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Interpol

Interpol Logo

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Interpol is a toolkit for policing your HTTP JSON interface. To use it, define the endpoints of your HTTP API in simple YAML files. Interpol provides multiple tools to work with these endpoint definitions:

  • Interpol::TestHelper::RSpec and Interpol::TestHelper::TestUnit are modules that you can mix in to your test context. They provide a means to generate tests from your endpoint definitions that validate example data against your JSON schema definition.
  • Interpol::StubApp builds a stub implementation of your API from the endpoint definitions. This can be distributed with your API's client gem so that API users have something local to hit that generates data that is valid according to your schema definition.
  • Interpol::ResponseSchemaValidator is a rack middleware that validates your API responses against the JSON schema in your endpoint definition files. This is useful in test/development environments to ensure that your real API returns valid responses.
  • Interpol::DocumentationApp builds a sinatra app that renders documentation for your API based on the endpoint definitions.
  • Interpol::Sinatra::RequestParamsParser validates and parses a sinatra params hash based on your endpoint params schema definitions.
  • Interpol::RequestBodyValidator is a rack middleware that validates and parses request bodies based on your schema definitions.

You can use any of these tools individually or some combination of all of them.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'interpol'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install interpol

Endpoint Definition

Endpoints are defined in YAML files, using a separate file per endpoint. Here's an example:

---
name: user_projects
route: /users/:user_id/projects
method: GET
definitions:
  - message_type: request
    versions: ["1.0"]
    path_params:
      type: object
      properties:
        user_id:
          type: integer
    schema: {}
    examples: []
  - message_type: response
    versions: ["1.0"]
    status_codes: ["2xx", "404"]
    schema:
      description: Returns a list of projects for the given user.
      type: object
      properties:
        projects:
          description: List of projects.
          type: array
          items:
            type: object
            properties:
              name:
                description: The name of the project.
                type: string
              importance:
                description: The importance of the project, on a scale of 1 to 10.
                type: integer
                minimum: 1
                maximum: 10

    examples:
      - projects:
        - name: iPhone App
          importance: 5
        - name: Rails App
          importance: 7

Let's look at this YAML file, point-by-point:

  • name can be anything you want. Each endpoint should have a different name. Interpol uses it in schema validation error messages. It is also used by the documentation app.
  • route defines the sinatra route for this endpoint. Note that while Interpol::StubApp supports any sinatra route, Interpol::ResponseSchemaValidator (which has to find a matching endpoint definition from the request path), only supports a subset of Sinatra's routing syntax. Specifically, it supports static segments (users and projects in the example above) and named parameter segments (:user_id in the example above).
  • method defines the HTTP method for this endpoint. The method should be in uppercase.
  • The definitions array contains a list of versioned schema definitions, with corresponding examples. Everytime you modify your schema and change the version, you should add a new entry here.
  • The message_type describes whether the following schema is for requests or responses. It is an optional attribute that when omitted defaults to response. The only valid values are request and response.
  • The versions array lists the endpoint versions that should be associated with a particular schema definition.
  • The status_codes is an optional array of status code strings describing for which status code or codes this schema applies to. status_codes is ignored if used with the request message_type. When used with the response message_type it is an optional attribute that defaults to all status codes. Valid formats for a status code are 3 characters. Each character must be a digit (0-9) or 'x' (wildcard). The following strings are all valid: "200", "4xx", "x0x".
  • path_params lists the path parameters that are used by a request to this endpoint. You can also list query_params in the same manner. These are both used by Interpol::Sinatra::RequestParamsParser.
  • The schema contains a JSON schema description of the contents of the endpoint. This schema definition is used by the SchemaValidation middleware to ensure that your implementation of the endpoint matches the definition.
  • examples contains a list of valid example data. It is used by the stub app as example data.

Configuration

Interpol provides two levels of configuration: global default configuration, and one-off configuration, set on a particular instance of one of the provided tools. Each of the tools accepts a configuration block that provides an identical API to the global configuration API shown below.

require 'interpol'

Interpol.default_configuration do |config|
  # Tells Interpol where to find your endpoint definition files.
  #
  # Needed by all tools.
  config.endpoint_definition_files = Dir["config/endpoints/*.yml"]

  # Determines which versioned response endpoint definition Interpol uses
  # for a request. You can also use a block form, which yields
  # the rack env hash and the endpoint object as arguments.
  # This is useful when you need to extract the version from a
  # request header (e.g. Accept) or from the request URI.
  #
  # Needed by Interpol::StubApp and Interpol::ResponseSchemaValidator.
  config.response_version '1.0'

