I wonder how to access req object if there's no 'req' parameter in callback.
This is the scenarioļ¼
In ExpressJs, I have a common function, it uses to handle something with 'req' object, but not pass req into it.
module.exports = {
get: function(){
var req = global.currentRequest;
//do something...
}
}
My current solution is that I write a middleware for all request, I put the 'req' in global variable, then I can access the 'req' everywhere with 'global.currentRequest'.
// in app.js
app.use(function (req, res, next) {
global.currentRequest= req;
next();
});
But I don't know if it's good? Can anyone have suggestions?
Thanks a lot!
The only proper way is to pass the req object through as an argument to all functions that need it.
Stashing it in a global simply will not work because multiple requests can be in process at the same time if any requests use async calls as part of their processing and those multiple requests will stomp on each other making a hard to track down bug. There are no shortcuts here. Pass the current request as an argument to any code that needs it.
You cannot put request-specific data into a global in node.js, ever. Doing so will create an opportunity for two requests that are in-flight at the same time to stomp on each other and for data to get confused between requests. Remember, this is a server that is potentially handling requests for many clients. You cannot use synchronous, one-at-a-time thinking for a server. A node.js server may potentially have many requests all in flight at the same time and thus plain globals cannot be used for request-specific data.
There is no shortcut here. You will just have to pass the req object through to the function that needs it. If that means you have to change the function signature of several intervening functions, then so-be-it. That's what you have to do. That is the only correct way to solve this type of problem.
There are some circumstances where you may be able to use a closure to "capture" the desired req object and then use it in inner functions without passing it to those inner functions, but it does not sound like that is your function structure. We'd have to see a lot more of your real/actual code to be able to know whether that's a possibility or not.
Actually, this is possible with something like global-request-context
This is using zone.js which let you persist variables across async tasks.
Related
I'm reading the GitHub https://github.com/goldbergyoni/nodebestpractices and trying to apply the tips on my project. Currently i'm working on the "1.2 Layer your components, keep Express within its boundaries" tip, but I have a question.
I'm using routes/controllers, and using this tip (1.2), a route with multiple middlewares will look like this.
router.post("/do-multiple-stuff",
(req, res, next) => {
stuffController.getStuffDone(req.body.stuff);
next();
},
(req, res, next) => {
stuffController.getOtherStuffDone(req.body.otherStuff);
return res.send("stuff done");
});
Is this correct? Or there's a better way to do this?
Thanks! <3
The point of that 1.2 section is to create your business logic as a separate, testable component that is passed data only, not passed req and res. This allows it to be independently and separately tested without the Express environment around it.
Your calls to:
stuffController.getStuffDone(req.body.stuff);
and
stuffController.getOtherStuffDone(req.body.otherStuff);
Are indeed making that proper separation between the web and the business logic because you aren't passing req or res to your controller. That looks like it meets the point of the 1.2 training step.
The one thing I see missing here is that there isn't any output from either of these function calls. They don't return anything and since you don't pass req or res to them, they can't be modifying the req object (like some middleware does) and can't be sending a response or error by themselves. So, it appears that these need a mechanism for communicating some type of result back, either a direct return value (if the functions are synchronous) or returning a promise (if the functions are asynchronous). Then, the calling code could get their result and do something with that result.
I am new to Node.js, and I have been reading questions and answers related with this issue, but still not very sure if I fully understand the concept in my case.
Suggested Code
router.post('/test123', function(req, res) {
someAsyncFunction1(parameter1, function(result1) {
someAsyncFunction2(parameter2, function(result2) {
someAsyncFunction3(parameter3, function(result3) {
var theVariable1 = req.body.something1;
var theVariable2 = req.body.something2;
)}
)}
});
Question
I assume there will be multiple (can be 10+, 100+, or whatever) requests to one certain place (for example, ajax request to /test123, as shown above) at the same time with some variables (something1 and something2). According to this, it would be impossible that one user's theVariable1 and theVariable2 are mixed up with (i.e, overwritten by) the other user's req.body.something1 and req.body.something2. I am wondering if this is true when there are multiple callbacks (three like the above, or ten, just in case).
