angular-cached-resource

Cached Resource =============== An [AngularJS][angular] module to interact with RESTful server-side data sources, even when the browser is offline. Uses HTML5 [localStorage][localStorage] under the hood. Closely mimics the behavior of the core [ngResource][ngResource] module, which it requires as a dependency. [![Build Status][travis-badge]][travis-link] [![npm version][npm-badge]][npm-link] [![mit license][license-badge]][license-link] ## Features * Provides a simple abstraction to retrieve and save objects from a RESTful server. * Comes with a set of intelligent defaults that let you get started right away. * Caches all requests, and returns them immediately from the cache if you request them again. * Remmebers writes to the server, and adds them to the cache too. * If a write fails, try it again periodically until it succeeds. (This even works if you refresh the page in between!) * If you query for multiple resources in one request, each one is cached separately so you can request it from the cache individually, too. * Works as a drop-in replacement for [Angular's $resource][ngResource] module. ## News It looks like this sort of functionality might be built into the upcoming Angular 2.0. [Check out the design document here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DMacL7iwjSMPP0ytZfugpU4v0PWUK0BT6lhyaVEmlBQ/edit#). ---- ## A simple example ```javascript // Register your module with ngCachedResource angular.module('myApp', ['ngCachedResource']); // Define a resource var Article = $cachedResource('article', '/articles/:id', {id: "@id"}); // GET requests: var a1 = Article.get({id: 1}); a1.$promise.then(function() { console.log('From cache:', a1); }); a1.$httpPromise.then(function() { console.log('From server:', a1); }); // POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE requests: var a2 = new Article({id: 2}); a2.title = "This article will be saved eventually..."; a2.body = "Even if the browser is offline right now."; a2.$save(); a2.$promise.then(function() { console.log('Article was successfully saved.'); }); ``` Read the [tutorial on the Bites from Good Eggs blog](http://bites.goodeggs.com/open_source/angular-cached-resource/). ------- ## Installing **Bower:** ```bash bower install angular-cached-resource ``` **npm:** (intended for use with [browserify](http://browserify.org/)) ```bash npm install angular-cached-resource ``` **Manual Download:** - development: [angular-cached-resource.js](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/goodeggs/angular-cached-resource/master/angular-cached-resource.js) - production: [angular-cached-resource.min.js](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/goodeggs/angular-cached-resource/master/angular-cached-resource.min.js) --- ## Usage Provides a factory called `$cachedResource`: ```js $cachedResource(cacheKey, url, [paramDefaults], [actions]); ``` ### Arguments - **cacheKey**, `String` An arbitrary key that will uniquely represent this resource in localStorage. When the resource is instanciated, it will check localStorage for any - **url**, `String` Exactly matches the API for the `url` param of the [$resource][ngResource] factory. - **paramDefaults**, `Object`, _(optional)_ Exactly matches the API for the `paramDefaults` param of the [$resource][ngResource] factory. - **actions**, `Object`, _optional_ Mostly matches the API for the `actions` param of the [$resource][ngResource] factory. Takes an additonal `cache` param (Boolean, default `true`) that determines if this action uses caching. ### Returns A CachedResource "class" object. This is a swap-in replacement for an object created by the `$resource` factory, with the following additional properties: - **Resource.$clearCache(** [options] **)** Clears all items from the cache associated with this resource. Accepts one argument, described below. - **options**, `Object`, *optional* `options` may contain the following keys: - `where`, which will limit the resources that are cleared from the cache to only those whose keys are explicitly listed. `where` can be an `Array` or an `Object`. If it is an `Object`, it will be treated like an `Array` containing only the provided `Object`. The `Array` should contain `Objects` representing cache keys that should be removed. If `where` is provided, `exceptFor` must not be provided. - `exceptFor`, which will limit the resources that are cleared from the cache to all resources except for those whose keys are explicitly listed. Just like `where`, `exceptFor` can be an `Array` or an `Object`. If it is an `Object`, it will be treated like an `Array` containing only the provided `Object`. The `Array` should contain `Object`s representing cache keys that should be kept. If `exceptFor` is provided, `where` must not be provided. - `isArray`, a boolean. Default is `false`. If `true`, then the function will treat the `where` or `exceptFor` arguments as referring to `Array` cache key. - `clearChildren`, a boolean. Default is `false`. If `true`, and `isArray` is also `true`, then the function will clear the `Array` cache entry (or entries) as well as all of the instances that the `Array` points to. - `clearPendingWrites`, a boolean. Default is `false`. If `true`, then the function will also remove cached instances that have a pending write to the server. In addition, the following properties exist on CachedResource "instance" objects: - **resource.