Handle POST request from multiple routes all at once - node.js

I am submitting a simple contact form in my website's footer (in footer.pug):
form(method="POST" action="contact_form")
input(type='email' name='ct_email' data-name='ct_email' required)
textarea(type='text' name='ct_message' data-name='ct_message' required)
button(type='submit') Send
Since the form is in a template, and the footer template is used throughout the site, the form can be submitted from various routes:
/contact_form
/route1/contact_form
/route1/de/contact_form
and so on...
So now it seems I have to create a handler for all the possible routes:
router.post('/contact_form', function(req, res, next) {
// ...
}
router.post('/route1/contact_form', function(req, res, next) {
// ...
}
How can I easily handle POST requests from all the routes they may be coming from without writing a handler for each?

You can use absolute path reference in your form and it will always submit to the same route even though the form is in different pages.
Try this
form(method="POST" action="/contact_form")
Notice the action changed from contact_form to /contact_form. When you add /, you start referencing the path as an absolute path to the domain. So now, from all pages, the form will be submitted to http://your-domain/contact-form.

Not entirely sure if this is what you mean, but the first argument to ExpressJS's router (I assume that's what router is doing here) can be an array. So instead of:
router.post('/contact_form', function(req, res, next) {
// ...
}
router.post('/route1/contact_form', function(req, res, next) {
// ...
}
You can just do:
router.post(['/contact_form','route1/contact_form'],function(req,res,next){
//some fancy logic to handle both routes.
})
Of course, this requires that you keep a list of these possible routes. On the other hand, you can follow Dinesh Pandiyan's advice, and just use an absolute path. So instead of page1.html, page2.html, page3.html, etc. all having their own own router (or own entry in your router array), you'd essentially be saying "Go to the domain route, then go to this address".

Each request should be handled in separated functions because each request has its own logic. However if you want
function request(req, res, next) {
// Your logic
}
router.post('/contact_form', request) {
// ...
}
router.post('/route1/contact_form', request) {
// ...
}
Right now, I don't have a way to test this code, but I think that will help you.

Here is yet another potential solution - use an independent function as a route handler.
router.post('/a', handlePost);
router.post('/b', handlePost);
router.post('/c', handlePost);
function handlePost(req, res, next){
// use req.path here to figure out what url was called
}

Related

Support for a URL where the question mark to denote the start of queryparams is url encoded

I've got a Node/express application where our users can be directed to the application from Google Ads. The problem here is that they encode all "special characters" of the URL (Google have said this themselves).
I have an endpoint that looks like this:
app.get("/", (req, res) => {
res.send("Hello World!");
});
And I make a request to GET myurl.com/?foo=bar, my response will be what you'd expect ("Hello World!"). I can also easily pull the queryparams out of the request object.
However, if I have a campaign set up in Google Ads with some query parameters being tacked onto the end of the URL (i.e. UTM params), the request generated might look like GET myurl.com/%3Ffoo%3Dbar. Express out of the box doesn't automatically decode those characters, so when that URL gets hit, the express application will just return a 404 because there isn't an endpoint handler for /%3Ffoo%3Dbar.
What are my options here? Do I really have to write middleware to deal with this? I could use something like:
app.use(function(req, res, next) {
req.url = req.url.replace(<insert some regex here>, function() {
<insert some logic here to do the url decoding>
});
next();
});
But it feels weird to have to do this.

Reusing logic in a route, nodejs express

I have a route that's doing a lot of processing to display a view, DB queries and parsing and that sort of thing.
I'd like to 're-use' the processing of that route that gets displayed in the view. Simply using a res.render of the view will not suffice.
I am having a hard time explaining exactly what I'm after - effectively I am trying to avoid duplicating code.
router.get('/edit/:id', function(req, res) {
..lots of processing...
res.render('pages/campaigns/edit-campaign', {
...vars for handlebars...
});
});
router.all('/add/confirmation', function(req, res) {
... i have the data i need here, but not the processing ...
res.render('pages/campaigns/edit-campaign-new', {
...vars...
});
});
Set up a middleware that do that processing and optionally pass the processing results to handlers, if you want to use those in handlers.

