zulip-js

Javascript library to access the Zulip API

Usage

Initialization

With API Key

const zulipInit = require('zulip-js');
const config = {
  username: process.env.ZULIP_USERNAME,
  apiKey: process.env.ZULIP_API_KEY,
  realm: process.env.ZULIP_REALM,
};

(async () => {
  const zulip = await zulipInit(config);
  // The zulip object now initialized with config
  console.log(await zulip.streams.subscriptions.retrieve());
})();

With Username & Password

You will need to first retrieve the API key by calling await zulipInit(config).

const zulipInit = require('zulip-js');
const config = {
  username: process.env.ZULIP_USERNAME,
  password: process.env.ZULIP_PASSWORD,
  realm: process.env.ZULIP_REALM,
};

(async () => {
  // Fetch API Key
  const zulip = await zulipInit(config);
  // The zulip object now contains the API Key
  console.log(await zulip.streams.subscriptions.retrieve());
})();

With zuliprc

Create a file called zuliprc (in the same directory as your code) which looks like:

[api]
email=cordelia@zulip.com
key=wlueAg7cQXqKpUgIaPP3dmF4vibZXal7
site=http://localhost:9991

Please remember to add this file to your .gitignore! Calling await zulipInit({ zuliprc: 'zuliprc' }) will read this file.

const zulipInit = require('zulip-js');
const path = require('path');
const zuliprc = path.resolve(__dirname, 'zuliprc');
(async () => {
  const zulip = await zulipInit({ zuliprc });
  // The zulip object now contains the config from the zuliprc file
  console.log(await zulip.streams.subscriptions.retrieve());
})();

Examples

Please see some examples in the examples directory.

Also, to easily test an API endpoint while developing, you can run:

$ npm run build
$ npm run call <method> <endpoint> [optional: json_params] [optional: path to zuliprc file]
$ # For example:
$ npm run call GET /users/me
$ npm run call GET /users/me '' ~/path/to/my/zuliprc

Supported endpoints

We support the following endpoints and are striving to have complete coverage of the API. If you want to use some endpoint we do not support presently, you can directly call it as follows:

const params = {
  to: 'bot testing',
  type: 'stream',
  subject: 'Testing zulip-js',
  content: 'Something is horribly wrong....',
};

await zulip.callEndpoint('/messages', 'POST', params);

