Module Development Example Question

Module Development
1

I am thinking of making a more thorough database connection + scripting examples module tutorial similar to my Perspective component example.

I am soliciting ideas for possibly useful examples outside of the following:

  • The ability to have multiple pooled connections to different databases
  • Script functions to perform CRUD operations,
  • A wicket page for the database connection persistent records,
  • Managing a third party jar in a module
  • Very thorough docs like my other one explaining all the files, build structure, etc.,

(Note I recognize the wicket and config stuff will be totally different in 8.3, but I already have examples of this from an old neo4j module I made, so it’s relatively low effort for anyone trapped in 8.1 long term)

A few “nice to haves” I thought of

  • Query Browser,
  • “Named query” style resources
  • Status Page in Gateway (also I have an example, so low-ish effort, even though wicket)

Lastly, I am probably going to do it in Redis, feels like the lowest hanging fruit example with a friendly-ish Java library.

I am open to thoughts for additional features that would be useful to explain

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2

I would like to see an example of how to extend the 8.3 REST API for a custom module and have it show up in the /openapi documentation. If this is even possible.

Maybe something like this:

GET /data/api/v1/resources/list/<custom_module_id>/hello-world

Bonus if you can show how to integrate the X-Ignition-API-Token for authenticating requests.

3

Contributing to the central OpenAPI definition from a module is very easy.

Just override/implement mountRouteHandlers in your module's gateway hook. The Route class we provide has an OpenAPI builder attached to it you can use to build up a response.

    @Override
    public void mountRouteHandlers(RouteGroup routes) {
        routes.newRoute("/api/v1/session/:sessionId/pages")
            .type(RouteGroup.TYPE_JSON)
            .method(HttpMethod.GET)
            .requirePermission(PermissionType.READ)
            .itemListHandler(this::getSessionPages)
            .itemSerializer(gson)
            .itemSchema(SchemaUtil.fromType(PerspectivePageInfo.class))
            .openApi(api -> api
                .tag(SESSION_TAG)
                .summary("Perspective Pages")
                .description("Retrieves a list of all pages in a session.")
                .pathParameter("sessionId", "ID of the session", JsonType.STRING, null)
                .response(SC_NOT_FOUND, "The session ID does not exist"))
            .mount();

By default, routes added in this way will be exposed under $host/data/$yourModuleId/$whateverRouteMountingPath - so in the example above, you would
POST http://localhost:8088/data/myModuleId/someName

You can override getMountPathAlias on your gateway hook to replace yourModuleId with some shorter alias for friendlier URLs - you're just in charge of avoiding collisions then.

There isn't any directly supported way to add custom URLs within an existing prefix, such as resources, but you can add them to /api/v1/, just like a bunch of our first party modules do.
You should 'qualify' your additional methods as belonging to your module so it's clear to end users:

        routes.addOpenApiGroup("Perspective", SESSION_TAG);
        routes.addOpenApiGroup("Perspective", CONFIG_THEMES_TAG);

And as for:

You don't have to, if you use our route mounting system.
.requirePermission(PermissionType.READ) (or PermissionType.ACCESS/WRITE)
will automatically require the appropriate gateway access permission. If you really want to have a distinct meaning of permissions, it's certainly possible, but you're going to have an easier time if you stick to what we provide for you automatically.

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