what are the arguments name called in the code below,
router.route("/admin/orders").get(isAuthenticationUser, authorizeRoles("admin"),getAllOrders);
can someone point it out like this:
map((element, index) => { /* … */ })
Taking it from the Express official docs:.
The basic way to call handle http method is with the app.METHOD function (like, app.get for example), with this signature:
app.METHOD(path, callback [, callback ...])
Another way is how you show in your snippet, but using a router. A router is used to narrow the scope of your handlers for a specific path (in your case, the path is "/admin/orders").
The resutning object from calling route(...) is like:
router.METHOD(callback [, callback ...])
That means, all the three arguments (isAuthenticationUser, authorizeRoles("admin"),getAllOrders) are just variables/expressions that will resolve to callback functions. They will be executed one after the other in order when your http request comes. Most probable, judging by their names, the first two will try to authenticate and authorize the user, but if not possible, they will short-circuit and return the call, not even getting into the third callback.
You can also see more details in the Routing Guide.
Related
I created a router file using Express. The callback functions reside in their discrete "controllers" files. Following is an excerpt of the parts relevant to my question, and lines such as require of controller functions have been omitted:
const express = require('express');
const router = express.Router();
// This should run first
router.param('coolParamName', validateParamBeforeHandlingReqs);
// Param name is ↑↑↑↑↑ "consumed" here, although NOT defined yet
// This should run after the above code
router.route('/').get(getAllUserNames).post(createUser);
router.route('/:coolParamName').get(getUserName).patch(updateUser).delete(deleteUser);
// Param name is ↑↑↑↑↑ defined here, and was consumed earlier - how?
As the comments explain, it seems like the param name has been defined as coolParamName on the bottom, but "consumed" by the code written above it. This feels strange to me, because I feel it's natural to define first and then use later - is it just me? Did I write a code that's against the intended design pattern?
I would like to understand how Express defines the name of param, and how router.param and router.router handle them.
router.param('coolParamName') essentially registers a callback that will get called for any route (in that router) that uses the :coolParamName parameter and matches the current request. The callback will get called once per request BEFORE the route that matches the request that contains the :coolParamName parameter.
It's kind of like middleware for a matching parameter. It allows you to automatically configure some setup code anytime that particular parameter is matched in a route.
FYI, I expect that router.param() may be one of the least used features of Express since it can be accomplished many other ways, but it probably works best for validation-type code that checks named properties for validity before the route itself gets called.
You could accomplish the same thing by just using a piece of middleware on that specific route too or even just calling a function inside the route handler. So, this is just a nicety feature if you happen to use the same parameter in multiple routes.
If request object is not being used inside api callback function should i remove it from parameters of callback. I think it does not make a difference but i am curious what is the practice.
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
res.send('hello world')
})
The req in params of callback function
It does make a difference.
If you were to remove that first parameter, then this code would not longer work, you would get an error like
res.send is not a function.
That's because the express .get method is going to insert the request object as the first parameter, and the response object as the second paremeter.
If you were to remove 'req' as the first parameter, the request object would still be passed as the first parameter. There's no stopping express from doing that.
As a convention, if for example ESLint is giving you issues re: unused-vars, you can prefix unused first parameters with an underscore, like _res.
Now if you're talking about subsuqent parameters on the otherhand, it's fine to leave them off, which is in fact what you're doing here, you can see from the express documentation that the callback also accepts a third argument, next, which you're not declaring or using here.
I am trying to understand the node.js documentation specifically for the https.get() method. https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v8.x/docs/api/https.html#https_https_get_options_callback
What is unclear to me is the callback. The example in the document indicates the callback can take a res (response) object as its parameter but I am unsure if this is the only parameter it can take or more importantly where I can find the definition of the res object so I can know what properties and methods I can access on this object.
Is there a straightforward way to identify this?
I have read this thread: Trying to understand nodejs documentation. How to discover callback parameters and the answers seem to suggest that if there is a non-error argument that a callback can take it will be documented, but I am assuming that answer is outdated.
I've run into the same issue with many Node/NPM packages. Documentation sometimes does not describe the parameters well.
So, welcome to JavaScript in 2018! It's gotten a lot better, though, to be honest.
My go-to method is to try the methods and dump the information myself.
Try a console.dir(res) in your callback:
https.get('https://encrypted.google.com/', (res) => {
console.dir(res);
});
Alternatively, you can set a breakpoint in the callback and inspect it yourself. You can then probe the arguments object* to see what else, if anything, was passed as an argument, or do another console dump:
https.get('https://encrypted.google.com/', function (res) {
console.dir("args:", arguments);
console.dir("res:", res);
});
EDIT: Wait, apparently the arguments variable is not available to arrow functions, fixed the second example.
*From MDN:
The arguments object is not an Array. It is similar to an Array, but
does not have any Array properties except length.
From your link https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v8.x/docs/api/https.html#https_https_get_options_callback, you can see that it works like the http version :
Like http.get() but for HTTPS.
With http.get() clickable.
