The express documentation says that you can supply an array for the path variable in app.use(). I'm trying to have all routes in the routes array point back to the static folder in the static variable.
Here's what I have:
const static = express.static(path.join(__dirname, '../build'));
const routes = ['/','/projects','/project1','/blog']
app.use(routes, static);
These routes all do work correctly with the static folder variable if I write a seperate app.use() function for each route, but it would be a lot more maintainable if I can get the routes in an array like in the documentation. The documentation doesn't show any examples suggesting that I need to map through the array.
So, it appears (based on experimentation as this is not in the doc), that when you pass an array of routes, Express finds the first item in the array that matches the current path and calls the route handler for that one only. Even if there are other routes that would also match (as in your case), it does not call the route handler again for those.
So, because '/' matches ALL routes when used with app.use(), it will always use that one and thus the others will never work properly when using the array, but do work properly when listed as individual routes. You can fix it by making sure that the most permissive routes are last. So, change your array to this:
const static = express.static(path.join(__dirname, '../build'));
const routes = ['/projects','/project1','/blog', '/'];
app.use(routes, static);
This moves '/' to the end so the others get a chance to match before the '/' is looked at and . '/' will only get used when the path wasn't one of the others.
FYI, this is a bit of a weird structure where you're directing multiple URL path prefixes all to the same ../build directory for express.static() to look there. There's no reason you need to do it that way. This appears to be an artificially created issue because of your URL design. Doing it this way will cause URLs like /x.js, /projects/x.js and /blog/x.js to resolve to the exact same x.js file in the ../build directory.
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.
I´ve setup a little NodeJS API with 'expressjs'. In my code I have some similar code blocks looking like this:
app.get('/api/my/path', (req, res) => {
doSomethingUseful();
});
All thoses requests do something different, so the function being called is always different too.
I´m asking myself if this is good practice for writing code in NodeJS or not.
If there is a better / cleaner way of writing all those paths I would appreciate if you could tell me how or at least giving me a place to look for it.
EDIT 1: To be clear: I ask if it´s a good idea to write a lot of 'app.get(...)' into one source code file or if there is a better way?
Yes there is a better way than writing all routes in one file. For example, let us say you have routes for users and questions.
For users, you want get/set/put/delete for profile, and similarly for questions.So you create the following folder structure: /api/users and /api/questions
In /api/users,
const express=require('express')
const router=express.Router()
//this handles route: /users
router.get('/',(req,res)=>{})
//this handles route: /users/profile
router.get('/profile',(req,res){})
//this is to retrieve profile of specific user by user id :/users/profile/:userID
router.get('/profile/:userId',(req,res))
router.post('/profile',(req,res))
.
.
Then, in your index.js or entry point of your project,
const users=require('./api/users')
const questions=require('./api/questions')
app=require('express')
app.use('/users',users)
app.use('/questions',questions)
So in effect, you say for any /users route, refer to the users.js file, for any /questions routes, refer questions.js file and so on
Use a simple module, don't be invoking routes until you form a heap.
Try Route Magic
You want to do just 2 lines of code and have the module read your directory and file structure to handle all the app.use routing invocations, like this:
const magic = require('express-routemagic')
magic.use(app, __dirname, '[your route directory]')
For those you want to handle manually, just don't use pass the directory to Magic.
In my server.ts file the line
app.get('/example', express.static('somefolder'));
gives me a 404, whereas
app.use('/example', express.static('somefolder'));
correctly serves the 'index.html' from 'somefolder' as a response to requests to 'myhost/example'.
According to the express documentation these should behave exactly the same in cases of GET requests. Why does one work and the other doesn't?
Those two methods differ (amongst other things) in how req.path is populated:
for app.get('/example'), it's set to /example/
for app.use('/example'), it's set to /
When using express.static(), this means that internally, the static middleware will translate the request path to different locations:
for app.get('/example'), it will look in somefolder/example/
for app.use('/example'), it will look in somefolder/
You can easily test that by creating somefolder/example/ and copying the index.html file into it; when you do that, the app.get() route will work as well.
