Foxx service context

The service context provides access to methods and attributes that are specific to a given service. In a Foxx service the context is generally available as the module.context variable. Within a router’s request handler the request and response objects’ context attribute also provide access to the context of the service the route was mounted in (which may be different from the one the route handler was defined in).

Examples

// in service /my-foxx-1
const createRouter = require('@arangodb/foxx/router');
const router = createRouter();

// See the chapter on dependencies for more info on
// how exports and dependencies work across services
module.exports = {routes: router};

router.get(function (req, res) {
  module.context.mount === '/my-foxx-1';
  req.context.mount === '/my-foxx-2';
  res.write('Hello from my-foxx-1');
});

// in service /my-foxx-2
const createRouter = require('@arangodb/foxx/router');
const router2 = createRouter();

module.context.use(router2);

router2.post(function (req, res) {
  module.context.mount === '/my-foxx-2';
  req.context.mount === '/my-foxx-2';
  res.write('Hello from my-foxx-2');
});

const router1 = module.context.dependencies.myFoxx1.routes;
module.context.use(router1);

The service context specifies the following properties:

  • argv: any

    Any arguments passed in if the current file was executed as a script or queued job.

  • basePath: string

    The file system path of the service, i.e. the folder in which the service was installed to by ArangoDB.

  • baseUrl: string

    The base URL of the service, relative to the ArangoDB server, e.g. /_db/_system/my-foxx.

  • collectionPrefix: string

    The prefix that is used by collection and collectionName to derive the names of service-specific collections. This is derived from the service’s mount point, e.g. /my-foxx becomes my_foxx.

  • configuration: Object

    Configuration options for the service.

  • dependencies: Object

    Configured dependencies for the service.

  • isDevelopment: boolean

    Indicates whether the service is running in development mode.

  • isProduction: boolean

    The inverse of isDevelopment.

  • manifest: Object

    The parsed manifest file of the service.

  • mount: string

    The mount point of the service, e.g. /my-foxx.

apiDocumentation

module.context.apiDocumentation([options]): Function

This method has been deprecated in ArangoDB 3.1 and replaced with the more straightforward createDocumentationRouter() method providing the same functionality.

Creates a request handler that serves the API documentation.

Arguments

See createDocumentationRouter().

Examples

// Serve the API docs for the current service
router.get('/docs/*', module.context.apiDocumentation());

// Note that the path must end with a wildcard
// and the route must use HTTP GET.

createDocumentationRouter

module.context.createDocumentationRouter([options]): Router

Creates a router that serves the API documentation.

Note: The router can be mounted like any other child router (see examples below).

Arguments

  • options: Object (optional)

    An object with any of the following properties:

    • mount: string (Default: module.context.mount)

      The mount path of the service to serve the documentation of.

    • indexFile: string (Default: "index.html")

      File name of the HTML file serving the API documentation.

    • swaggerRoot: string (optional)

      Full path of the folder containing the Swagger assets and the indexFile. Defaults to the Swagger assets used by the web interface.

    • before: Function (optional)

      A function that is executed before a request is handled.

      If the function returns false, the request is not processed any further.

      If the function returns an object, its attributes are used to override the options for the current request.

      Any other return value is ignored.

If options is a function, it is used as the before option.

If options is a string, it is used as the swaggerRoot option.

Returns a Foxx router.

Examples

// Serve the API docs for the current service
router.use('/docs', module.context.createDocumentationRouter());

// -- or --

// Serve the API docs for the service the router is mounted in
router.use('/docs', module.context.createDocumentationRouter(function (req) {
  return {mount: req.context.mount};
}));

// -- or --

// Serve the API docs only for users authenticated with ArangoDB
router.use('/docs', module.context.createDocumentationRouter(function (req, res) {
  if (req.suffix === 'swagger.json' && !req.arangoUser) {
    res.throw(401, 'Not authenticated');
  }
}));

collection

module.context.collection(name): ArangoCollection | null

Passes the given name to collectionName, then looks up the collection with the prefixed name.

Arguments

  • name: string

    Unprefixed name of the service-specific collection.

Returns a collection or null if no collection with the prefixed name exists.

collectionName

module.context.collectionName(name): string

Prefixes the given name with the collectionPrefix for this service.

Arguments

  • name: string

    Unprefixed name of the service-specific collection.

Returns the prefixed name.

Examples

module.context.mount === '/my-foxx'
module.context.collectionName('doodads') === 'my_foxx_doodads'

file

module.context.file(name, [encoding]): Buffer | string

Passes the given name to fileName, then loads the file with the resulting name.

Arguments

  • name: string

    Name of the file to load, relative to the current service.

  • encoding: string (optional)

    Encoding of the file, e.g. utf-8. If omitted, the file is loaded as a raw buffer instead of a string.

Returns the file’s contents.

fileName

module.context.fileName(name): string

Resolves the given file name relative to the current service.

Arguments

  • name: string

    Name of the file, relative to the current service.

Returns the absolute file path.

use

module.context.use([path], router): Endpoint

Mounts a given router on the service to expose the router’s routes on the service’s mount point.

Arguments

  • path: string (Default: "/")

    Path to mount the router at, relative to the service’s mount point.

  • router: Router | Middleware

    A router or middleware to mount.

Returns an Endpoint for the given router or middleware.

Note: Mounting services at run time (e.g. within request handlers or queued jobs) is not supported.

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