On that page (https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v8.x/docs/api/http.html#http_http_get_options_callback), we can see this :
The callback is invoked with a single argument that is an instance of http.IncomingMessage
With http.IncomingMessage clickable, linking this page :
https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v8.x/docs/api/http.html#http_class_http_incomingmessage
I agree the Node documentation is not very clear about the callbacks in general, and that is a shame. You can still use IDEs with good intellisense (and JSDoc to identify the type of the function parameters), like VSCode.
Or you can use a debugger, always works :)
Edit: If you want to see all the parameters sent to a function, you can use the spread syntax like this :
function foo(...params) {
// Here params is an array containing all the parameters that were sent to the function
}
If you want the absolute truth, you can look at the implementation. Though that's fairly time consuming.
If you find that the documentation is wrong, or in this case could be improved by adding a sentence about the callback parameter to https.get(), please open an issue, or, better yet, a pull request. This is where the change needs to be made:
https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/67790962daccb5ff19c977119d7231cbe175c206/doc/api/https.md
I'm learning node now and I'm confused about the err parameter.
I thought it's supposed to be the first argument of a callback function but I don't see it in many call back functions. Can anyone explain it to me? Thanks!
There's many different kinds of functions and callback functions in particular. The Node.js standard for callback functions is those of the form:
function(err, arg1, arg2, ...)
Where arg1 and so forth are only present if relevant but the err argument is always first. This is the reverse of a lot of historical JavaScript code where errors would be the last argument.
The Node.js method of forcing the error as the first argument even if there's no error makes ignoring errors harder, you rarely forget to declare that argument, and makes their location predictable.
Now this only applies in the case of a general-purpose callback. That is, there are occasions where calling a function will trigger a singular callback at some point in the future. You'll see them used like this:
doStuff(function(err, successValue) { ... });
There's also the style popularized by jQuery where one or more of your callbacks will be triggered depending on the outcome of the operation:
doStuff({
success: function(successValue) { ... },
error: function(err) { ... },
timeout: function() { ... }
});
Note that in this case you may have both the error and timeout callbacks being fired. You're not obligated to populate all of these, either.
The downside to this approach is the unpredictability of which ones get called and the risk of handling something twice inadvertently.
The error parameter is usually for asynchronous code.
node errors
Most asynchronous methods that accept a callback function will accept an Error object passed as the first argument to that function. If that first argument is not null and is an instance of Error, then an error occurred that should be handled.
app.get() sends get request and return an error like a 404
and you could do something like this res.status(404).render( in app.get()
Express error handling
error-handling functions have four arguments instead of three: (err, req, res, next)
The reason why some code uses err as the first parameter is because some code like fs.readFileis programmed to check if there was an error and to handle it. The author of the API specifically wrote code to check the first argument for an error and handle it.
That's why it is available to you for some methods an unavailable for other methods.
First: a callback is just a function. Different callbacks serve different purposes.
In general, a function that performs an asynchronous action and should "return" a value gets passed a callback function that will take (at least) two arguments: the first is used to pass errors (if any), the second (and following) are used to pass the value(s) that should be returned to the caller.
You noticed that net.createServer() will also take a callback function, but that function only has one argument.
That's because, in this case, the callback isn't used to pass errors and/or values. Instead, it's a function that gets called when a new connection is made to the server.
It's really a bit of a shortcut. This code:
var server = net.createServer(function(connection) {
...
});
Is short for this code:
var server = net.createServer();
server.on('connection', function(connection) {
...
});
The docs read:
The app.VERB() methods provide the routing functionality in Express,
where VERB is one of the HTTP verbs, such as app.post(). Multiple
callbacks may be give, all are treated equally, and behave just like
middleware, with the one exception that these callbacks may invoke
next('route') to bypass the remaining route callback(s). This
mechanism can be used to perform pre-conditions on a route then pass
control to subsequent routes when there is no reason to proceed with
the route matched.
What do they mean by "bypass the remaining route callbacks?"? I know that next() will pass control to the next matching route. But... what function will get control with next('route')...?
I hated it when I answer my own question 5 minutes later.
next('route') is when using route middleware. So if you have:
app.get('/forum/:fid', middleware1, middleware2, function(){
// ...
})
the function middleware1() has a chance to call next() to pass control to middleware2, or next('route') to pass control to the next matching route altogether.
The given answer explains the main gist of it. Sadly, it is much less intuitive than you might think, with a lot of special cases when it is used in combination with parameters. Just check out some of the test cases in the app.param test file. Just to raise two examples:
app .param(name, fn) should defer all the param routes implies that if next("route") is called from a param handler, it would skip all following routes that refer to that param handler's own parameter name. In that test case, it skips all routes refering to the id parameter.
app .param(name, fn) should call when values differ when using "next" suggests that the previous rule has yet another exception: don't skip if the value of the parameter changes between routes.
...and there is more...
I'm sure there is a use-case for this kind of next('route') lever, but, I agree with previous comments in that it certainly makes things complicated and non-intuitive.