# loopback-connector-remote

**THIS CONNECTOR DOES NOT SUPPORT LOOPBACK 4**

**⚠️ LoopBack 3 has reached end of life. We are no longer accepting pull requests or providing 
support for community users. The only exception is fixes for critical bugs and security 
vulnerabilities provided as part of support for IBM API Connect customers.
We urge all LoopBack 3 users to migrate their applications to LoopBack 4 as soon as possible. 
Learn more about
<a href="https://loopback.io/doc/en/contrib/Long-term-support.html">LoopBack's long term support policy.</a>**

The remote connector enables you to use a LoopBack application as a data source via REST.
You can use the remote connector with a LoopBack application, a Node application, or a browser-based application that uses [LoopBack in the client](LoopBack-in-the-client.html).
The connector uses [Strong Remoting](Strong-Remoting.html).

In general, using the remote connector is more convenient than calling into REST API, and enables you to switch the transport later if you need to.

Use loopback-connector-remote:

- Version 3.x with LoopBack v3 and later.
- Prior versions with LoopBack v2.

## Installation

In your application root directory, enter:

```shell
$ npm install loopback-connector-remote --save
```

This will install the module and add it as a dependency to the application's [`package.json`](http://loopback.io/doc/en/lb3/package.json.html) file.

## Creating a remote data source

Create a new remote data source with the [datasource generator](http://loopback.io/doc/en/lb3/Data-source-generator.html):

```shell
$ lb datasource
```

When prompted:

* For connector, scroll down and select **other**.
* For connector name without the loopback-connector- prefix, enter **remote**.

This creates an entry in `datasources.json`; Then you need to edit this to add the data source properties, for example:

{% include code-caption.html content="/server/datasources.json" %}
```javascript
...
 "myRemoteDataSource": {
    "name": "myRemoteDataSource",
    "connector": "remote",
    "url": "http://localhost:3000/api"
  }
 ...
```

The `url` property specifies the root URL of the LoopBack API.
If you do not specify a `url` property, the remote connector will point to it's own host name, port it's running on, etc.

The connector will generate models on the myRemoteDataSource datasource object based on the models/methods exposed from the remote service.  Those models will have methods attached that are
from the model's remote methods.  So if the model `foo` exposes a remote method called `bar`,
the connector will automatically generate the following:

`app.datasources.myRemoteDataSource.models.foo.bar()`

### Access it in any model file

To access the remote Loopback service in a model:

```javascript
module.exports = function(Message) {

  Message.test = function (cb) {
    Message.app.datasources.myRemoteDataSource.models.
      SomeModel.remoteMethodNameHere(function () {});

    cb(null, {});
  };

};
```

## Remote data source properties

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <th>Property</th>
      <th width="100">Type</th>
      <th>Description</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>host</td>
      <td>String</td>
      <td>Hostname of <span>LoopBack</span> application <span>providing remote data source.</span></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>port</td>
      <td>Number</td>
      <td>Port number of <span>LoopBack</span> application providing remote <span>data source</span>.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>root</td>
      <td>String</td>
      <td>Path to API root of <span>LoopBack application providing remote <span>data source</span>.</span></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>url</td>
      <td>String</td>
      <td>Full URL of <span>LoopBack application providing remote connector.
        Use instead of host, port, and root properties.</span>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

## Configuring authentication

The remote connector does not support JSON-based configuration of the authentication credentials (see [issue #3](https://github.com/strongloop/loopback-connector-remote/issues/3)).
You can use the following code as a workaround. It assumes that your data source is called "remote" and the AccessToken id is provided in the variable "token".

```javascript
app.dataSources.remote.connector.remotes.auth = {
  bearer: new Buffer(token).toString('base64'),
  sendImmediately: true
};
```

## Using with MongoDB connector

When using the MongoDB connector on the server and a remote connector on the client,
use the following `id` property:

```javascript
"id": {
  "type": "string",
  "generated": true,
  "id": true
}
```