I'm building a REST API using express.js.
My API needs to provide all endpoints to do CRUD on "users", so I have the following so far:
app.get('/users', getAllUsers); // get all users
app.post('/users', createUser); // create a new user
app.put('/users', updateUser); // update a user
app.delete('/users', deleteUser); // delete a user
But whats a good practice endpoint to get a single user?
So ideally if you GET on /users/1234 I should only return User with ID 1234 but if I just do /users I should return all users as the ID was not detected.
How can I refactor my:
app.get('/users', getAllUsers);
to handle both cases?
You can create a higher-level router, and then call app.use() / router.use() on it. This is the recommended approach in the Express documentation.
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var usersRouter = express.Router();
usersRouter.get('/', function(req, res) {
res.send('Got all users');
});
usersRouter.get('/:id', function(req, res) {
res.send('Got user ' + req.params.id);
});
app.use('/users', usersRouter);
You cant , the best practice is to isolate your route operations as much as possible. There to get a single id,such route must only get that data.
Example.
var router = express.Router();
router.route('some/route/id/123').get(function(req,res){
console.log('id');
});
router.route('some/route/all').get(function(req,res){
console.log('all');
});
you can do so by providing id as an optional param and checking that in the controller function
for eg.
app.get('/users/:id?', getAllUsers);
But I'd prefer to go with single responsibility principle
app.get('/users', getAllUsers);
app.get('/users/:id', getUser);
Related
I'm using node and express to create a rest api. I followed a tutorial where all the routes and its logic are saved in a routes.js file like this:
SERVER JS:
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
(...)
require('./app/routes.js')(app, port, express);
ROUTES.JS
module.exports = function(app, port, express) {
var apiRoutes = express.Router();
(...)
//Sample route
apiRoutes.get('/userfiles', function(req, res) {
UserFile.find({ owner: req.decoded.user.email }, function(err, filesList) {
if (err)
return done(err);
res.json({ success: true, files: filesList });
});
});
My problem is twofold:
1 - Routes can easily contain code thats 150 lines long, some of them far longer. It doesn't feel clean to have route declarations and the logic grouped together. Is it a good practice to do something like this instead?
apiRoutes.post('/randomRoute', function(req, res) {
return res.json(functionThatContainsTheActualCode(req));
});
(and then have an functionThatContainsTheActualCode function with all the logic in a different file).
2 - I have middleware that applies to some functions (for example, some routes are only accessible for logged in users and those routes go through an authentication middleware). Currently way I do it is declaring public routes before the middleware declaration and private routes after, which feels incredibly hacky. How can I separate public and private routes (and the middleware itself) in different files?
Problem 1:
We need to go deeper.
Change the route file to just require the actual router logic.
routes.js
// where app = express();
module.exports = (app) => {
// index.js happens to be a file exporting the router.
app.use('/', require('./index'));
// this is basically the idea. Create a separate file for the actual logic.
app.use('/route', require('.path/to/file'));
};
and in file.js
const express = require('express'),
router = express.Router();
router.verb('/path/', (req, res, next) => {
// do whatever
});
// this is required
module.exports = router;
Problem 2:
Middleware is basically a function taking in request, response, next as 3 params, doing something with the request and either sending out a response or moving on to the next middleware. That's why you need to call next if you want to move to next middleware in the chain.
Now all you need is a file that exports a function which takes request, response, next as params.
// lets call this auth.js
module.exports = function(req, res, next) {
// do logic
if () {
return res.send(); // or res.somethingThatSendsOutAHttpResponse()
}
// next middelware
next();
};
Since express routes are also middlewares, (mind blown), you can mount them top down.
To authenticate a route, just put the auth.js middleware on top of that route.
router.get('/', require('./auth'));
router.get('/', require('./log'));
router.get('/', (req, res, next) => {
// yolo
});
Now since this is web dev, you still got problems.
Now all your boring database queries are scattered everywhere.
