Express middleware know if incoming will be a 404 - node.js

(i know there are a few official tools for SSR but we decided to roll our own for various reasons that are not important for this question)
We have a prototype of a server-side renderer running in nodejs for vue with Puppeteer. It works very well and now I would like to cache routes we want to cache. The cache invalidation is simple.
We intend to use Redis to hold the cache objects.
Proposed flow of the server:
Incoming request hits the express app
An express request middleware 1st checks if the route should be cached, if not return index.html. END else continue.
The same middleware checks if there is a Redis cache object based on incoming request object data, if yes return cache & END else continue.
Express router matches the request to a route, passes the request to the respective domain layer, creates the cache then returns it. END else next.
No express route found, handle 404 & END.
The question I have relates to proposed flow step 2
To know if the request should be cached is based on 2 parameters:
does the request cookie contain a valid token
is the request path one which is also defined in the express routes
The express routes currently look as follows, but is liable to evolve:
GET /channel/:name
GET /channel/:name/:tag
GET /item/:id
So, how in step 2 can we check if the incoming route is a route that would match the express router?

As said in first comment, express already provde a way to do this :
app.get('/channel/:name/:tag', YOUR_MIDDLEWARE, (req, res) => {
// Your Handler
})

Related

router handler returns an array of object but client doesn't get them in json though response with 200 status

I am implementing a express.js project with Typescript.
I have defined a enum and a interface :
export enum ProductType {
FOOD = 'food',
CLOTH = 'cloth',
TOOL = 'tool'
}
export interface MyProduct {
type: ProductType;
info: {
price: number;
date: Date;
};
}
One of my router handler needs to return an array of MyProduct to client. I tried this :
const productArr: MyProduct[] = // call another service returns an array of MyProduct
app.get('/products', (req, res) => {
res.status(200).send({products: productArr});
});
I use Postman tested this endpoint, it responses with status 200 but with a default HTML page instead of the array of objects in JSON.
What do I miss? Is it because express.js can't automatically parse the enum and interface to json object??
P.S. I have set up json parser, so it is not about that, other endpoints work fine with json response:
const app = express();
app.use(express.json());
...
As mentioned in the comments, your code should work. I'll list some steps which can be used to try to find the problem.
Show debug info
Set DEBUG=* in your environment. DEBUG is an environment variable which controls logging for many Node modules. You'll be able to see the flow of a request through Express. If there is too much info, you can limit the output like so: DEBUG=*,-babel,-babel:*,-nodemon,-nodemon:*,-router:layer,-follow-redirects,-send (use a comma-separated list and put a - in front of any module you'd like to exclude)
This should help you trace the life of a request through the various routers and routes. You're now in a position to...
Check for another route that is short-circuiting the request
The fact that you're seeing an HTML page when the Express route is sending an object might indicate that your request is matching a different route. Look for catch-all routes such as non-middleware app.use() or wildcard routes which appear ABOVE your route.
Other suggestions
Don't explicitly set the status
Adding .status(200) is more code and unnecessary.
Use res.json()
Use .json() instead of .send(). If will always add the Content-Type: application/json header, whereas .send() will not when it cannot determine the content type (e.g. .send(null) or .send('hello') will not set the Content Type header to application/json, which may confuse clients).
As there is a lack of full response headers and server environment, assuming you are using AWS service with reverse proxy. So, there might be few possibilities listed here that need to look upon :
If router handler returns an array of object but client doesn't get them in json though response with 200 status then there might be a reverse proxy acting as a backend server, serving default content with status code 200 for unknown routes from the client. So in this scenario, you need to whitelist a new route in your reverse proxy server, assuming you are using AWS Amplify for API rewrite and redirects then you need to whitelist this route in your AWS amplify settings, or else it will serve the default content like it is happening in current scenrio.
If issue still persists then :
Make sure you have proper CORS specification on your server.
Make sure productArr is an array returned by service, because if some service returns this value - it might be an unresolved promise. So, proper test cases will help you out here or for debugging purposes set DEBUG=* in your environment and make sure it should return value as expected.
Check for another route that is short-circuiting the request: The fact that you're seeing an HTML page when the Express route is sending an object might indicate that your request is matching a different route. Look for catch-all routes such as non-middleware app.use() or wildcard routes that appear above your route.

