I'm trying to use the res.send() from Express into a Meteor project without using a Meteor package like glittershark:meteor-express: https://github.com/glittershark/meteor-express
I'm wondering if there is a solution just using Meteor rather than adding Express on top of Meteor? In particular, how do I use res.send() in Meteor?
http://expressjs.com/4x/api.html#res.send
This is the NodeJS code snippet from https://github.com/twitterdev/cannonball-web/blob/master/routes/index.js
var express = require('express');
var router = express.Router();
var request = require('request');
request.get(options, function (error, response, body) {
if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) {
// Send the verified phone number and Digits user ID.
var digits = JSON.parse(body)
return res.send({
phoneNumber: digits.phone_number,
userID: digits.id_str,
error: ''
});
}
One great answer posted a year ago suggests using fibers. Meteor has undergone a lot of changes since this post and I'd like to avoid fibers:
Is there an easy way to convert an express app to meteor?
I'm adding this link to another relevant answer posted that might be helpful in anwering my question: Porting Express App to Meteor
Thanks for reading. :)
There are many good, simple ways you can add a rest api that serves json to a meteor app (I recommend restivus), however the requirements you are forcing on yourself are only going to make it difficult for you.
WebApp.connectHandlers and connect is the low level apis that you can use, but you are only asking for further difficulties by wanting to avoid Fibers, as this simply is how things are done in Meteor.
Rather then trying to force square pegs into round holes, I suggest you do one of the two following options:
Use one of the recommended options for adding a rest api to a Meteor app
Have a expressJS app running beside your Meteor app to serve the api, and simiply accessing the same MongoDB.
Related
I have a challenge I'm running into and cannot seem to find an answer for it anywhere on the web. I'm working on a personal project; it's a Node.js application that uses the request and cheerio packages to hit an end-point and scrape some data... However, the endpoint is a Facebook page... and the display of its content is dependent upon whether the user is logged in or not.
In short, the app seeks to scrape the user's saved links, you know, all that stuff you add to your "save for later" but never actually go back to (at least in my case). The end-point, then, is htpps://www.facebook.com/saved. If, in your browser, you are logged into Facebook, clicking that link will take you where the application needs to go. However, since the application isn't technically going through the browser that has your credentials and your session saved, I'm running into a bit of an issue...
Yes, using the request module I'm able to successfully reach "a" part of Facebook, but not the one I need... My question really is: how should I begin to handle this challenge?
This is all the code I have for the app so far:
var express = require('express');
var fs = require('fs');
var request = require('request');
var cheerio = require('cheerio');
var app = express();
app.get('/scrape', (req, res) => {
// Workspace
var url = 'https://www.facebook.com/saved';
request(url, (err, response, html) => {
if (err) console.log(err);
res.send(JSON.stringify(html));
})
})
app.listen('8081', () => {
console.log('App listening on port 8081');
})
Any input will be greatly appreciated... Currently, I'm on hold...! How could I possibly hit this end-point with credentials (safely) provided by the user so that the application could get legitimately get past authentication and reach the desired end-point?
I don't think you can accomplish that using request-cheerio module since you need to make a post request with your login information.
A headless browser is more appropriate for this kind of project if you want it to be a scraper. Try using casperJs or PhantomJs. It will give you more flexibility but it's not a node.js module so you need to make a step further if you want to incorporate it with express.
One nodeJs module I know that can let you post is Osmosis. If you can make .login(user, pw) to work then that'll be great but I don't think it can successfully login to facebook though.
API if possible would be a much nicer solution but I'm assuming you already looked it up and find nothing in there for what you are looking for.
My personal choice would be to use an RobotProcessAutomation. WinAutomation, for example, is a great tool for manipulating web and scraping. It's a whole new different approach but it can do the job well and can be implemented faster compared to programmatically coding it.
How to Handle a Coinbase Callback in NodeJS to Recieve Instant Bit Coin Payment Notifications ?
Please I need example.
Note : I'm using SailsJS MVC Framework.
OK, based on your comment, I will give it a go.
I am assuming you have (or will have) an ExpressJs app.
UPDATE Sorry, I just noticed you're using sailsjs. The below should still be valid but you'll need to adapt it to work with the sails routing engine.
In your app, you need to define the post route:
// the app variable is the express js server
// name the route better than this...
app.post('/coinbase', function(req, res){
var data = req.body;
var orderId = data.order.id;
// etc...
});
I am using node.js express to build simple rest API, I had built a API like
app.get('/sites/:site/:building/:floor',function(req,res){
var building = req.params.building, floor = req.params.floor, site = req.params.site;
console.log('query site ',site,building, floor);
.....
