Communicate with a Directus server using its REST API.

Features

This packages can generate model classes for your each of your Directus collections.

Install

Add the package as a dependency in your pubspec.yaml file

dependencies:
     flutter:
          sdk: flutter

     directus_api_manager:
          git: https://github.com/maxbritto/directus_api_manager.git

Getting started

Create your models

For each directus model, create a new class that inherits DirectusItem and use annotations to specify the èndpointName`:

@DirectusCollection()
@CollectionMetadata(endpointName: "player")
class PlayerDirectusModel extends DirectusItem {
}

This endpointName is the name of the collection in Directus : use the exact same name you used when creating your directus collection, including capitalized letters.

Important : You must include the init method that calls the one from super and passes the raw received data, without adding any other parameter.

PlayerDirectusModel(super.rawReceivedData);

You can create other named constructors if you want. If you intend to create new items and send them to your server, you should override the secondary init method named newItem() :

PlayerDirectusModel.newItem() : super.newItem();

Add any property you need as computed property using inner functions to access your data :

String get nickname => getValue(forKey: "nickname");

int get bestScore => getValue(forKey: "best_score");
set bestScore(int newBestScore) =>
      setValue(newBestScore, forKey: "best_score");

The key is the name of the property in your directus collection, you must use the same types in your directus collection as in your Dart computed properties.

Generate the code for your models

Every time you add a new collection, you can trigger the generator for your project: In your project folder, execute this line :

dart run build_runner build lib

It will add new .reflectable.dart files in your projects : do not include those files in your git repository. Tip : Add this line at the end of your .gitignore file :

*.reflectable.dart

Inititalize the library to use the generated models

void main() {
  initializeReflectable();
  //...
  // rest of your app
}

Create your DirectusApiManager

This object is the one that will handle everything for you :

• authentication and token management
• sending request
• parsing responses
• etc.

You should only create one object of this type and it only requires the url of your Directus instance :

DirectusApiManager _directusApiManager = DirectusApiManager(baseURL: "http://0.0.0.0:8055/");

Manage users and Authentication

To authenticate use the loginDirectusUser method before making request that needs to be authorized:

final apiManager = DirectusApiManager(baseURL: "http://0.0.0.0:8055/");
final result = await apiManager.loginDirectusUser("[email protected]", "will-password");
if (result.type == DirectusLoginResultType.success) {
  print("User logged in");
} else if (result.type == DirectusLoginResultType.invalidCredentials) {
  print("Please verify entered credentials");
} else if (result.type == DirectusLoginResultType.invalidOTP) {
  print("Please provide OTP");
  // Keep email and password for the next screen or extra field and resumit using
  // await apiManager.loginDirectusUserWithOtp("[email protected]", "will-password", "123456");
} else if (result.type == DirectusLoginResultType.error) {
  print("An unknown error occured");
  final additionalMessage = result.message;
  if (additionalMessage != null) {
    print("More information : $additionalMessage");
  }
}

If the user's login requires MFA/OTP, you should present an extra field or page to the user to complete, and resend the authentification to the loginDirectusUserWithOtp method:

final result = await apiManager.loginDirectusUserWithOtp("[email protected]", "will-password", "123456");

All future request of this apiManager instance will include this user token.

CRUD for your collections

For each collection you can either :

• fetch one or multiple items
• update items
• create items
• delete items

Creating new items

final newPlayer = PlayerDirectusModel.newItem(nickname: "Sheldon");
final creationResult =
    await apiManager.createNewItem(objectToCreate: newPlayer);
if (creationResult.isSuccess) {
  print("Created player!");
  final createdPlayer = creationResult.createdItem;
  // depending on your directus server authorization you might not have access to the created item
  if (createdPlayer != null) {
    print("The id of this new player is ${createdPlayer.id}");
  }
} else {
  final error = creationResult.error;
  if (error != null) {
    print("Error while creating player : $error");
  }
}

Fetching existing items

//Multiple items
final list = await apiManager.findListOfItems<PlayerDirectusModel>();
for (final player in list) {
  print("${player.nickname} - ${player.bestScore}");
}