I've read up other questions on people's routes mismatching and then ordering the routes solving the problem. I've got this problem where my URL route is being treated as a parameter and then express mismatches and leads to the wrong route. e.g. here are the two routes:
app.get('/byASIN/LowPrice/:asin/:price',function(req,res){});
and
app.get('/byASIN/:asin/:price', function(req, res) {});
Now all works fine but as soon as I take any param out of the first route it matches the route given below which is not what I want.
If I hit /byASIN/LowPrice/:asin/:price everything works fine but as soon as I hit /byASIN/LowPrice/:asin it matches byASIN/:asin/:price and hence calls the wrong function and crashes my server. I would like to have them match explicitly and if /byASIN/LowPrice/:asin is called, respond with some warning e.g. you're calling with one less argument. What am I missing here?
By default express Url parameters are not optinial, this is why
app.get('/byASIN/LowPrice/:asin/:price',function(req,res){});
does not match /byASIN/LowPrice/:asin, because the second parameter is missing.
However you can make a parameter optional by adding a ? to it:
app.get('/byASIN/LowPrice/:asin/:price?',function(req,res){});
this should solve your problem.
Try to define a route for /byASIN/LowPrice/:asin/:price to handle, then use a wildcard to handle everything else.
app.get('/byASIN/LowPrice/:asin/:price',function(req,res){});
app.get('*',function(req,res){});
Express matches the route by the order you insert them. If you have the loosely routes defined first, then express will use that one as the match first. An extreme example would be
app.get('*', function(req, res) {});
If this was defined as the first route, then no other route will be called (if without calling next()).
If you want express to always use the strict one first, then you will need to change the order of your routes by having the strict ones defined before the loosely ones.
It'd be nice if express support priority in the route, which could be a good solution for your problem, but until then, unfortunately, this can be fixed by ordering only :(
I'm designing an app with node.js and Express, and I was wondering if it was possible to move certain routing logic out of the app.js file. For exapmle, my app.js currently contains:
app.get('/groups',routes.groups);
app.get('/',routes.index);
Is there a way to move this logic out of the app.js file, and only have something like:
app.get('/:url',routes.get);
app.post('/:url",routes.post);
such that all GET requests would be processed by routes.get and all POST requests processed with routes.post?
You could pass a regular expression as the route definition:
app.get(/.+/, someFunction);
This would match anything. However, if you simply want to move your route definitions outside of your main app.js file, it is much clearer to do something like this:
app.js
var app = require('express').createServer();
...
require('routes').addRoutes(app);
routes.js
exports.addRoutes = function(app) {
app.get('/groups', function(req, res) {
...
});
};
This way, you're still using Express' built-in routing, rather than re-rolling your own (as you'd have to do in your example).
FULL DISCLOSURE: I am the developer of the node module mentioned below.
There is a node module that does kind of what you're asking for (and will, eventually, do more). It offers automatic routing based on convention over configuration for express. The module name is honey-express, but is currently in alpha development and not yet available on NPM (but you can get it from the source at https://github.com/jaylach/honey-express.
A short example of how it works: (Please note that this coffeescript)
# Inside your testController.coffee file. Should live inside /app/controllers
honey = require 'honey-express'
TestController = new honey.Controller
index: ->
# #view() is a helper method to automatically render the view for the action you're executing.
# As long as a view (with an extension that matches your setup view engine) lives at /app/views/controller/actionName (without method, so index and not getIndex), it will be rendered.
#view()
postTest: (data) ->
# Do something with data
Now, inside your app.js file you just have to setup some simple configuration:
# in your app.configure callback...
honey.config 'app root', __dirname + '/app'
app.use honey.router()
Now anytime a request comes in, honey will automatically look for a controller with the specified route, and then look for a matching action.. for example -
/test will automatically route to the index/getIndex() method of
testController
/ will automatically route to the index/getIndex() method of the homeController (the default controller is home), if it exists
/test/test will automatically route to the postTest() method of testController if the http method is POST.
As I mentioned, the module is currently in it's alpha state but the automatic routing works wonderfully and has been tested on two different projects now :) But since it's in alpha development, the documentation is missing. Should you decide to go this route, you can look at the sample I have up on the github, look through the code, or reach out to me and I'd be happy to help :)
EDIT: I should also note that honey-express does require the latest (BETA) version of express as it uses features that are not present in 2.x of express.