tech decision: node api framework

[dgreisen-cfpb]

We need to decide on a node api framework.

requirements:

1. easy to use
2. clear and concise
3. self documenting

Currently we are using express, which meets (1), kinda meets (2), but fails (3).

@m3brown @contolini @imuchnik @sephcoster: thoughts?

[sephcoster]

The only one outside of vanilla Express that I've used is Loopback. It's self documenting using Swagger + some other sugar, and has a bunch of built-in command line generators that make it pretty easy to use (also a GUI available that just went into Beta). Loopback runs on top of Express so it would bolt on pretty easily. That said, maybe just bolting something like Swagger on to our existing API could work as well?

Additionally, there is also Restify - it was built as an alternative to building an API with express from what I've read of the docs, but I haven't had the opportunity to use it in anger. I would take a look at the docs to see if their use case matches up with our own.

[dgreisen-cfpb]

Thanks Seph. I just took a dive into loopback. It looks fun, but It has a bit too much magic for my taste.

I was looking at restify, but it has some apparently significant performance issues. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I guess we will just continue to use express.