View Source Getting started with JSON:API

The easiest set up involves using Phoenix, but it should be roughly the same to set up an application using only Plug. We are showing examples using Phoenix Routers.

The resulting JSON APIs follow the specifications from https://jsonapi.org/.

To add a JSON API, we need to do the following things:

  1. Add the :ash_json_api package to your dependencies.
  2. Add the JSON API extension to your Ash.Resource and Ash.Api modules.
  3. Tell Ash which Resource actions expose over the API.
  4. Add a custom media type as specified by https://jsonapi.org/.
  5. Create a router module
  6. Make your router available in your applications main router.

Add the ash_json_api dependency

In your mix.exs, add the Ash JSON API dependency:

  defp deps do
    [
      # .. other dependencies
      {:ash_json_api, "~> 0.34.2"},
    ]
  end

Configure your Resources and API and expose actions

Both your Resource and API need to use the extension for the JSON API.

defmodule Helpdesk.Support do
  use Ash.Api, extensions: [AshJsonApi.Api]
  ...

Additionally, your Resource requires a type, a base route and a set of allowed HTTP methods and what action they will trigger.

defmodule Helpdesk.Support.Ticket do
  use Ash.Resource, extensions: [AshJsonApi.Resource]
  # ...
  json_api do
    type "ticket"

    routes do
      base "/tickets"

      get :read
      index :read
      post :create
      # ...
    end
  end
end

Check out the AshJsonApi.Resource documentation on Hex for more information.

Accept json_api content type

Add the following to your config/config.exs.

# config/config.exs
config :mime, :types, %{
  "application/vnd.api+json" => ["json"]
}

config :mime, :extensions, %{
  "json" => "application/vnd.api+json"
}

This configuration is required to support working with the JSON:API custom mime type.

After adding the configuration above, compiling the project might throw an error:

ERROR! the application :mime has a different value set for key :types during runtime compared to compile time.

This can happen if :mime was already compiled before the configuration was changed and can be fixed by running

mix deps.compile mime --force

Create a router

Create a separate Router Module to work with your Apis. It will generate the routes for your Resources and provide the functions you would usually have in a Controller.

We will later forward requests from your Applications primary (Phoenix) Router to you Ash JSON API Router.

defmodule HelpdeskWeb.Support.Router do
  use AshJsonApi.Api.Router,
    # The api modules you want to serve
    apis: [Helpdesk.Support],
    # optionally a json_schema route
    json_schema: "/json_schema",
    # optionally an open_api route
    open_api: "/open_api"

end

Add the routes from your API module(s)

To make your Resources accessible to the outside world, forward requests from your Phoenix router to the router you created for your Api.

For example:

scope "/api/json" do
  pipe_through(:api)

  forward "/helpdesk", HelpdeskWeb.Support.Router
end

Run your API

From here on out its the standard Phoenix behavior. Start your application with mix phx.server and your API should be ready to try out. Should you be wondering what routes are available, you can print all available routes for each Resource:

Helpdesk.Support.Ticket
|> AshJsonApi.Resource.Info.routes()

Make sure that all requests you make to the API use the application/vnd.api+json type in both the Accept and Content-Type (where applicable) headers. The Accept header may be omitted.

Examples:

  1. Create a ticket
     curl -X POST 'localhost:4000/api/json/helpdesk/tickets' \
 --header 'Accept: application/vnd.api+json' \
 --header 'Content-Type: application/vnd.api+json' \
 --data-raw '{
   "data": {
     "type": "ticket",
     "attributes": {
       "subject": "This ticket was created through the JSON API"
     }
   }
 }'
  2. Get all tickets
     curl 'localhost:4000/api/json/helpdesk/tickets'
  3. Get a specific ticket
     # Add the uuid of a Ticket you created earlier
 curl 'localhost:4000/api/json/helpdesk/tickets/<uuid>'

Open API

If you want to expose your API via Swagger UI or Redoc, see the open api documentation.