Node/express, optional parameters switch route between get and post

I have 2 routes set up for my express server that look very close to each other. They are basically the same url, except one is post and one is get, and the get has an extra route param (which is optional). Right now these seem to work ok, however if I do not add the optional param to the get call, it thinks I'm trying to hit the post. I would like to be able to hit the get call without the passing the second optional param as well. Let me show you what I have so far:
router.param('itemID', (req, res, next, itemID) => {
verbose("itemID=", itemID);
next();
});
router.param('navigationType', (req, res, next, navigationType) => {
if (!navigationType) {
next();
}
verbose("navigationType=", navigationType);
next();
});
router.route('/:itemID/navigations')
.post(controllers.addActivity)
.all(routes.send405.bind(null, ['POST']));
router.route('/:itemID/navigations/:navigationType')
.get(controllers.listActivities)
.all(routes.send405.bind(null, ['GET']));
The routed.send405 method looks like this :
function send405(methods, req, res) {
res.set('Allow', methods.join(','));
res.status(405).json({
message: `Method '${req.method}' Not Allowed.`
});
}
So right now the issue is if I do a get on /blah123/navigations and don't add the /:navigationType variable, it thinks I am trying to hit the post method. I am very new to working with this and would appreciate any help or insight. Thanks!
When you declare a route, say GET /admins/:id, it will match any requests to GET /admins/1 or GET /admins/john. But when you do just GET /admins, it wouldn't be able to find because you haven't declared GET route matching that pattern.
To work with this, you have to specify navigationType is an optional parameter and also place the GET request first followed by the POST, like this.
router.route('/:itemID/navigations/:navigationType?')
.get(controllers.listActivities)
.all(routes.send405.bind(null, ['GET']));
router.route('/:itemID/navigations')
.post(controllers.addActivity)
.all(routes.send405.bind(null, ['POST']));

multiple routes with differents params, calling the same ressource

Is it possible with expressjs to have multiple routes calling the same resource, something like that:
app.get('/users/:user_id', users.getOne)
app.get('/users/:username', users.getOne)
I would like to be able to call users.getOne whichever params (:user_id or :username) is used in the get request.
In the users.getOne function, how can I determine wich one was used and build my query according to it?
exports.getOne = function(req, res){
var queryParams = ? // I need help here
Users
.find(queryParams)
...
Thanks!
Possibly related: express.js - single routing handler for multiple routes in a single line
From express's view, both of those routes will match the same set of request URLs. You only need one of them and you can name it to make more sense:
app.get('/users/:key', users.getOne);
//...
// http://stackoverflow.com/a/20988824/266795
var OBJECT_ID_RE = /^[a-f\d]{24}$/i;
exports.getOne = function(req, res) {
var conditions = {_id: req.params.key};
if (!OBJECT_ID_RE.test(req.params.key)) {
conditions = {username: req.params.key};
}
Users.find(conditions)...
If you end up wanting this pattern in many routes throughout your code base, you can extract it into a /users/:user param and use app.param as per #alex's answer, but encapsulate the code to locate the user and stick it on to req.user so the actual route handler can just assume the user has been properly found and loaded by the time it executes, and 404 handling can be centralized as well.
Those are in fact, from express's view, the same route.
No, they are not. One route has :user_id parameter, another one has :username.
This would be a proper solution:
var OBJECT_ID_RE = /^[a-f\d]{24}$/i;
app.param('user_id', function(req, res, next, value, name) {
if (OBJECT_ID_RE.test(value)) {
next()
} else {
next('route')
}
})
app.get('/users/:user_id', users.getOne)
app.get('/users/:username', users.getOne)
app.param set the prerequisite for the route to be called. This way when user_id matches a pattern, first route gets called, otherwise second one.

Express.js routing with optional param?

I have two situations to get data from DB
To show normal data
http://exampleapp.com/task/{{taskId}}
To edit data via posting
http://exampleapp.com/task/{{taskId}}/?state={{app.state}}
Both url have the same http://exampleapp.com/task/{{taskId}} just a little bit different with last phrase ?state={{app.state}}
I use Express routing as followed:
app.get('/task/:taskId/(?state=:status(pending|cancel|confirmed|deleted))?', routes.task.show);
But I dont know why it does not work ?
For example error: Cannot GET /task/51d2c53f329b8e0000000001 when going to h**p://exampleapp.com/task/51d2c53f329b8e0000000001
Query strings cannot be defined in routes. You access query string parameters from req.query.
app.get('/task/:taskId', function(req, res) {
if (req.query.state == 'pending') { ... }
});
However, if you're modifying a task, this is not the appropriate way to do it. GET requests SHOULD be idempotent: the request SHOULD NOT modify state. That's what POST requests are for.
app.get('/task/:taskId', function(req, res) {
// show task info based on `req.params.taskId`
});
app.post('/task/:taskId', function(req, res) {
// set task `req.params.taskId` to state `req.body.state`
});
You could either have a <form> that posts to the task, or make an ajax request:
$.post('/task/1', { state: 'pending' }, function() { ... });
According to the Express API, you cannot mix RegExp routes with string routes.
You should do something like this (I'm assuming taskId is an integer):
app.get(/^\/task/([0-9]+)/(?state=:status(pending|cancel|confirmed|deleted))?, routes.task.show);
However, I don't see why you cannot only check if req.query.state is defined in your route. It's probably less error prone and easier:
app.get("/task/:taskId", function( req, res, next ) {
if (req.query.state) {
// Do things
}
next();
});
Your problem is that query strings are not considered in routing. You will either have to redesign your urls (ie, include the state into the url itself, instead of the query string) or check the query string in your route handler function.

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