asteroid

A javascript client (node) for a Meteor backend.

> 2.x.x is out, find out what changed in the CHANGELOG

Why

Meteor is an awesome framework for building real-time APIs. Its canonical
front-end framework however is not very flexible. Adopting other front-ends
comes with the cost of having to work around the limitations of meteor's build
tool, which makes it very difficult, for instance, to use other tools like
webpack, or to manage dependencies via npm.

Asteroid is an isomorphic/universal javascript library which allows to connect
to a Meteor backend from almost any JS environment.

With Asteroid you can:
* hook any existing application to a real-time meteor API
* use any front-end framework you want with a Meteor backend
* develop browser extensions backed by Meteor
* use Meteor as a backend for a react-native app

$3

* Small footprint
* Framework agnostic. Use the tools you already know and love to build your app
* Allows to use Meteor as a full-blown backend or just as a real-time platform
pluggable into any existing project
* Easily connect to multiple Meteor servers at the same time, perfect for
building admin interfaces

Install

npm install --save asteroid

Usage

``js
import {createClass} from "asteroid";

const Asteroid = createClass();
// Connect to a Meteor backend
const asteroid = new Asteroid({
endpoint: "ws://localhost:3000/websocket"
});

// Use real-time collections
asteroid.subscribe("tasksPublication");

asteroid.ddp.on("added", ({collection, id, fields}) => {
console.log(Element added to collection ${collection});
console.log(id);
console.log(fields);
});

// Login
asteroid.loginWithPassword({username, email, password});

// Call method and use promises
asteroid.call("newUser")
.then(result => {
console.log("Success");
console.log(result);
})
.catch(error => {
console.log("Error");
console.error(error);
});
`

Mixins

Mixins are used to extend Asteroid's functionalities. You add mixins by passing
them to the createClass function.

A mixin is an object with a set of enumerable function properties. Those
functions will all be mixed into Asteroid.prototype. The special function
init won't end up the in prototype. Instead it will be called on
instantiation with the arguments passed to the constructor.

$3

* ddp: establishes the ddp connection
* methods: adds methods for invoking ddp remote methods
* subscriptions: adds methods for subscribing to ddp publications
* login: adds methods for logging in
* password-login: adds methods for password logins / user creation

$3

* asteroid-immutable-collections-mixin: stores
collections published by the server into an immutable map
* asteroid-oauth-mixin: allows logging in via oauth

Development environment setup

After cloning the repository, install npm dependencies with npm install.
Run npm test to run unit tests, or npm run dev to have mocha re-run your
tests when source or test files change.

Contribute

Contributions are as always very welcome. If you have written a mixin for
asteroid, feel free to make a PR to add it to this README.

API

$3

Create the Asteroid class. Any passed-in mixins will be added to the default
mixins.

##### Arguments

* mixins Array< object > _optional_: mixins you want to use

##### Returns

The Asteroid class.

---

$3

Creates a new Asteroid instance (which is also an EventEmitter).

On instantiation:
* the ddp mixin will automatically connect to the Meteor backend
* the login mixin will try to resume a previous session

##### Arguments

* options object _required_:
* endpoint string _required_: the DDP endpoint to connect to, e.g.
ws://example.com/websocket
* SocketConstructor function _optional_ [default: WebSocket]: the
class to be used to create the websocket connection to the server. In node,
use faye-websocket-node's Client. In older browsers which do not support
WebSocket, use sockjs-client's SockJS
* autoConnect boolean _optional_ [default: true]: whether to
auto-connect to the server on instantiation. Otherwise the connect method
can be used to establish the connection
* autoReconnect boolean _optional_ [default: true]: wheter to
auto-reconnect when the connection drops for whatever reason. This option
will be ignored - and the connection won't be re-established - if the
connection is terminated by calling the disconnect method
* reconnectInterval number _optional_ [default: 10000]: the interval in
ms between reconnection attempts

##### Returns

An Asteroid instance.

---

$3

Provided by the ddp mixin.

Establishes a connection to the ddp server. No-op if a connection is already
established.

##### Arguments

None.

##### Returns

Nothing.

---

$3

Provided by the ddp mixin.

Terminates the connection to the ddp server. No-op if there's no active
connection.

##### Arguments

None.

##### Returns

Nothing.

---

$3

Provided by the methods mixin.

Calls a server-side method with the specified arguments.

##### Arguments

* method string _required_: the name of the method to call
* param1, param2, ... ...any _optional_: parameters passed to the server
method

##### Returns

A promise to the method return value (the promise is rejected if the method
throws).

---

$3

Provided by the methods mixin.

Same as call, but using as array of parameters instead of a list.

##### Arguments

* method string _required_: the name of the method to call
* params Array< any > _optional_: an array of parameters passed to the
server method

##### Returns

Same as call, see above.

---

$3

Provided by the subscriptions mixin.

Subscribes to the specified publication. If an identical subscription (name
and parameters) has already been made, Asteroid will not re-subscribe and
return that subscription instead (subscriptions are idempotent, so it does not
make sense to re-subscribe).

##### Arguments

* name string _required_: the name of the publication

* param1, param2, ... ...any _optional_: a list of parameters that are
passed to the publication function on the server

##### Returns

A subscription object. Subscription objects have an id, which you can
later use to unsubscribe, and are EventEmitter-s. You can listen for the
following events:

* ready: emitted without parameters when the subscription is marked as ready
by the server
* error: emitted with the error as first and only parameter when the server
signals an error occurred on the subscription
* TODO stopped: emitted when the subscription stops

---

$3

Provided by the subscriptions mixin.

Unsubscribes from a publication.

##### Arguments

* id string _required_: the id of the subscription

##### Returns

Nothing.

---

$3

Provided by the password-login mixin.

Creates a user and logs him in. Does not hash the password before sending
it to the server. This should not be a problem, since you'll probably be using
SSL anyway.

##### Arguments

* options object _required_:
* username string _optional_
* email string _optional_
* password string _required_

Note: you must specify either options.username or options.email.

##### Returns

A promise which resolves to the userId of the created user when the creation
succeeds, or rejects when it fails.

---

$3

Provided by the password-login mixin.

Logs the user in using username/email and password. Does not hash the
password before sending it to the server. This should not be a problem, since
you'll probably be using SSL anyway.

##### Arguments

* options object _required_:
* username string _optional_
* email string _optional_
* password string _required_

Note: you must specify either options.username or options.email.

##### Returns

A promise which resolves to the userId of the logged in user when the login
succeeds, or rejects when it fails.

---

$3

Provided by the login mixin.

Log in the user.

##### Arguments

* params object _required_: params to pass for login with a custom
provider

##### Returns

A promise which resolves to the userId of the logged in user when the login
succeeds, or rejects when it fails.

---

$3

Provided by the login mixin.

Logs out the user.

##### Arguments

None

##### Returns

A promise which resolves to null when the logout succeeds, or rejects when it
fails.

---

$3

* connected (emitted by the ddp mixin)
* disconnected (emitted by the ddp mixin)
* loggedIn (emitted by the login mixin)
* loggedOut (emitted by the login` mixin)