Fear not, you can solve it, by, guess, creating another file.
apiRoutes.get('/userfiles', function(req, res) {
const userFile = require('/path/to/model/with/userfile/methods/exported/out');
// do something with userFile's methods
});
So basically I want my code being able to go mywebsite.com/username and itll take them to their profile.
My app.js has -
var user = require('./routes/user');
app.use('/*', user);
and then in my user.js I have
router.get('/:username', function(req, res) {
console.log('the user name', req.params.username);
})
If I change router.get to just router.get('/') my console.log logs out undefined and if I leave it as router.get('/:username') I get a 404.. I also tried doing app.use('/:username', user) as well but that still didn't work.
You should't need to have a wildcard like you do on app.use
Try something like this.
Also see the express router documentation http://expressjs.com/en/guide/routing.html
// Required Moduiles
var express = require('express');
var router = express.Router();
var app = express();
// Add route to get
router.get('/:username', function(req, res) {
res.status(200).send(req.params.username)
})
// Add username
app.use('/', router)
// Start express server
app.listen(3030);
Update -
Just using app.use(router) would do the same thing if all your routes are going to be contained in this new router instance / middleware you are creating in a separate file.
I've just made an Node.js app modular by splitting up data models and routes into separate files.
My routes are exported by express.Router(). In these routes I would like to import queried values from my app.js to be rendered with the templates.
How would I in the easiest way save things lets say with app.locals or req.variableName?
Since the route using express.Router() ties it together with app.js, should I be using app.params() and somehow make these values accessible?
Using globals seems like a worse idea as I'm scaling up the app. I'm not sure if best practice would be saving values to the process environment either using app.locals.valueKey = key.someValue...
Big thanks in advance to anyone
If I understand the question correctly, you want to pass a value to a later middleware:
app.js:
// Let's say it's like this in this example
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
app.use(function (req, res, next) {
var user = User.findOne({ email: 'someValue' }, function (err, user) {
// Returning a document with the keys I'm interested in
req.user = { key1: value1, key2: value2... }; // add the user to the request object
next(); // tell express to execute the next middleware
});
});
// Here I include the route
require('./routes/public.js')(app); // I would recommend passing in the app object
/routes/public.js:
module.export = function(app) {
app.get('/', function(req, res) {
// Serving Home Page (where I want to pass in the values)
router.get('/', function (req, res) {
// Passing in the values for Swig to render
var user = req.user; // this is the object you set in the earlier middleware (in app.js)
res.render('index.html', { pagename: user.key2, ... });
});
});
});
I'm having some trouble creating a RESTful API in Node/Express. In the app I'm building, a user has many messages, and messages belong to users. I need to be able to make an HTTP requests to retrieve all messages by a particular user. Here's the basic structure of the app, starting with the basic server, which delegates routing to a file called 'config/middleware.js'.
//server.js
var express = require('express');
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var app = express();
require('./config/middleware.js')(app, express);
var port = process.env.PORT || 8080;
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/../client'));
app.listen(port);
This is the middleware file where we send requests to the appropriate router. A request made to 'users/5/messages' would get routed to the messages router, and a request made to 'users/5' would get routed to the users router.
// config/middleware.js
module.exports = function(app, express) {
var usersRouter = express.Router();
var messagesRouter = express.Router();
app.use('/users/:userId/messages', messagesRouter);
app.use('/users', usersRouter);
require('../routers/users')(usersRouter);
require('../routers/messages')(messagesRouter);
};
This is the messages router. If a get request is made to '/users/5/messages', I want the getAllMessages function to be run, which should return all messages by the user with userId 5.
// routers/messages.js
var messagesController = require('../controllers/messages');
module.exports = function(app) {
app.get('/:messageId', messagesController.getMessage);
app.get('/', messagesController.getAllMessages);
};
The problem is that the getAllMessages function doesn't have access to the 'userId' parameter (with value of 5), which is required in order to make an appropriate query to the database. The getAllMessages function in the controller expects the userId to be stored on req.params.userId. Is there any way to get the userId of 5 to be present on the req.params object inside the getAllMessages function?
