loopback-component-explorer

This module is in Active LTS mode, new features are no longer accepted.
(See Module Long Term Support Policy below.)

LoopBack 3 users looking for new features are encouraged to upgrade to LoopBack 4. Refer to loopback-next#1849 for more information on how to upgrade.

Overview

Browse and test your LoopBack app's APIs.

Basic Usage

Below is a simple LoopBack application. The explorer is mounted at /explorer.

var loopback = require('loopback');
var app = loopback();
var explorer = require('../');
var port = 3000;

var Product = loopback.Model.extend('product');
Product.attachTo(loopback.memory());
app.model(Product);

app.use('/api', loopback.rest());

// Register explorer using component-centric API:
explorer(app, { basePath: '/api', mountPath: '/explorer' });
// Alternatively, register as a middleware:
app.use('/explorer', explorer.routes(app, { basePath: '/api' }));

console.log("Explorer mounted at localhost:" + port + "/explorer");

app.listen(port);

Upgrading from v1.x

To upgrade your application using loopback-explorer version 1.x, just replace explorer() with explorer.routes() in your server script:

var explorer = require('loopback-component-explorer');  // Module was loopback-explorer in v. 2.0.1 and earlier

// v1.x - does not work anymore
app.use('/explorer', explorer(app, options));
// v2.x
app.use('/explorer', explorer.routes(app, options));

In applications scaffolded by lb app, the idiomatic way is to register loopback-component-explorer in server/component-config.json:

{
  "loopback-component-explorer": {
    "mountPath": "/explorer"
  }
}

Advanced Usage

Many aspects of the explorer are configurable.

See options for a description of these options:

// Mount middleware before calling `explorer()` to add custom headers, auth, etc.
app.use('/explorer', loopback.basicAuth('user', 'password'));
explorer(app, {
  basePath: '/custom-api-root',
  uiDirs: [
    path.resolve(__dirname, 'public'),
    path.resolve(__dirname, 'node_modules', 'swagger-ui')
  ]
  apiInfo: {
    'title': 'My API',
    'description': 'Explorer example app.'
  },
  resourcePath: 'swagger.json',
  version: '0.1-unreleasable'
}));
app.use('/custom-api-root', loopback.rest());

In applications scaffolded by lb app, you can edit the server/component-config.json:

{
  "loopback-component-explorer": {
    "mountPath": "/explorer",
    "apiInfo": {
      "title": "My App",
      "description": "Description of my app APIs.",
      "termsOfServiceUrl": "http://api.mycompany.io/terms/",
      "contact": "apiteam@mycompany.io",
      "license": "Apache 2.0",
      "licenseUrl": "http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html"
    }
  }
}

Options

Options are passed to explorer(app, options).

basePath: String

Default: app.get('restAPIRoot') or '/api'.

Sets the API's base path. This must be set if you are mounting your api to a path different than '/api', e.g. with `loopback.use('/custom-api-root', loopback.rest());

mountPath: String

Default: /explorer

Set the path where to mount the explorer component.

protocol: String

Default: null

A hard override for the outgoing protocol (http or https) that is designated in Swagger resource documents. By default, loopback-component-explorer will write the protocol that was used to retrieve the doc. This option is useful if, for instance, your API sits behind an SSL terminator and thus needs to report its endpoints as https, even though incoming traffic is auto-detected as http.

uiDirs: Array of Strings

Sets a list of paths within your application for overriding Swagger UI files.

If present, will search uiDirs first when attempting to load Swagger UI, allowing you to pick and choose overrides to the interface. Use this to style your explorer or add additional functionality.

See index.html, where you may want to begin your overrides. The rest of the UI is provided by Swagger UI.

apiInfo: Object

Additional information about your API. See the spec.

resourcePath: String

Default: 'resources'

Sets a different path for the resource listing. You generally shouldn't have to change this.

version: String

Default: Read from package.json

Sets your API version. If not present, will read from your app's package.json.

auth: Object

Optional config for setting api access token, can be used to rename the query parameter or set an auth header.

The object has 2 keys:

• in: either header or query
• name: the name of the query parameter or header

The default sets the token as a query parameter with the name access_token

Example for setting the api key in a header named x-api-key:

{
  "loopback-component-explorer": {
    "mountPath": "/explorer",
    "auth": {
      "in": "header",
      "name": "x-api-key"
    }
  }
}

Module Long Term Support Policy

This module adopts the Module Long Term Support (LTS) policy, with the following End Of Life (EOL) dates:

Version	Status	Published	EOL
6.x	Active LTS	Apr 2018	Dec 2020
5.x	Maintenance LTS	Sep 2017	Dec 2019
4.x	End-of-Life	Dec 2016	Apr 2019

Learn more about our LTS plan in docs.