Get a full fake REST API with zero coding in less than 30 seconds (seriously)
Created with 💖 for front-end developers who need a quick back-end for prototyping and mocking.
Example
Create a db.json file
{
"posts": [
{ "id": 1, "title": "json-server", "author": "typicode" }
],
"comments": [
{ "id": 1, "body": "some comment", "postId": 1 }
]
}Start JSON Server
$ json-server --watch db.json
Now if you go to http://localhost:3000/posts/1, you'll get
{ "id": 1, "title": "json-server", "author": "typicode" }Also, if you make POST, PUT, PATCH or DELETE requests, changes will be automatically saved to db.json using lowdb.
Routes
Based on the previous db.json file, here are all the available routes. If you need more customization, you can use the project as a module.
GET /posts
GET /posts/1
GET /posts/1/comments
GET /posts?title=json-server&author=typicode
POST /posts
PUT /posts/1
PATCH /posts/1
DELETE /posts/1
To slice resources, add _start and _end or _limit (an X-Total-Count header is included in the response).
GET /posts?_start=20&_end=30
GET /posts/1/comments?_start=20&_end=30
To sort resources, add _sort and _order (ascending order by default).
GET /posts?_sort=views&_order=DESC
GET /posts/1/comments?_sort=votes&_order=ASC
To make a full-text search on resources, add q.
To embed other resources, add _embed.
GET /posts/1?_embed=comments
Returns database.
Returns default index file or serves ./public directory.
Install
$ npm install -g json-server
Extras
Static file server
You can use JSON Server to serve your HTML, JS and CSS, simply create a ./public directory.
Access from anywhere
You can access your fake API from anywhere using CORS and JSONP.
Remote schema
You can load remote schemas:
$ json-server http://example.com/file.json $ json-server http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/db
JS file support
You can use JS to programmatically create data:
module.exports = function() { var data = { users: [] } // Create 1000 users for (var i = 0; i < 1000; i++) { data.users.push({ id: i, name: 'user' + i }) } return data }
Module
If you need to add authentication, validation, rewrite or add routes, you can use the project as a module in combination with other Express middlewares.
var jsonServer = require('json-server') var server = jsonServer.create() // Returns an Express server var router = jsonServer.router('db.json') // Returns an Express router server.use(jsonServer.defaults) // logger, static and cors middlewares server.use(router) // Mount router on '/' server.listen(3000)
For an in-memory database, you can pass an object to jsonServer.router().
Please note also that jsonServer.router() can be used in existing Express projects.
Deployment
You can deploy JSON Server. For example, JSONPlaceholder is an online fake API powered by JSON Server and running on Heroku.
Links
Video
Articles
- Node Module Of The Week - json-server
- Mock up your REST API with JSON Server
- how to build quick json REST APIs for development
- ng-admin: Add an AngularJS admin GUI to any RESTful API
- Fast prototyping using Restangular and Json-server
Projects
License
MIT - Typicode