The req.params are not passed down the route chain. To do so, you could do something like
In server.js, create a key on req. This will pass on your data between routes. Do this before mounting the routes.
app.use(function (req, res, next) {
req._data = {};
next();
});
In config/middleware.js,
module.exports = function(app, express) {
var usersRouter = express.Router();
var messagesRouter = express.Router();
// attach usedId
app.use('/users/:userId/messages', function (req, res, next) {
req._data.userId = req.params.userId;
next();
});
// mount the router
app.use('/users/:userId/messages', messagesRouter);
app.use('/users', usersRouter);
require('../routers/users')(usersRouter);
require('../routers/messages')(messagesRouter);
};
This way, you would have access to req._data.userId in routers/messages.js.
Side note: A better way to structure the routes would be to use something like, (read shameless plug), https://github.com/swarajgiri/express-bootstrap/blob/master/web/routes.js
You can use app.locals or res.locals to pass some datas.
There is a good explanation about locals.
An usage sample:
app.locals.userid = req.params.userId; //binding userid
app.locals.userid // => '5'
OR: put a global variable.
user_id_tmp = req.params.userId;
Now this is become global variable in app. So you can call user_id_tmp variable from anywhere.
I was looking for same.
Here is modules app example on github and auther site
Also we can change or update structure base on our requirements
REST API and Node newbie here. I'm trying to make a REST API in nodejs. Each user would be able to get items associated with their userid and the authentication mechanism is obviously separate from the url. I'm working with something like the following services.
/api/users/userid
/api/users/userid/cars/carid
I expect to have other APIs similar to the 2nd one in the future.
The issue is how to 'bind' the userid and carid or houseid parameters in a clean way. My hope was to be able to have an intermediate step which would capture the 'userid' parameter in the users.js file and then it would delegate the request to the other components. I hoped that this would allow me a more concise authentication checking but there may be more preferable ways. The problem right now is that userid is guaranteed to be unique but carid and houseid are only unique per user so I will need both values to retrieve the data.
My Question is how can I achieve this or is there a better way to organize this to facilitate concise reusable code in terms of authenticating that a user has access to that API. Also if this is very unREST-like, please correct me.
And I have the following code:
app.js
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
app.use('/api', require('./routes/api'));
var server = app.listen(3000, function() {
var host = server.address().address;
var port = server.address().port;
console.log('The server is up at ' + host + ':' + port);
});
./routes/api.js
var express = require('express');
var router = express.Router();
/* GET api listing. */
router.get('/', function(req, res, next) {
res.send('Base of our APIs');
});
router.use('/users', require('./users.js'));
router.use('/', function(req, res) {
res.send('Unauthorized api access. Not authorized for ' + req.baseUrl);
})
module.exports = router;
./routes/users.js
var express = require('express');
var router = express.Router();
router.use('/:user_id/cars', function(req, res, next) {
console.log('Userid is:' + req.params.user_id);
// Authenticate a user here before sending to the next page
var cars_api = require('./cars.js');
cars_api(req, res, next);
});
module.exports = router;
./routes/cars.js
var express = require('express');
var router = express.Router();
/* GET cars for user */
router.get('/', function(req, res, next) {
res.send('Retrieving all cars for user ' + req.params.user_id);
});
router.get('/:car_id', function(req, res, next) {
res.send('Retrieving car with car_id ' + req.params.car_id + ' and user id ' + req.params.user_id);
});
module.exports = router;
I've tried several other ways of calling the cars API that all req.params values are cleared in between. I'm using WebStorm to debug.
You would not necessarily need to write the full route like that, something you might want to look into is nested routes, I think that would help.
Rest with Express.js nested router
here you have a great example I started using when I built my first api.
At the suggestion of commenters, I have decided to just write routes directly to the cars api in the form of /users/:user_id/cars/:car_id.