//One specific item from an ID
final PlayerDirectusModel onePlayer = await apiManager.getSpecificItem(id: "1");
print(onePlayer.nickname);

Update existing items

final PlayerDirectusModel onePlayer = await apiManager.getSpecificItem(id: "1");
onePlayer.bestScore = 123;
final updatedPlayer = await apiManager.updateItem(objectToUpdate: onePlayer);

Web Socket support

DirectusWebSocket

DirectusWebSocket allow to consume data from Directus via a WebSocket. It will handle the authentication, the refresh token process and keep the connection alive. Each DirectusWebSocket can have more than one DirectusWebSocketSubscription.

DirectusWebSocketSubscription

DirectusWebSocketSubscription represent a subscription to your Directus server. Here are the mandatory properties to use it :

• uid must be specified. When the server will send a message, this uid will be provided. This allow us to know from which subscription this message came from.
• onCreate, onUpdate, onDelete callbacks are trigger when a subscription receive a subscription message. They are all optional but the DirectusWebSocketSubscription must have at least one of them.

DirectusWebSocketSubscription<DirectusDataExtension>(
        uid: "directus_data_extension_uid",
        onCreate: onCreate,
        onUpdate: onUpdate,
        onDelete: onDelete,
        sort: const [SortProperty("id")],
        limit: 10,
        offset: 10
        filter: const PropertyFilter(
            field: "folder",
            operator: FilterOperator.equals,
            value: "folder_id"));

Cache system

Enabling and configuring the Cache system

This api comes with a caching system that can be enabled by providing an instance of ILocalDirectusCacheInterface when creating your DirectusApiManager instance.

A ready to use implementation is provided with the JsonCacheEngine class. It will store the data in a folder of your choosing using json files. Example :

import 'package:path_provider/path_provider.dart';

void main() async {
  final directory = await getApplicationCacheDirectory();
  final apiManager = DirectusApiManager(baseURL: "http://0.0.0.0:8055/", cacheEngine: JsonCacheEngine(cacheFolderPath: "${directory.path}/directus_api_cache"));
  // ...
}

You can decide to replace the json file implementation by creating and supplying your own implementation which implements the ILocalDirectusCacheInterface class.

Using the Cache system for your requests

All read requests (get, find, currentUser, etc.) now have optional parameters to configure the cache. By default, most of those will save responses but will only use those if the next request fails. If you want to also replace future responses by a local cache read, you can set the canUseCacheForResponse parameter to true and tweak the maxCacheAge parameter to set the maximum age of the cache (defaults to 1 day). This will prevent calling the directus server if a valid cache exists for the same request.

await sut.getSpecificItem<DirectusItemTest>(
    id: "element1",
    canUseCacheForResponse: true,
    maxCacheAge: const Duration(days: 1));

If you want to disable the cache completely for a request, you can set the canSaveResponseToCache parameter to false.

await sut.getSpecificItem<DirectusItemTest>(
    id: "element1",
    canSaveResponseToCache: false);

By default, an expired cache can still be used if the real network request fails. If you want to disable this behavior, you can set the canUseOldCachedResponseAsFallback parameter to false.

await sut.getSpecificItem<DirectusItemTest>(
    id: "element1",
    canUseOldCachedResponseAsFallback: false);

Those parameters are available for all read based requests.

Additional information

Install

If you want to use a specific version, it can be done in addition to the git ur:

directus_api_manager:
     git: https://github.com/maxbritto/directus_api_manager.git
     version: ^1.2.0

Advanced properties :

If your collections have advanced properties that needs specific parsing you can do it in the computed properties. Here is an example of a properties of type Tag list in Directus, inside we can enter some courses ids as number but Directus consider all tags as Strings. So we convert them in the dart code like this :

List<int> get requiredCourseIdList {
  final courseListJson = getValue(forKey: "required_course_id_list");
  if (courseListJson is List<dynamic>) {
    return courseListJson
        .map<int>((courseIdString) => int.parse(courseIdString))
        .toList();
  } else {
    return [];
  }
}