connect-ratelimit

connect-ratelimit
=================

``JavaScript
var limiter = require('connect-ratelimit');

app = connect()
.use(limiter({
whitelist: ['127.0.0.1'],
blacklist: ['example.com']
}))
.use(function (req, res) {
res.end('Hello world!');
});
`

connect-ratelimit is connect middleware for limiting the number of requests per
client ip/hostname to your node server.

When a limit is reached the middleware will cancel the middleware chain early
with res.end('Rate limit exceeded.') or you can optionally check for a limit
exceeding yourself elsewhere down the chain.

About
-----

$3

Categories serve as templates to manage different types of connecting clients.
By default all clients are categorized as 'normal' but whitelist and blacklist
categories also exist.

#### normal

By default anyone uncategorized will be subject to 500 requests per hour.

#### whitelist

By default client names in the whitelist will be subject to 4000 requests per
hour.

#### blacklist

By default client names in the blacklist will be subject to 0 requests per 0
time. In other words they will always be exceding the rate limit.

$3

connect-ratelimit uses the following code to identify clients:

`JavaScript
req.headers['x-forwarded-for'] || req.connection.remoteAddress
`


Usage
-----

`JavaScript
var limiter = require('connect-ratelimit');
`

The middleware takes an options object with the following parameters:

- whitelist: An array of strings representing clients you wish to apply to
the whitelist category. eg. ['127.0.0.1'] for local development.
- blacklist: An array of strings representing clients you wish to apply to
the blacklist category.
- end: A boolean when set to false (default true) the connect chain will
continue even if a client has exceeded the ratelimit. The response object is
augmented with the ratelimit namespace. response.ratelimit exposes an object
which contains the various details about the client including if they have past
their limit as well as all other recorded clients. This is useful if you wish
to supply your own error response to the client or any other logic.
- categories: An object representing the various total requests per time
for each category type. See below.

$3

The categories property of the options object for the connect-limiter allows
you to specify different totalRequests and every for specific categories.

A fully configured value of the categories property could like this:

`JavaScript
{
whitelist: {
totalRequests: 5000,
every: 60 60 1000
},
blacklist: {
totalRequests: 0,
every: 0
},
normal: {
totalRequests: 5,
every: 60 60 1000
}
}
`

Set totalRequests to 0 is how to block requests from under category
entirely.

Below is how you can switch from an hourly rate to a half-hourly rate for all
categories but blacklist.

`JavaScript
.use(limiter({
whitelist: ['dharmafly.com'],
categories: {
normal: {
every: (60 60 1000) / 2
},
whitelist: {
every: (60 60 1000) / 2
}
}
}))
`

You don't need to set every category, just the properties you want to change.

Example
-------

connect is required for the example to run.

`bash
npm install connect
`

To play with the example app run the command below and navigate to
localhost:4000

`bash
node example.js
``