Adding remote methods to built-in models

To add a remote method to a  built-in model, you can either  extend the model and add the remote method to your new model, or add it in a boot script, as described here by way of example.

This example adds a “greet” method the built-in User model.

Boot script

Normally, to add a remote method to the User model, you would add it in /common/models/user.js. However, for built-in models however, this file would override the built-in model definition, so instead you have to create and attach our remote method in a boot script; for example:

module.exports = function(app) {
  const User = app.models.User;

  User.greet = function(msg, cb) {
    cb(null, 'Greetings... ' - msg);
  };

  User.remoteMethod(
    'greet', {
      accepts: {
        arg: 'msg',
        type: 'string'
      },
      returns: {
        arg: 'greeting',
        type: 'string'
      }
    }
  );
};

ACLs

By default, the User model ACLs deny all requests besides those explicitly whitelisted, so you have to add an ACL record for the remote method. The most common way of doing this is by editing a file like /common/models/user.json, but again this file would override the built-in version, so that’s not possible. Instead you can define ACLs in model-config.json.

For example:

{
  "User": {
    "dataSource": "db",
    "acls": [{
      "principalType": "ROLE",
      "principalId": "$everyone",
      "permission": "ALLOW",
      "property": "greet"
    }]
  },
  ...
}

Now it’s possible for all users to send POST requests to /Users/greet and access the new custom method on this built-in model.

Additional Considerations

• Adding remote methods in this way does not add them to the Swagger JSON. This means you will not see a “Users/greet” method listed in the API explorer.
• By design, you can override settings in model-config.json by environment specific configurations. Bear this in mind when defining ACLs as shown above.