Service Filters

Service Filters provides ActionController-style filter support to service instances, specifically adding before_filter, after_filter, and around_filter.

require 'lib/foo/user.pb'

class Foo::UserService
  before_filter :start_request_timer
  after_filter :end_request_timer
  around_filter :benchmark_request

  # Provide a list of rpc methods to call (or exclude calling) for the given filter(s).
  # The following two filters are essentially equivalent.
  before_filter :verify_user_present, :only => [ :update, :delete ]
  before_filter :verify_user_present, :except => [ :find, :create ]

  # Using if/unless filters options to achieve the same goal, reporting a login after the login has been processed.
  # Note that you can provide a method name or lambda, but you must return a boolean value.
  after_filter :report_login, :only => :login, :if => :user_found?
  after_filter :report_login, :only => :login, :if => lambda { |service| service.response.user_guid.present? }
  after_filter :report_login, :only => :login, :unless => :user_missing?
  after_filter :report_login, :only => :login, :unless => lambda { |service| service.response.user_guid.empty? }

  #... rpc instance methods

  private

  def start_request_timer
    @time_start = Time.now
  end

  def end_request_timer
    @time_end = Time.now
    log_info { ... }
  end

  def benchmark_request
    Benchmark.benchmark do
      yield # yield here to continue processing filters and the request
    end
  end
end

Halting execution of rpc request inside a filter

Around Filters – Inside of an around filter, if you wish to halt request processing and return, simply do not yield the block. Since the filter is implemented as an instance method, you can use rpc_failed or respond_with just like you can in the endpoint methods.

Before Filters – Returning false from a before filter will cancel any other filter calls which would run afterwards, as well as canceling invocation of the service method. Note: You must actually return false, not just a "falsey" value such as nil.

After Filters – No request shortcutting.

Filter options

The following options can be applied to any of the filters as the final argument in the filter configuration. (See example above).

:if – The object supplied to :if can either be a symbol/string indicating the instance method to call, or, an object that responds to call. The method or callable should return true or false indicating if the filter should be invoked or not. Akin to the if keyword.

:unless – The opposite of the :if option is :unless. Accepts the same object types. The method or callable should return true or false indicating if the filter should be invoked or not. Akin to the unless keyword.

:only – A string/symbol or Array of strings/symbols values that reference instance methods. The names of these methods should be the rpc method you wish to invoke the filter for. Methods not identified in this list would not have the filter applied.

:except – The opposite of the :only option. A string/symbol or Array of strings/symbols values that reference instance methods. The names of these methods should be the rpc method you wish to skip invokation of the given filter. Methods not identified in this list would have the filter applied.