And, I also consider using res.locals to save some data from callbacks (instead of using theVariable1 and theVariable2, but is it good idea to do so given that the data will not be overwritten due to multiple simultaneous requests from clients?
Each request an Node.js/Express server gets generated a new req object.
So in the line router.post('/test123', function(req, res), the req object that's being passed in as an argument is unique to that HTTP connection.
You don't have to worry about multiple functions or callbacks. In a traditional application, if I have two objects cat and dog that I can pass to the listen function, I would get back meow and bark. Even though there's only one listen function. That's sort of how you can view an Express app. Even though you have all these get and post functions, every user's request is passed to them as a unique entity.
This is an extension of this question.
In my models, every one requires a companyId to be set on creation and every one requires models to be filtered by the same session held companyid.
With sails.js, I have read and understand that session is not available in the model unless I inject it using the controller, however this would require me to code all my controller/actions with something very, very repetitive. Unfortunate.
I like sails.js and want to make the switch, but can anyone describe to me a better way? I'm hoping I have just missed something.
So, if I understand you correctly, you want to avoid lots of code like this in your controllers:
SomeModel.create({companyId: req.session.companyId, ...})
SomeModel.find({companyId: req.session.companyId, ...})
Fair enough. Maybe you're concerned that companyId will be renamed in the future, or need to be further processed. The simplest solution if you're using custom controller actions would be to make class methods for your models that accept the request as an argument:
SomeModel.doCreate(req, ...);
SomeModel.doFind(req, ...);
On the other hand, if you're on v0.10.x and you can use blueprints for some CRUD actions, you will benefit from the ability to override the blueprints with your own code, so that all of your creates and finds automatically use the companyId from the session.
If you're coming from a non-Node background, this might all induce some head-scratching. "Why can't you just make the session available everywhere?" you might ask. "LIKE THEY DO IN PHP!"
The reason is that PHP is stateless--every request that comes in gets essentially a fresh copy of the app, with nothing in memory being shared between requests. This means that any global variables will be valid for the life of a single request only. That wonderful $_SESSION hash is yours and yours alone, and once the request is processed, it disappears.
Contrast this with Node apps, which essentially run in a single process. Any global variables you set would be shared between every request that comes in, and since requests are handled asynchronously, there's no guarantee that one request will finish before another starts. So a scenario like this could easily occur:
Request A comes in.
Sails acquires the session for Request A and stores it in the global $_SESSION object.
Request A calls SomeModel.find(), which calls out to a database asynchronously
While the database does its magic, Request A surrenders its control of the Node thread
Request B comes in.
Sails acquires the session for Request B and stores it in the global $_SESSION object.
Request B surrenders its control of the thread to do some other asynchronous call.
Request A comes back with the result of its database call, and reads something from the $_SESSION object.
You can see the issue here--Request A now has the wrong session data. This is the reason why the session object lives inside the request object, and why it needs to be passed around to any code that wants to use it. Trying too hard to circumvent this will inevitably lead to trouble.
Best option I can think of is to take advantage of JS, and make some globally accessible functions.
But its gonna have a code smell :(
I prefer to make a policy that add the companyId inside the body.param like this:
// Needs to be Logged
module.exports = function(req, res, next) {
sails.log.verbose('[Policy.insertCompanyId() called] ' + __filename);
if (req.session) {
req.body.user = req.session.companyId;
//or something like AuthService.getCompanyId(req.session);
return next();
}
var err = 'Missing companyId';
//log ...
return res.redirect(307, '/');
};
I'm new to javascript, and jumped right into node.js. I've read a lot of theory, and began well with the practical side (I'm writing an API for a mobile app), but I have one basic problem, which has lead me to middleware. I've successfully implemented a middleware function, but I would like to know if the use I'm giving the idea of middleware is OK, and also resolve the original problem which brought me to middleware. My question is two-fold, it's as follows:
1) From what I could gather, the idea of using middleware is repeating a process before actually processing the request. I've used it for token verification, as follows:
Only one of my urls doesn't receive a token parameter, so
app.js
app.get('/settings', auth.validateToken, auth.settings);
auth.js
function validateToken(req, res, next){ //code };
In validateToken, my code checks the token, then calls next() if everything is OK, or modifies res as json to return a specific error code.
