Where should I put routes in express.js - node.js

Question

I just started to learn node.js with express 4. I have read some books and tutorials, I also cloned some sample apps from git but I still have a very basic question, which practice should I follow to write the routing(or controller)?
Some people define all the routes in app.js, and export all the functions in the controller:
app.js
....
var homeController = require('./controllers/home');
var userController = require('./controllers/user');
....
app.get('/', homeController.index);
app.get('/login', userController.getLogin);
app.get('/logout', userController.logOUT);
app.get('/doStuff', userController.doStuff);
then in controllers/user.js
exports.getLogin = function(req, res) {
//logic...
});
exports.logout = function(req, res) {
//logic...
});
exports.doStuff = function(req, res) {
//logic...
});
Another way is like express-generator way:
app.js
...
app.use('/users', users);
...
controllers/users.js
....
router.get('/login', function(req, res, next) {
//logic...
});
router.get('/logout', function(req, res, next) {
//logic...
});
router.get('/doStuff', function(req, res, next) {
//logic...
});
module.exports = router;
And other are more dynamic like this proposal
is there any technical difference? Which pattern should I follow?

Answer 1

This is completely preferential. Any pattern that works is likely to be valid here. Express routers make things very nice and easy to setup. Personally I prefer to create a directory for every top level route, files for the second level, and exports for the third. Here's an example of how I lay things out for a set of API routes.
Directory:
routes/
index.js <- master route manifest
api/
index.js <- api routes manifest
books.js
authors.js
landing-pages/
index.js
awesome-deal.js
Route manifest:
// routes/index.js
var router = require('express').Router();
router.use('/api', require('./api'));
router.use('/landing', require('./landing-pages'));
module.exports = router;
API routes manifest:
// routes/api/index.js
var router = require('express').Router();
router.use('/books', require('./books.js'));
router.use('/authors', require('./authors.js'));
module.exports = router;
Entity endpoints:
// routes/api/books.js
var router = require('express').Router();
var db = require('mongoose-simpledb').db;
router.get('/get/:id', function (req, res) {
var id = req.param('id');
db.Book.findOneById(id, function (err, book) {
if (err) throw err;
res.json(book);
});
});
router.post('/new', /* etc... */);
return router;
Then in my app file I only setup the the top-level route:
// app.js
/* express setup.... */
app.use('/', require('./routes'));