143 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
143 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
# loopback-connector-remote
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**THIS CONNECTOR DOES NOT SUPPORT LOOPBACK 4**
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**⚠️ LoopBack 3 has reached end of life. We are no longer accepting pull requests or providing
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support for community users. The only exception is fixes for critical bugs and security
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vulnerabilities provided as part of support for IBM API Connect customers.
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We urge all LoopBack 3 users to migrate their applications to LoopBack 4 as soon as possible.
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Learn more about
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<a href="https://loopback.io/doc/en/contrib/Long-term-support.html">LoopBack's long term support policy.</a>**
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The remote connector enables you to use a LoopBack application as a data source via REST.
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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).
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The connector uses [Strong Remoting](Strong-Remoting.html).
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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.
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Use loopback-connector-remote:
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- Version 3.x with LoopBack v3 and later.
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- Prior versions with LoopBack v2.
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## Installation
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In your application root directory, enter:
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```shell
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$ npm install loopback-connector-remote --save
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```
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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.
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## Creating a remote data source
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Create a new remote data source with the [datasource generator](http://loopback.io/doc/en/lb3/Data-source-generator.html):
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```shell
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$ lb datasource
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```
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When prompted:
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* For connector, scroll down and select **other**.
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* For connector name without the loopback-connector- prefix, enter **remote**.
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This creates an entry in `datasources.json`; Then you need to edit this to add the data source properties, for example:
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{% include code-caption.html content="/server/datasources.json" %}
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```javascript
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...
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"myRemoteDataSource": {
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"name": "myRemoteDataSource",
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"connector": "remote",
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"url": "http://localhost:3000/api"
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}
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...
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```
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The `url` property specifies the root URL of the LoopBack API.
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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.
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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
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from the model's remote methods. So if the model `foo` exposes a remote method called `bar`,
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the connector will automatically generate the following:
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`app.datasources.myRemoteDataSource.models.foo.bar()`
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### Access it in any model file
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To access the remote Loopback service in a model:
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```javascript
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module.exports = function(Message) {
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Message.test = function (cb) {
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Message.app.datasources.myRemoteDataSource.models.
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SomeModel.remoteMethodNameHere(function () {});
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cb(null, {});
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};
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};
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```
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## Remote data source properties
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<table>
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<tbody>
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<tr>
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<th>Property</th>
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<th width="100">Type</th>
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<th>Description</th>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>host</td>
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<td>String</td>
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<td>Hostname of <span>LoopBack</span> application <span>providing remote data source.</span></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>port</td>
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<td>Number</td>
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<td>Port number of <span>LoopBack</span> application providing remote <span>data source</span>.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>root</td>
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<td>String</td>
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<td>Path to API root of <span>LoopBack application providing remote <span>data source</span>.</span></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>url</td>
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<td>String</td>
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<td>Full URL of <span>LoopBack application providing remote connector.
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Use instead of host, port, and root properties.</span>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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## Configuring authentication
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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)).
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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".
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```javascript
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app.dataSources.remote.connector.remotes.auth = {
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bearer: new Buffer(token).toString('base64'),
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sendImmediately: true
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};
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```
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## Using with MongoDB connector
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When using the MongoDB connector on the server and a remote connector on the client,
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use the following `id` property:
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```javascript
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"id": {
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"type": "string",
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"generated": true,
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"id": true
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}
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```
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