# How to create a easy fake api

How many times you create google "json fake api" to create a file to emulate some response, I did it a lot until I find 2 nice node pakages json-server & fakerjs using together you can create a very simple fake api to consume for your PoC (Prove of Concepts)

# Lets start

Instal global your node packages:

npm instal -g json-server faker

That's it!

# Usage

Setup the server

To use them, only create a new folder, inside this new folder link the faker package, then create a file to export your new api routes, let me use some code to explain.

mkdir my-fake-api
cd my-fake-api
npm link faker
touch index.js

Once you have your index.js, open it in any code editor and import the package and export your data object as module

~/my-fake-api/index.js

//Import the package faker
var faker = require('faker');

//Each key of this obect represents an enpoint
const data = {
  posts: []
}

module.exports = function () {
  //Iterate 20 times means, create 20 records
  for (let i = 0; i < 20; i++) {
    /**
     * Push an object every iteration
     * executing faker methods filling the keys
     **/
    data.posts.push({
      _id: faker.random.uuid(),
      content: faker.lorem.paragraph(),
      creation: faker.date.past()
    })
  }
  // Once is completed return your new object
  return data;
}

Run JSON Run!

Lets test this beauty, in your terminal execute the command json-server [file-name] and voilà! you have your new server.

# you can use a specific port!!!
~/my-fake-api: json-server index.js --port 4000

\{^_^}/ hi!

  Loading index.js
  Done

  Resources
  http://localhost:4000/posts

  Home
  http://localhost:4000

# Conclusion

This couple of libraries will save you alot of time, also they are really exentensive, in the case of json-server you can emulate a simple CRUD to create, delete or update any record.

Dig into the documentation and save time on your next PoC, Demo or Simple proyect.

# Documentation

json-server: https://github.com/typicode/json-server

fakerjs: https://github.com/marak/Faker.js/

Invest time in knowledge is save time in the future