Function to call	API Endpoint	Documentation
zulip.accounts.retrieve()	POST /fetch_api_key	returns a promise that you can use to retrieve your API key.
zulip.emojis.retrieve()	GET /realm/emoji	retrieves the list of realm specific emojis.
zulip.events.retrieve()	GET /events	retrieves events from a queue. You can pass it a params object with the id of the queue you are interested in, the last event id that you have received and wish to acknowledge. You can also specify whether the server should not block on this request until there is a new event (the default is to block).
zulip.messages.send()	POST /messages	returns a promise that can be used to send a message.
zulip.messages.retrieve()	GET /messages	returns a promise that can be used to retrieve messages from a stream. You need to specify the id of the message to be used as an anchor. Use 1000000000 to retrieve the most recent message, or zulip.users.me.pointer.retrieve() to get the id of the last message the user read.
zulip.messages.render()	POST /messages/render	returns a promise that can be used to get rendered HTML for a message text.
zulip.messages.update()	PATCH /messages/<msg_id>	updates the content or topic of the message with the given msg_id.
zulip.messages.flags.add()	POST /messages/flags	add a flag to a list of messages. Its params are flag which is one of [read, starred, mentioned, wildcard_mentioned, has_alert_word, historical] and messages which is a list of messageIDs.
zulip.messages.flags.remove()	POST /messages/flags	remove a flag from a list of messages. Its params are flag which is one of [read, starred, mentioned, wildcard_mentioned, has_alert_word, historical] and messages which is a list of messageIDs.
zulip.messages.getById()	GET /messages/<msg_id>	returns a message by its id.
zulip.messages.getHistoryById()	GET /messages/<msg_id>/history	return the history of a message
zulip.messages.deleteReactionById()	DELETE /messages/<msg_id>/reactions	deletes reactions on a message by message id
zulip.messages.deleteById()	DELETE /messages/<msg_id>	delete the message with the provided message id if the user has permission to do so.
zulip.queues.register()	POST /register	registers a new queue. You can pass it a params object with the types of events you are interested in and whether you want to receive raw text or html (using markdown).
zulip.queues.deregister()	DELETE /events	deletes a previously registered queue.
zulip.reactions.add()	POST /reactions	add a reaction to a message. Accepts a params object with message_id, emoji_name, emoji_code and reaction_type (default is unicode_emoji).
zulip.reactions.remove()	DELETE /reactions	remove a reaction from a message. Accepts a params object with message_id and emoji_code and reaction_type (default is unicode_emoji).
zulip.streams.retrieve()	GET /streams	returns a promise that can be used to retrieve all streams.
zulip.streams.getStreamId()	GET /get_stream_id	returns a promise that can be used to retrieve a stream's id.
zulip.streams.subscriptions.retrieve()	GET /users/me/subscriptions	returns a promise that can be used to retrieve the user's subscriptions.
zulip.streams.deleteById()	DELETE /streams/<stream_id>	delete the stream with the provided stream id if the user has permission to do so.
zulip.streams.topics.retrieve()	GET /users/me/<stream_id>/topics	retrieves all the topics in a specific stream.
zulip.typing.send()	POST /typing	can be used to send a typing notification. The parameters required are to (either a username or a list of usernames) and op (either start or stop).
zulip.users.retrieve()	GET /users	retrieves all users for this realm.
zulip.users.me.pointer.retrieve()	GET /users/me/pointer	retrieves a pointer for a user. The pointer is the id of the last message the user read. This can then be used as an anchor message id for subsequent API calls.
zulip.users.me.getProfile()	GET /users/me	retrieves the profile of the user/bot.
zulip.users.me.subscriptions()	POST /users/me/subscriptions	subscribes a user to a stream/streams.
zulip.users.create()	POST /users	create a new user.
zulip.users.me.alertWords.retrieve()	GET /users/me/alert_words	get array of a user's alert words.
zulip.users.me.subscriptions.remove()	DELETE /users/me/subscriptions	remove subscriptions.
zulip.users.me.pointer.update()	POST users/me/pointer	updates the pointer for the user, for moving the home view. Accepts a message id. This has the side effect of marking some messages as read. Will not return success if the message id is invalid. Will always succeed if the id is less than the current value of the pointer (the id of the last message read).
zulip.server.settings()	GET /server_settings	returns a dictionary of server settings.
zulip.filters.retrieve()	GET realm/filters	return a list of filters in a realm

Testing

Use npm test to run the tests.

Writing Tests

Currently, we have a simple testing framework which stubs our network requests and also allows us to test the input passed to it. This is what a sample test for an API endpoint looks like:

const chai = require('chai');
const users = require('../../lib/resources/users'); // File to test.
const common = require('../common'); // Common functions for tests.

chai.should();

describe('Users', () => {
  it('should fetch users', async () => {
    const params = {
      subject: 'test',
      content: 'sample test',
    };
    const validator = (url, options) => {
      // Function to test the network request parameters.
      url.should.equal(`${common.config.apiURL}/users`);
      Object.keys(options.body.data).length.should.equal(4);
      options.body.data.subject.should.equal(params.subject);
      options.body.data.content.should.equal(params.content);
    };
    const output = {
      // The data returned by the API in JSON format.
      already_subscribed: {},
      result: 'success',
    };
    common.stubNetwork(validator, output); // Stub the network modules.
    const data = await users(common.config).retrieve(params);
    data.should.have.property('result', 'success'); // Function call.
  });
});

Each pull request should contain relevant tests as well as example usage.