Class DS.RESTAdapter

The REST adapter allows your store to communicate with an HTTP server by transmitting JSON via XHR. Most Ember.js apps that consume a JSON API should use the REST adapter.

This adapter is designed around the idea that the JSON exchanged with the server should be conventional.

JSON Structure

The REST adapter expects the JSON returned from your server to follow these conventions.

Object Root

The JSON payload should be an object that contains the record inside a root property. For example, in response to a GET request for /posts/1, the JSON should look like this:

{
  "post": {
    "id": 1,
    "title": "I'm Running to Reform the W3C's Tag",
    "author": "Yehuda Katz"
  }
}

Similarly, in response to a GET request for /posts, the JSON should look like this:

{
  "posts": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "title": "I'm Running to Reform the W3C's Tag",
      "author": "Yehuda Katz"
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "title": "Rails is omakase",
      "author": "D2H"
    }
  ]
}

Conventional Names

Attribute names in your JSON payload should be the camelCased versions of the attributes in your Ember.js models.

For example, if you have a Person model:

import DS from 'ember-data';

export default DS.Model.extend({
  firstName: DS.attr('string'),
  lastName: DS.attr('string'),
  occupation: DS.attr('string')
});

The JSON returned should look like this:

{
  "person": {
    "id": 5,
    "firstName": "Barack",
    "lastName": "Obama",
    "occupation": "President"
  }
}

Customization

Endpoint path customization

Endpoint paths can be prefixed with a namespace by setting the namespace property on the adapter:

import DS from 'ember-data';

export default DS.RESTAdapter.extend({
  namespace: 'api/1'
});

Requests for App.Person would now target /api/1/people/1.

Host customization

An adapter can target other hosts by setting the host property.

import DS from 'ember-data';

export default DS.RESTAdapter.extend({
  host: 'https://api.example.com'
});

Headers customization

Some APIs require HTTP headers, e.g. to provide an API key. Arbitrary headers can be set as key/value pairs on the RESTAdapter's headers object and Ember Data will send them along with each ajax request.

import DS from 'ember-data';

export default DS.RESTAdapter.extend({
  headers: {
    "API_KEY": "secret key",
    "ANOTHER_HEADER": "Some header value"
  }
});

headers can also be used as a computed property to support dynamic headers. In the example below, the session object has been injected into an adapter by Ember's container.

import DS from 'ember-data';

export default DS.RESTAdapter.extend({
  headers: function() {
    return {
      "API_KEY": this.get("session.authToken"),
      "ANOTHER_HEADER": "Some header value"
    };
  }.property("session.authToken")
});

In some cases, your dynamic headers may require data from some object outside of Ember's observer system (for example document.cookie). You can use the volatile function to set the property into a non-cached mode causing the headers to be recomputed with every request.

import DS from 'ember-data';

export default DS.RESTAdapter.extend({
  headers: function() {
    return {
      "API_KEY": Ember.get(document.cookie.match(/apiKey\=([^;]*)/), "1"),
      "ANOTHER_HEADER": "Some header value"
    };
  }.property().volatile()
});