Design first approach for Knot.x Server API

[tomaszmichalak]

Version used

• knot.x: 1.3.0

Context of the issue/feature

The current approach:

Knot.x defines two routes for processing requests:

• the templating engine that processes templates from repositories and injects data from external services
• Gateway API that allows you to create and expose REST API This approach requires deep Knot.x knowledge to define a simple REST API interface. Additionally there is no validation mechanism for contracts.

Expected solution:

We want to use Open API 3 specification directly inside Knot.x code using design first approach. Additionally all request processors (handlers) should be configurable. Project specific processors should be easily configurable in routing configuration.

Example case:

The template repository authorizes requests based on the authentication header. This header comes from a cookie or (if it is not found) an external service (soft authentication / anonymous authentication). Thus, a custom authentication handler can be coded and configured before calling the repository.

The same authentication handler can be used in the Gateway API (for both custom flow and dedicated server).

Appendix

• affects custom flow (Gateway API)

[tomaszmichalak]

The PoC for this functionality is here: https://github.com/tomaszmichalak/vertx-pocs

[tomaszmichalak]

Full server implementation is available here: https://github.com/Knotx/knotx-server-http