Using res.locals in node.js model file

I am overall clueless about how and why you set up a node.js app, and how any of the app.use functions work - the tutorials on it don't explain the why of anything.
Anyway, I have socket.io, res.locals and index.js set up like so in the app.js root file.
const sockets = require('./models/socket')(io)
app.use(function (req, res, next) {
res.locals.user_id = req.session.user_id;
next();
});
const routes = require('./routes/index');
app.use('/', routes);
I'd like to be able to access res.locals in the socket.js model, like I can in index.js found in the routes folder.
I can't guess how to go about doing this. If anybody is able to explain how and why I can or can't that would be a bonus. Thanks!
Welcome to Expressjs, there are a few fundamentals you should probably research before going any further, they'll help solve some of your confusion. I'll give a brief explanation of them but I suggest you do further research. I'll then answer your actual question at the end.
Middleware and app.use
Expressjs is built upon an idea that everything is just "middleware". Middleware is a function which runs as part of a request chain. A request chain is essentially a single client request, which then goes through a chain of a number of middleware functions until it either reaches the end of the chain, exits early by returning a response to the client, or errors.
Express middleware is a function which takes the following three arguments.
req (request) - Representing the request made by a client to your
server.
res (response) - Representing the response you will return to
the client.
next - A way of telling express that your current
middleware function is done, and it should now call the next piece of
middleware. This can either be called "empty" as next(); or with an
error next(new Error());. If it is called empty, it will trigger
the next piece of middleware, if it is called with an error then it
will call the first piece of error middleware. If next is not called at the
end of a piece of middleware, then the request is deemed finished and the
response object is sent to the user.
app.use is a way of setting middleware, this means it will run for every request (unless next() is either not called by the previous piece of middleware for some reason, or it's called with an error). This middleware will run for any HTTP request type (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc).
app.use can take multiple arguments, the important ones for beginners to learn are: app.use(func) and app.use(path, func). The former sets "global" middleware which runs no matter what endpoint (url path) the client requests, the latter (with a specific path) is run only if that specific path is hit. I.e. app.use('/hello', (req, res, next) => { res.send('world'); }); will return "world" when the endpoint "/hello" is hit, but not if the client requests "/hi". Where as app.use((req, res, next) => { res.send('world'); }); would return "world" when you hit any endpoint.
There are more complex things you can do with this, but that's the basics of attaching middleware to your application. The order they are attached to the application, is the order in which they will run.
One more thing, this will blow your mind, an express application made with the standard const app = express() can also be used as middleware. This means you can create several express applications, and then mount them using app.use to a single express application. This is pretty advanced, but does allow you to do some really great things with Express.
Why can you not access res.locals in socket.io? (The real question)
Within your middleware handler, you are setting up a res.locals.use_id property. This only lives with that individual request, you can pass it around as long as the request is alive by passing it into other functions, but outside of that request it doesn't exist. res is literally the response object that tells Express how to respond to the clients request, you can set properties of it during the request but once that HTTP request has ended it's gone.
Socket.io is a way of handling web socket requests, not standard HTTP requests. Thus, in a standard express HTTP request you will not be able to hand off the connection to anything with socket.io, because the connection is a single short lived HTTP request. Likewise, you won't be able to do the same the other way.
If you wish to find the users id in a socket.io request, you'll have to do this within the socket.io request itself.
Right now, you're entering a piece of middleware for an Express.js request, you are then calling next() which runs the next piece of express middleware, at no point does it cross over into Socket.io realms. This is often confused by tutorials because Socket.io can handle requests across the same port as Express is listening on, but the two are not crossed over. So you will need to write separate middleware for both Express.js requests chains, and socket.io request chains. There are ways of writing this code once and then writing an adapter to use it across both platforms, but that's not what you've tried to do here.
I would suggest you look at doing just nodejs and express for a time before taking on socket.io as well, otherwise you're trying to learn a whole heap of technologies all at once is quite a lot to try and take on board all at once.

