Axios request within /POST request on Express - node.js

Question

As you can see below, in my server.js file I have a /POST Info request that gets called on a form submittal.
I started to get confused on reading about the different between app.post and express routes and if in anyway using routes would benefit my code here.
Within the /POST Info I have two axios requests to 2 different APIs and I think it would be wise to move the code elsewhere to make it cleaner.
Would knowing how routes work here benefit me anyway?And if you can explain the difference here that would be great.
app.post('/Info', function (req, res) {
var State = req.body.State;
var income = Number(req.body.income);
var zip = req.body.ZIP;
axios.post('https://taxee.io/api/v2/calculate/2017', {
//data sent to Taxee.io
"exemptions": 1
, "filing_status": "single"
, "pay_periods": 1
, "pay_rate": income || 100000
, "state": State || "NY"
}, {
headers: {
'Authorization': "Bearer <API_KEY>"
//headers
}
}).then(function (response) {
var obj = {
income: '$' + income
, fica: response.data.annual.fica.amount
, federal: response.data.annual.federal.amount
, residence: State + ", " + zip
, state: response.data.annual.state.amount
}
axios.get("https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/datasets/ZILL/Z" + zip + "_RMP.json?api_key=<API_KEY>").then(function (response) {
var monthRent = response.data.dataset.data[0][1]
obj.rent = monthRent
obj.yearlyRent = Number(monthRent) * 12;
}).then(function (response) {
res.send(obj);
});
}).catch(function (error) {
alert('error');
});
}

Answer 1

There are two ways to define routes in an Express application:
Use the Express application (app) object directly:
const express = require('express')
const app = express()
app.post(...)
app.get(...)
app.put(...)
// and so on
Or use the router object:
const express = require('express')
const app = express()
const router = express.Router()
router.post(...)
router.get(...)
router.put(...)
// and so on
app.use(router)
My guess is that you've been reading about the latter snippet of code with the router object. Using Express' Router object can indeed make code cleaner to read as there more of a separation of concerns.
There's nothing wrong with calling an external API from your own API. For example, in a project of mine, I call the Google Calendar API on this line. The only difference between mine is yours is that I used the Google APIs Node.js Client while you used standard HTTP requests. I could have certainly used HTTP requests as shown here.
Your code is fine, but can be improved. For example, instead of:
axios.post('...', {
exemptions: 1,
filing_status: 'single',
pay_periods: 1,
pay_rate: income || 100000,
state: State || 'NY'
})
You could call an helper function that prepares the options object:
function prepareOptions (state = 'NY', income = 100000) {
return {
exemptions: 1,
filing_status: 'single',
pay_periods: 1,
pay_rate: income,
state: State
}
}
Then call it like so:
axios.post('...', prepareOptions(State, income))
This makes for more readable code.
Finally, there is no reason to use axios on the server side. Simply use Node's built in HTTP module.

Answer 2

app.post('/Info', function (req, res) {
var uData ={
state: req.body.State,
income : Number(req.body.income),
zip: req.body.ZIP
};
taxee(uData).then(function(data){
return rent(data) ;
}).then(function(fullData){
res.send(fullData);
}).catch(function (error) {
res.render('error');
});
function taxee(data) {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
var income = data.income;
var state = data.state;
var zip = data.zip;
axios.post('https://taxee.io/api/v2/calculate/2017', {
//data sent to Taxee.io
"exemptions": 1
, "filing_status": "single"
, "pay_periods": 1
, "pay_rate": income || 100000
, "state": state || "NY"
, }, header).then(function (response) {
var taxData = {
income: '$' + income
, fica: response.data.annual.fica.amount
, federal: response.data.annual.federal.amount
, stateTax: response.data.annual.state.amount
, state
, zip: zip
}
resolve(taxData);
}).catch(function (error) {
console.log('break');
resolve(error);
});
});
};
function rent(data) {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
axios.get("https://www.quandl.com/api/v3/datasets/ZILL/Z" + data.zip + "_RMP.json?api_key=d7xQahcKCtWUC4CM1LVd").then(function (response) {
console.log(response.status, ' status');
var monthRent = response.data.dataset.data[0][1];
data.rent = monthRent
data.yearlyRent = Number(monthRent) * 12;
return data;
}).then(function (response) {
resolve( data);
}).catch(function (error) {
reject(error);
});
});
}
module.exports = {
taxee
, rent
};
Ended up putting the code above into clean promise methods. Really happy how it worked out!