Conditional redirect with express / request-promise - node.js

Question

I am rather new with express together with the request-promise module,
and need to create a service S
that is called from serverA
and after S has asked ServerB for some additional info,
it redirects the request of serverA to ServerC.
Since I get a
Error: Can't set headers after they are sent.
even though I do not add something by myself, I wonder someone could help me to get this workflow straight.
This is the code:
`
const express = require('express')
const rp = require('request-promise')
...
app.get('/dispatch', cors(), (req, res, next) => {
var options = {
uri: 'https://ServerB/calc-something..',
headers: {
'User-Agent': 'its-me',
'Data': data_from_serverA
},
resolveWithFullResponse: true, // Get statuscode
json: true // Parse the JSON string in the response
};
rp(options) // Do request to serverB
.then(function (response) {
console.log(`ServerB responded with statuscode ${response.statusCode}`)
// No error, so redirect original res
res.redirect('https://serverC/...') // error occurs here
return next(response)
})
.catch(function (err) {
console.log(`ServerB responded with error ${err}`)
return next(err) // send 500 to serverA
})
})
`

Answer 1

Your cors() middleware is setting CORS headers. This is causing the headers to be sent while your promise is resolving.
A redirect ALSO sends headers, and this is the issue. A redirect sets a location header, but you've already sent the headers so that won't work.
The solution is to split your final middleware into two. First, check to see if a redirect is needed and if so, do that. Otherwise, set whatever data you need on the req object and handle this AFTER the cors call.
Your final route will look something like:
app.get('/dispatch', checkRedirect, cors(), (req, res, next) => {
//do something useful, or send your error
})
The contents of your checkRedirect function will be pretty similar to what you have above. However, you do not pass data to the next() function. That just passes control to the next middleware. Instead, put any data you need on the req object and handle it in the final middleware, AFTER cors. If all you are doing is setting a 500 error, you don't even need CORS for that.

Answer 2

According to #Rampant 's answer,
this is how I did it with request-promise (rp):
function checkPrecondition(req, res, next){
req.precondition = false
rp({ method: 'POST',
...
})
.then((data) => {
...
req.precondition = true
next()
})
.catch((data) => {
...
next()
})
}
and in the express handler:
app.post('/query', checkPrecondition, cors(), (req, res, next) => {
if(!req.precondition){
res.status(400).send(JSON.stringify({status: 'insufficient'}))
return
}
res.redirect('target.host')
})
Thanks for clearifying the CORS issue.