Write it once
Price rules, formatting, API clients and validation helpers live in one place instead of being copied into every API.
Your code
Utility Classes & Process Initializers
Write shared code once and import it everywhere. Run setup code as soon as a sandbox starts.
A utility class is code your custom APIs, hooks, events, schedulers and tests of the same language import: by its path in TypeScript, the way each language imports in the others. A process initializer is code that runs when a sandbox starts, before any request, to prepare what your code needs, like a subscription to Redis or MQTT.
See it live
Step through it, slow it down, or open the full canvas.
api-maker/features/utility-classesLive- Copies
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- Importers
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- Active
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Shared code in a utility class. Give it a folder and a name, write it in the language of the code which uses it (TypeScript here) and export what that code needs. Price rules, formatting and API clients live in one place.
How it works
Shared code in a utility class.
Give it a folder and a name, write it in the language of the code which uses it (TypeScript here) and export what that code needs. Price rules, formatting and API clients live in one place.
Import it by its folder and name.
Custom APIs, hooks, event listeners, schedulers and test cases import it like a module, with autocompletion in the editor.
Keep versions, activate one.
Save a new version and activate it: every importer uses it at once, on every server. Go back by activating the old one.
Setup code for every sandbox.
When a sandbox starts, the active process initializers run one after another, in your order, before it takes any request.
Ready before the first call.
Ten seconds after API Maker starts it creates the sandboxes of accounts with initializers. A restarted sandbox runs them again: make them safe to run twice.
What you get
Listen to other systems
An initializer can connect to a message broker or a Redis channel and react to its messages, for as long as the sandbox lives.
A class per language
Python code imports the classes written in Python, Go code the ones written in Go, and so on. Code of another language reaches what a class does through a custom API.
An example
One tax rule for the whole shop
The checkout API, the invoice scheduler and the order hooks all need the same tax calculation. It lives in a utility class, and when the rate changes you save one new version.
class Calculator { add(x: number, y: number) { return x + y; } multiply(x: number, y: number) { return x * y; }}let temp = new Calculator();export = temp;import * as T from 'types';import * as calc from 'utils/Calculator';async function main(g: T.IAMGlobal) { return { sum: calc.add(3, 6), product: calc.multiply(3, 6) };}module.exports = main;Watch it
On the real admin panel, with real data.
Good to know
- An initializer runs again every time a sandbox of its language is created or replaced: make it safe to run more than once.
Questions
What is the difference between an initializer and a scheduler?
A scheduler runs on its intervals, once in the cluster. An initializer runs once in every new sandbox, without any trigger, to set that sandbox up.
Can utility classes use g?
Yes, when the importer passes it: call your functions with g from the custom API, hook or scheduler that uses them.