  # Determines which versioned request endpoint definition Interpol uses
  # for a request. You can also use a block form, which yields
  # the rack env hash and the endpoint object as arguments.
  # This is useful when you need to extract the version from a
  # request header (e.g. Content-Type) or from the request URI.
  #
  # Needed by Interpol::Sinatra::RequestParamsParser.
  config.request_version '1.0'

  # Determines the stub app response when the requested version is not
  # available. This block will be eval'd in the context of a
  # sinatra application, so you can use sinatra helpers like `halt` here.
  #
  # Used by Interpol::StubApp and Interpol::Sinatra::RequestParamsParser.
  config.on_unavailable_sinatra_request_version do |requested_version, available_versions|
    message = JSON.dump(
      "message" => "Not Acceptable",
      "requested_version" => requested_version,
      "available_versions" => available_versions
    )

    halt 406, message
  end

  # Determines the response when the requested version is not available.
  #
  # Used by Interpol::RequestBodyValidator.
  config.on_unavailable_request_version do |env, requested_version, available_versions|
    [406, { 'Content-Type' => 'text/plain' }, ['Wrong Version!']]
  end

  # Determines which responses will be validated against the endpoint
  # definition when you use Interpol::ResponseSchemaValidator. The
  # validation is meant to run against the "happy path" response.
  # For responses like "404 Not Found", you probably don't want any
  # validation performed. The default validate_response_if hook will cause
  # validation to run against any 2xx response except 204 ("No Content").
  #
  # Used by Interpol::ResponseSchemaValidator.
  config.validate_response_if do |env, status, headers, body|
    headers['Content-Type'] == my_custom_mime_type
  end

  # Determines which request bodies to validate.
  #
  # Used by Interpol::RequestBodyValidator.
  config.validate_request_if do |env|
    env.fetch('CONTENT_TYPE').to_s.include?('json') &&
    %w[ POST PUT ].include?(env.fetch('REQUEST_METHOD'))
  end

  # Determines how Interpol::ResponseSchemaValidator handles
  # invalid data. By default it will raise an error, but you can
  # make it print a warning instead.
  #
  # Used by Interpol::ResponseSchemaValidator.
  config.validation_mode = :error # or :warn

  # Determines the title shown on the rendered documentation
  # pages.
  #
  # Used by Interpol::DocumentationApp.
  config.documentation_title = "Acme Widget API Documentaton"

  # Sets a callback that can be used to filter example data.
  # This is useful when you want your stub app to serve data
  # that is a bit dynamic. You can set multiple of these, and
  # each will be called in declared order.
  #
  # Used by Interpol::StubApp, Interpol::TestHelper::RSpec and
  # Interpol::TestHelper::TestUnit.
  config.filter_example_data do |example, request_env|
    example.data["current_url"] = Rack::Request.new(request_env).url
  end

  # Sets a callback that will be used to determine which example
  # to return from the stub app. If you provide an endpoint name,
  # the block will apply only to requests to that endpoint.
  # If no name is provided, the block will set the default selector
  # logic. By default, if this config is not set, interpol will use
  # the first example.
  #
  # Used by Interpol::StubApp.
  config.select_example_response('some-endpoint') do |endpoint_def, request_env|
    endpoint_def.examples[3]
  end
  config.select_example_response do |endpoint_def, request_env|
    endpoint_def.examples.first
  end

  # Determines what to do when Interpol::Sinatra::RequestParamsParser
  # detects invalid path or query parameters based on their schema
  # definitions. This block will be eval'd in the context of your
  # sinatra application so you can use any helper methods such as
  # `halt`.
  #
  # Used by Interpol::Sinatra::RequestParamsParser.
  config.on_invalid_sinatra_request_params do |error|
    halt 400, JSON.dump(:error => error.message)
  end

  # Determines how to respond when the request body is invalid
  # based on your schema definition.
  #
  # Used by Interpol::RequestBodyValidator.
  config.on_invalid_request_body do |env, error|
    [400, { 'Content-Type' => 'text/plain' }, [error.message]]
  end
end

Tool Usage

Interpol::TestHelper::RSpec and Interpol::TestHelper::TestUnit

These are modules that you can extend onto an RSpec example group or a Test::Unit::TestCase subclass, respectively. They provide a define_interpol_example_tests macro that will define a test for each example for each schema definition in your endpoint definition files. The tests will validate that your schema is a valid JSON schema definition and will validate that the examples are valid according to that schema.