My questions regarding this are: a) Is this a correct use of middleware? b) is there a [correct] way of passing a value onto the next function? Instead of calling next only if everything is OK, is there a [correct] way of calling next either way, and knowing from inside the next function (whichever it is), if the middleware was succesful or not? If there is, would this be a proper use of middleware? This precise point brings me to my original problem, and part two of this question, which is encapsulating functions:
THIS PART WAS FIXED, SEE MY SECOND COMMENT.
2) I discovered middleware trying to simply encapsulate validateToken, and be able to call it from inside the functions that the get handlers point to, for example auth.settings.
I'm used to common, sequential programming, and not in javascript, and haven't for the life of me been able to understand how to do this, taking into account the event-based nature of node.js.
What I want to do right now is write a function which simply verifies the user and password. I have it perfectly written inside a particular handler, but was about to copy-paste it to another one, so I stopped. I want to do things the right way from scratch, and understand node.js. One of the specific problems I've been having, is that the error code I have to return when user and password don't match are different depending on the parent function, so I would need this function to be able to tell the callback function "hey, the password and user don't match", so from the parent function I can respond with the correct message.
I think what I actually want is to write an asynchronous function I can call from inside another one.
I hope I've been clear, I've been trying to solve this on my own, but I can't quite finish wrapping my head around what my actual problem is, I'm guessing it's due to my recent introduction to node.js and JS.
Thanks in advance! Jennifer.
1) There is res.locals object (http://expressjs.com/api.html#res.locals) designed to store data local to the request and to pass them from one middleware to another. After request is processed this object is disposed of. If you want to store data within the session you can use req.session.
2) If I understand your question, you want a function asynchronously passing the response to the caller. You can do it in the same way most node's functions are designed.
You define a function in this way:
function doSomething(parameters, callback) {
// ... do something
// if (errorConddition()) err = errorCode();
if (callback) callback(err, result)
}
And the caller instead of using the return value of the function passes callback to this function:
function caller(req, res, next) {
//...
doSomething(params, function(err, result) {
if (! err && result) {
// do something with the result
next();
} else {
// do something else
next();
// or even res.redirect('/error');
}
});
}
If you find yourself writing similar callback functions you should define them as function and just pass the function as parameter:
//...
doSomething(param, processIt);
function processIt(err, result) {
// ...
}
What keeps you confused, probably, is that you don't treat functions as values yet, which is a very specific to JavaScript (not counting for languages that are little used).
In validateToken, my code checks the token, then calls next() if everything is OK, or modifies res as json to return a specific error code.
a) Is this a correct use of middleware?
b) is there a [correct] way of passing a value onto the next function?
Yes that is the correct way of using middleware, although depending on the response message type and specifications you could use the built in error handling of connect. That is in this example generate a 401 status code by calling next({status:401,stack:'Unauthorized'});
The middleware system is designed to handle the request by going through a series of functions until one function replies to the request. This is why the next function only takes one argument which is error
-> if an error object is passed to the next function then it will be used to create a response and no further middleware will be processed. The manner in which error response is created is as follows
// default to 500
if (res.statusCode < 400) res.statusCode = 500;
debug('default %s', res.statusCode);
// respect err.status
if (err.status) res.statusCode = err.status;
// production gets a basic error message
var msg = 'production' == env
? http.STATUS_CODES[res.statusCode]
: err.stack || err.toString();
-> to pass values down the middleware stack modifying the request object is the best method. This ensures that all processing is bound to that specific request and since the request object goes through every middleware function it is a good way to pass information down the stack.
In express you call var app = module.exports = express.createServer(); which creates a new HTTPServer object. I'd like to get access to the current req object from this app(HTTPServer) object. Is there a way to do this?
The req object is only created when the underlying HTTPServer actually gets a request, and only lasts for as long as the request is processed. So it's not really meaningful to talk about it outside the context of a callback.
During a callback, you can simply copy the appropriate data from the session object somewhere else and use that copy in your websockets code. But you can't count on the request object, or even the session object, remaining after you've finished processing the request.
Showing a small code example would be helpful; it sounds like you've got an "XY problem" (you want to accomplish a goal X and you've decided that technique Y is the right way to do it, when in fact technique Z might work better).