Initialization & configuration

Now that you've imported the RemoteStorage class, here's how you typically set things up.

Where and how you do this exactly will naturally depend on the rest of your code, your JS framework, and personal preferences.

Initializing an instance

First step is to initialize a RemoteStorage instance:

const remoteStorage = new RemoteStorage();

The constructor optionally takes a configuration object. Let's say we want to enable debug logging to see in the console what rs.js is doing behind the scenes:

const remoteStorage = new RemoteStorage({logging: true});

Or perhaps we're building an app that doesn't need local caching, but only operates on the remote server/account:

const remoteStorage = new RemoteStorage({cache: false});

See the RemoteStorage API documentation for details.

Claiming access

Next, we need to tell rs.js which parts of the user's storage we want to access. Let's say we want to read and write a user's favorite drinks, which they might have added via the My Favorite Drinks demo app:

remoteStorage.access.claim('myfavoritedrinks', 'rw');

Now, when they connect their storage, users will be asked to give the app read/write access to the myfavoritedrinks/ folder. And that's also what the OAuth token, which we receive from their storage server, will be valid for, of course.

If you want to build a special app, like for example a backup utility, or a data browser, you can also claim access to the entire storage (which is generally discouraged):

remoteStorage.access.claim('*', 'rw');

See the Access API documentation for details.

Configuring caching

Last but not least, we'll usually want to configure caching (and with it automatic sync) for the data we're accessing. The caching.enable() method will activate full caching for the given path, meaning all of the items therein will be automatically synced with the server:

remoteStorage.caching.enable('/myfavoritedrinks/')

See the Caching API documentation for details.