RSpec example:

require 'interpol/test_helper'

describe "My API endpoints" do
  extend Interpol::TestHelper::RSpec

  # the block is only necessary if you want to override the default
  # config or if you have not set a default config.
  define_interpol_example_tests do |ipol|
    ipol.endpoint_definition_files = Dir["config/endpoints_definitions/*.yml"]
  end
end

Test::Unit example:

require 'interpol/test_helper'

class MyAPIEndpointsTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
  extend Interpol::TestHelper::TestUnit
  define_interpol_example_tests
end

Interpol::StubApp

This will build a little sinatra app that returns example data from your endpoint definition files.

Example:

# config.ru

require 'interpol/stub_app'

# the block is only necessary if you want to override the default
# config or if you have not set a default config.
stub_app = Interpol::StubApp.build do |app|
  app.endpoint_definition_files = Dir["config/endpoints_definitions/*.yml"]
  app.response_version do |env|
    RequestVersion.extract_from(env['HTTP_ACCEPT'])
  end
end

run stub_app

Interpol::ResponseSchemaValidator

This rack middleware validates the responses from your app against the schema definition. Here's an example of how you might use it with a class-style sinatra app:

require 'sinatra'

# You probably only want to validate the schema in local development.
unless ENV['RACK_ENV'] == 'production'
  require 'interpol/response_schema_validator'

  # the block is only necessary if you want to override the default
  # config or if you have not set a default config.
  use Interpol::ResponseSchemaValidator do |config|
    config.endpoint_definition_files = Dir["config/endpoints_definitions/*.yml"]
    config.response_version do |env|
      RequestVersion.extract_from(env['HTTP_ACCEPT'])
    end
  end
end

get '/users/:user_id/projects' do
  JSON.dump(User.find(params[:user_id]).projects)
end

Interpol::DocumentationApp

This will build a little sinatra app that renders documentation about your API based on your endpoint definitions.

# config.ru

require 'interpol/documentation_app'

# the block is only necessary if you want to override the default
# config or if you have not set a default config.
doc_app = Interpol::DocumentationApp.build do |app|
  app.endpoint_definition_files = Dir["config/endpoints_definitions/*.yml"]
  app.documentation_title = "My API Documentation"
end

run doc_app

Note: the documentation app is definitely a work-in-progress and I'm not a front-end/UI developer. I'd happily accept a pull request improving it!

Interpol::Sinatra::RequestParamsParser

This Sinatra middleware does a few things:

  • It validates the path and query params according to the schema definitions in your YAML files.
  • It replaces the params hash with an object that:
    • Exposes a method for each defined parameter--so you can use params.user_id rather than params[:user_id]. Undefined params will raise a NoMethodError rather than getting nil as you would with the normal params hash.
    • Exposes a predicate method for each defined parameter -- so you can use params.user_id? in a conditional rather than params.user_id.
    • Parses each parameter value into an appropriate object based on the defined schema:
      • An integer param will be exposed as a Fixnum.
      • A number param will be exposed as a Float.
      • A null param will be exposed as nil (rather than the empty string).
      • A boolean param will be exposed as true or false (rather than the corresponding strings).
      • A string param with a date format will be exposed as a Date.
      • A string param with a date-time format will be exposed as a Time.
      • A string param with a uri format will be exposed as URI.
      • Anything that cannot be parsed into an object will be exposed as its original string value.
  • It exposes the original params hash as unparsed_params.

Usage:

require 'sinatra/base'
require 'interpol/sinatra/request_params_parser'

class MySinatraApp < Sinatra::Base
  # The block is only necessary if you want to override the
  # default config or have not set a default config.
  use Interpol::Sinatra::RequestParamsParser do |config|
    config.on_invalid_sinatra_request_params do |error|
      halt 400, JSON.dump(:error => error.message)
    end
  end

  get '/users/:user_id' do
    JSON.dump User.find(params.user_id)
  end
end

Interpol::RequestBodyValidator

This rack middleware validates request body (e.g. for POST or PUT requests) based on your endpoint request schema definitions. It also makes the parsed request body available as interpol.parsed_body in the rack env hash.

require 'sinatra/base'
require 'interpol/request_body_validator'

class MySinatraApp < Sinatra::Base
  # The block is only necessary if you want to override the
  # default config or have not set a default config.
  use Interpol::RequestBodyValidator do |config|
    config.on_invalid_request_body do |error|
      [400, { 'Content-Type' => 'text/plain' }, [error.message]]
    end
  end

  helpers do
    def parsed_body
      env.fetch('interpol.parsed_body')
    end
  end

  put '/users/:user_id' do
    User.create_or_replace(parsed_body.user_id, parsed_body.attributes)
  end
end

Contributing

  1. Fork it
  2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
  3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Added some feature')
  4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
  5. Create new Pull Request