koa();

const baseRouter = new Router(); // koa-router
baseRouter.use('/prefix',  router.koaRouter.routes(),  router.koaRouter.allowedMethods());
app.use(baseRouter.routes());
app.use(async function myCustomMiddleware(ctx: koa.Context, next) {
  // ... implement middlware ...
});
// ... app.listen(), etc ...

Exceptions # TODO

JSON Schema attributes

Use annotations to specify JSON Schema attributes.

export interface Example {
  add: {
    params: {
      /**
      * @minmum 0
      */
      a: integer;
      /**
      * @minmum 0
      */
      b: integer;
    };
    returns: integer;
  };
}

Integers

Define integer as number, it'll be reflected in the generated JSON schema while the generated Typescript code will be typed as number.

export type integer = number;

export interface Example {
  add: {
    params: {
      a: integer;
      b: integer;
    };
    returns: integer;
  };
}

Void return type

When null is the only return type on a method, as in returns: null, it will compile to Promise<void>.

Defining returns: null | SomethingElse on a method will compile to Promise<null | SomethingElse> return type.

Comparison to other tools

OpenAPI (Swagger)

OpenAPI provides an easy way to write descriptive REST APIs. launch on the other hand, spares you from even thinking about REST and lets you focus on your buisness logic.

Both projects use JSON Schema for input validation. OpenAPI let's you write pure JSON schema while launch interfaces are written in typescript.

Protobuf / Thrift

protobuf and thrift have ATM more efficient serialization. They both enforce backwards compatibility better with field numbering? (TODO) In the future we could add binary serialization to launch but we default to JSON for readability.

launch provides advanced type validation with JSON schema.

launch uses mustache templates which are easy to customize to support any language / framework.