}
when client did the AJAX request in angular.js
$http.get('/sites/london')
.success(function(data) {
}).error(function(data, status, headers, config) {
});
the server doesn't respond to this kind of URL, unless I changed the express API to
app.get('sites/:site',function(){})
app.get('sites/:site/:building',function(){})
app.get('sites/:site/:building/:floor',function(){})
But the way above is too tedious so I wonder if it is possible to build API in one sentence app.get('sites/:site/:building/:floor',function(){})
The following stackoverflow answer should help you out. But to answer your question, the below should work
app.get('sites/:site?/:building?/:floor?',function(){})
I have recently have gotten into AngularJS and I love it. For an upcoming project I am looking to use the MEAN stack (MongoDB, Express, Angular, Node). I'm pretty familiar with Angular and I have a modest understanding of the purposes of MongoDB and Node in the stack. However, I don't really understand what the purpose of Express.js is. Is it essential to the MEAN stack? What would you compare it to in a traditional MySQL, PHP, javascript app? What does it do that the other three components can't do?
Also, if someone wants to give their own take on how the four parts of the stack work together, that'd be great.
MongoDB = database
Express.js = back-end web framework
Angular = front-end framework
Node = back-end platform / web framework
Basically, what Express does is that it enables you to easily create web applications by providing a slightly simpler interface for creating your request endpoints, handling cookies, etc. than vanilla Node. You could drop it out of the equation, but then you'd have to do a lot more work in whipping up your web-application. Node itself could do everything express is doing (express is implemented with node), but express just wraps it up in a nicer package.
I would compare Express to some PHP web framework in the stack you describe, something like slim.
You can think of Express as a utility belt for creating web applications with Node.js. It provides functions for pretty much everything you need to do to build a web server. If you were to write the same functionality with vanilla Node.js, you would have to write significantly more code. Here are a couple examples of what Express does:
REST routes are made simple with things like
app.get('/user/:id', function(req, res){ /* req.params('id') is avail */ });
A middleware system that allows you plug in different synchronous functions that do different things with a request or response, ie. authentication or adding properties
app.use(function(req,res,next){ req.timestamp = new Date(); next(); });
Functions for parsing the body of POST requests
Cross site scripting prevention tools
Automatic HTTP header handling
app.get('/', function(req,res){ res.json({object: 'something'}); });
Generally speaking, Sinatra is to Ruby as Express is to Node.js. I know it's not a PHP example, but I don't know much about PHP frameworks.
Express handles things like cookies, parsing the request body, forming the response and handling routes.
It also is the part of the application that listens to a socket to handle incoming requests.
A simple example from express github
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
app.get('/', function(req, res){
res.send('Hello World');
});
app.listen(3000);
Shows the creation of the express server, creating a route app.get('/'... and opening the port to listen for incoming http requests on.
Express allows you to manage http request easily compared to vanilla js.
you need to the following to make a get request
const Http = new XMLHttpRequest();
const url='https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts';
Http.open("GET", url);
Http.send();
Http.onreadystatechange=(e)=>{
console.log(Http.responseText)
}
In express, you require express and use it and make http requests
const express = require("express")
const app =express();
app.get("url",callback function);
Express in a Node.js based framework which simplifies writing Server-side Code and Logic.
Adds a lot of utility features and offers additional functionality, and in general, makes things easier.
Express is middleware-based : It basically funnels incoming requests through a chain of middlewares (of steps) where we can do something with the request, read some data from it, manipulate it, check if the user is authenticated or basically send back a response immediately.
This middlewares chain allows us to write very structured code
Express is a nodejs Framework build upon the top of Http module with more usable and better functionalities like easy way to handle routes.
eg: Using HTTP
var http = require('http');
//create a server object:
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/html'}); // http header
var url = req.url;
if(url ==='/about'){
res.write('<h1>about us page<h1>'); //write a response
res.end(); //end the response
}else if(url ==='/contact'){
res.write('<h1>contact us page<h1>'); //write a response
res.end(); //end the response
}else{
res.write('<h1>Hello World!<h1>'); //write a response
res.end(); //end the response
}
}).listen(3000, function(){
console.log("server start at port 3000"); //the server object listens on port 3000
});
using Express:
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
app.get('/about',function(req,res)=>{
res.write('<h1>about us page<h1>'); //write a response
res.end();
})
I'm working with expressjs and socket.io in nodejs. I'm looking into assign identical route handlers to requests made in either HTTP or via websockets/socket.io.
For instance:
var responder = function(req, res){
req.params //<-- {id: 'something...'}
}
app.get('/foo/:id', responder);
io.on('/foo/:id', responder);
socket.io doesn't appear to have this type of routing functionality. Does anyone know of a library/module to help with this?
There are several options.
If you'd like to keep using express, check out express.io.
If you don't mind using something a bit different, sails lets you do this sort of thing as well.
(Update: sails now uses express too)
Both have been used in production successfully.
Note that routing is also pretty simple to implement on your own. If you check out how express do it I'm sure you'll be able to figure out a slim implementation that would match you needs.
Good luck! Let me know what you ended up using and how it worked for you.