$promise** For GET requests, if anything was already in the cache, this promise is immediately resolved (still asynchronously!) even as the HTTP request continues. Otherwise, this promise is resolved when the HTTP request responds. - **resource.$httpPromise** For all requests, this promise is resolved as soon as the corresponding HTTP request responds. ### Clearing the cache Since there is a 5 megabyte limit on localStorage in most browsers, you'll probably want to actively manage the resource instances that are stored. By default, this module never removes cache entries, so you'll have to do this by hand. Here are the ways that you can accomplish this: - **[localStorage.clear()][localStorageClear]** Removes everything in localStorage. This will not break the behavior of this module, except that it will prevent any pending write from actually occurring. - **$cachedResource.clearCache()** Removes every single Angular Cached Resource cache entry that's currently stored in localStorage. It will leave all cache entries that were not created by this module. (Note: cache entries are namespaced, so if you add anything to localStorage with a key that begins with `cachedResource://`, it will get deleted by this call). It will also leave any resource instances that have a pending write to the server. - **$cachedResource.clearUndefined()** Removes every Angular Cached Resource cache entry corresponding to a resource that has not been defined since the page was loaded. This is useful if your API changes and you want to make sure that old entries are cleared away. - **$cachedResource.clearCache({exceptFor: ['foo', 'bar']})** Removes every Angular Cached Resource entry except for resources with the `foo` or `bar` keys, or resource instances that have a pending write to the server. - **$cachedResource.clearCache({clearPendingWrites: true})** Removes every Angular Cached Resource entry, including those that have a pending write to the server. If you have a "class" object that you've created with `$cachedResource`, then you can also do the following: - **CachedResource.$clearCache()** Removes all entries from the cache associated with this particular resource class, except for resource instances that have a pending write to the server. - **CachedResource.$clearCache({where: [{id: 1}, {id: 2}])** Removes two entries from the cache associated with this particular resource class; the ones with an `id` of 1 and 2. (This assumes that `paramDefaults` has an `id` param.) - **CachedResource.$clearCache({exceptFor: {id: 1})** Removes all entries from the cache associated with this particular resource class, except for those with an `id` of 1. (This assumes that `paramDefaults` has an `id` param.) - **CachedResource.$clearCache({exceptFor: {query: 'search string'}, isArray: true})** Removes all entries from the cache except those that were returned by the provided query parameters. - **CachedResource.$clearCache({clearPendingWrites: true})** Removes all instances of CachedResource from the cache, including those that have a pending write to the server. ------ ## Details **Asking for a cached resource with `get` or `query` will do the following:** 1. If the request has not been made previously, it will immediately return a `resource` object, just like usual. The request will go through to the server, and when the server responds, the resource will be saved in a localStorage cache. 2. If the request has already been made, it will immediately return a `resource` object that is pre-populated from the cache. The request will still attempt to go through to the server, and if the server responds, the cache entry will be updated. **Updating a CachedResource object will do the following:** 1. Add the resource update action to a queue. 2. Immediately attempt to flush the queue by sending all the network requests in the queue. 3. If a queued network request succeeds, remove it from the queue and resolve the promises on the associated resources (only if the queue entry was made after the page was loaded) 4. If the queue contains requests, attempt to flush it once per minute OR whenever the browser sends a [navigator.onOnline][onOnline] event. **What if localStorage doesn't exist, or if the browser is out of space?** In either of these cases, `$cachedResource` will make sure all of your requests still happen. Things end up working just like the `$resource` module, with none of the caching benefits. ------ ## Development Please make sure you run the tests, and add to them unless it's a trivial change. Here is how you can run the tests: ``` npm install npm test ``` ------ ## License [MIT][license-link] [travis-badge]: http://img.shields.io/travis/goodeggs/angular-cached-resource/master.svg?style=flat [travis-link]: https://travis-ci.org/goodeggs/angular-cached-resource [npm-badge]: http://img.shields.io/npm/v/angular-cached-resource.svg?style=flat [npm-link]: https://www.npmjs.org/package/angular-cached-resource [license-badge]: http://img.shields.io/badge/license-mit-lightgrey.svg?style=flat [license-link]: https://github.com/goodeggs/angular-cached-resource/blob/master/LICENSE.md [angular]: http://angularjs.org/ [ngResource]: http://docs.angularjs.org/api/ngResource/service/$resource [localStorage]: http://www.w3.org/TR/webstorage/#the-localstorage-attribute [localStorageClear]: http://www.w3.org/TR/webstorage/#dom-storage-clear [onOnline]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/NavigatorOnLine.onLine