Calling the correct get route in Axios/Node

I'm learning about Axios, Mongoose and Express and have come across the following issue. I am working on one schema that needs to have 2 different get requests accessible for when i need them. problem is that when i call the route with attending it still executes the route with info. How can i target the attending route on the backend correctly?
FRONT END
//finds a users info using findOne
axios.get("/api/user/" + info); //info is a variable
//finds a users info
axios.get("/api/user" + attending); //attending is a variable
ROUTES FILE ON BACKEND
router
.route("/:info")
.get(UserController.findOne);
router
.route("/:attending")
.get(UserController.findOneAndUpdate);
I have also tried changing the routes like below but still it hits the info route and not the attending route .
FRONT END
axios.get("/api/wmUser/getAttending" + eventCode);
ROUTE ON BACKEND
router
.route("/:info")
.get(UserController.findOne);
router
.route("/getAttending/:attending")
.get(UserController.findOneAndUpdate);
You are sending an axios GET request which will target
router
.route("/:info")
.get(UserController.findOne);
If you want to hit the PUT route on the backend, you need to do a axios.put request on the frontend.
Both your axios get requests from the frontend will hit the get on the backend with different params (namely info and attending).

What is the purpose on the middleware Yeoman function implementation?

I'm new in grunt-contrib-connect and came across with this follow middleware function Yoeman implementation -
middleware: function(connect, options, middlewares) {
return [
proxySnippet,
connect.static('.tmp'),
connect().use('/bower_components', connect.static('./bower_components')),
connect.static(config.app)
];
}
What is the purpose of this implementation ?
These are connect middlewares. A middleware is a request callback function which may be executed on each request. It can either modify/end the curent request-response cycle or pass the request to the next middleware in the stack. You can learn more about middlewares from express guide.
In your code you have four middlewares in the stack. First one is for proxying current request to another server. And rest three middlewares are for serving static files from three different directories.
When a request is made to the server, it'll go through these middlewares in following order:
Check if the request should be proxied. If it is proxied to other server, then it's the end of the request/response cycle, rest three middlewares will be ignored.
If not proxied, it'll try to serve the requested file from ./tmp directory.
If the file isn't found in above, it'll look inside ./bower_components. Note that this middleware will be executed only for the requests that has `/bower_components/ in the path. e.g. http://localhost:9000/bower_components/bootstrap/bootstrap.js
Finally, if file isn't found in above two directories, it'll look for it in whatever the path is set in config.app.
That's the end of stack, after that you'll get a 404 Not found error.

Protect non-api (res.render) route with express-jwt token in Node.js

First of all, I have read all tutorials on protecting REST API routes with jwt (express-jwt & jsonwebtoken), and it works fine for that purpose.
This works fine:
app.use('/api', postApiRoute);
And this also works, somewhat, I mean.. it does verify the token when I use it to show a webpage with angular http request calls, but when you add expressJwt({secret: secret.secretToken}), you cannot just access localhost:3000/api/post anymore. The expressJwt({secret: secret.secretToken}) is the problem here.
app.use('/api', expressJwt({secret: secret.secretToken}));
app.use('/api', userApiRoute);
What I really need is to protect a non-json but html/text request route with jwt like eg.:
app.get('/admin*', expressJwt({secret: secret.secretToken}), function(req, res){
res.render('index', {
//user: req.session.user, <- not sure how to do the equivalent, to extract the user json-object from the express-jwt token?
js: js.renderTags(),
css: css.renderTags()
});
});
.. without having to make http requests in angular/js, but using express' render function.
I need to do this since my application has 2 primary server routed views, so 1 where admin scripts are loaded from, and 1 where the frontend (theme) assets gets loaded.
I cant however get jwt/tokens to work with server rendered views, only json api requests.
The error i'm getting is: "UnauthorizedError: No Authorization header was found"
Couldn't find any information about (server rendered views protected with jwt, only serverside api requests and client side angular/ajax http requests) this, so I hope my question is clear, and that I do not have to fall back to using sessions again.
Not sure if I understood correctly, but if you are talking about entry html routes (i.e., loaded directly by the browser and not by you angular app), then you simply have no way of instructing the browser as to how to set the authorization header (no without introducing some other redirect based auth flow).

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