This is a question on how router is handled underneath.
If I have router:
var router = express.Router();
router.get('/', function(req, res) {
res.end('router');
});
app.use('/', router);
If I've fetch anywhere other than http://localhost/, say http://localhost/whatever I'll get a Cannot GET whatever. Who is giving out this message? I think it's the router, is it correct?
Now if I add a middleware after the router.
app.use('/', function(req, res) {
console.log('-------> here');
});
Now if I go to http://localhost/whatever，then the browser never gets any response back and is just hanging there waiting for stuff.
So, it means the middleware architecture knows that if another middleware is added, then router does not have the final say. And it is expecting another route with possibly another router instance to be added. But if not, then router has the final say.
Isn't that kind of inconsistent? Somehow the router, which is itself a middleware, and the app object kind of know what each other is doing? Because router behave a little differently (call next() or give out "Cannot get" message) depending on whether another middleware is added.
I kind of dig into the code I can't really tell, but it looks like the entire middleware architecture is handled by the router object. Can someone explain a bit what's going on? Thanks.
You are missing one key step in your middleware. Middleware is a chain of asynchronous functions. Each one is called, in turn, with a reference to the next one. The expectation is that you pass control to the next middleware in the stack when you are done, which you are not doing.
app.use('/', function(req, res) {
console.log('-------> here');
});
Try this:
app.use('/', function(req, res, next) {
console.log('-------> here');
next();
});
What will happen then is control will get passed to the router just as it did without your middleware. The router cannot find any routes to handle /whatever, so you still get a 404 not found error.
I'm not sure that this is router who's giving "Cannot get" message.
Each middleware and the app itself try to handle the request in the order that they are being called.
If there is no router's or app's get (or post, etc.) able to handle the request, "Cannot get" message appears.
In the first scenario (before adding a middleware after the router), router can't handle the request, so Express looks forward
to find another app.use or app.METHOD, and not finding, it shows "Cannot get" message.
In the second scenario, another app.use after the router does exist, so it handles the request.
Thus, as for me everything is consistent.
Hope my answer helps you, but if your vision doesn't match mine, I'm ready for discussion :P
P.S. Sorry for my English
Related
I've created a NodeJS Express app. But my express route is invocking multiple routes function, one after another, but I only need one at a time.
My express app.js
app.use(routes)
Express router:
const router = express.Router();
router.post("/product", controller.productFunction)
router.post("/user", controller.userFunction)
router.get("/:id", idController.getId)
Whenever I create a post request for "/product" route, first the productFunction is invocked, but then the "/:id" routes getId function is also get invocked. Same thing happen for /user route as well. Always /:id route is getting invocked.
Is there any way to prevent this?
I even tried this way, but after the homepage loading then again it invockes getId function.
app.get("/", (req, res, next) => {
res.sendFile(..........);
});
app.use(routes);
I am sure that this is not an issue with the router itself.
You can't skip from POST to GET handling. So invocations are caused by different requests.
router.get("/:id", idController.getId) kind of wild card, and <server_url>/favicon.ico will trigger it
If you check it via browser it tries to get favicon or smth else and invokes this handler.
Try to make POST request via curl/Postman and idController.getId should not be called.
It is risky to serve static and process requests on a same level.
You can add some prefix to all your request, like that app.use('/api', routes); then static file will be available on /<file_name> and all server logic will be under /api/<request>
I am overall clueless about how and why you set up a node.js app, and how any of the app.use functions work - the tutorials on it don't explain the why of anything.
Anyway, I have socket.io, res.locals and index.js set up like so in the app.js root file.
const sockets = require('./models/socket')(io)
app.use(function (req, res, next) {
res.locals.user_id = req.session.user_id;
next();
});
const routes = require('./routes/index');
app.use('/', routes);
I'd like to be able to access res.locals in the socket.js model, like I can in index.js found in the routes folder.
I can't guess how to go about doing this. If anybody is able to explain how and why I can or can't that would be a bonus. Thanks!
Welcome to Expressjs, there are a few fundamentals you should probably research before going any further, they'll help solve some of your confusion. I'll give a brief explanation of them but I suggest you do further research. I'll then answer your actual question at the end.
Middleware and app.use
Expressjs is built upon an idea that everything is just "middleware". Middleware is a function which runs as part of a request chain. A request chain is essentially a single client request, which then goes through a chain of a number of middleware functions until it either reaches the end of the chain, exits early by returning a response to the client, or errors.
Express middleware is a function which takes the following three arguments.
req (request) - Representing the request made by a client to your
server.
res (response) - Representing the response you will return to
the client.
next - A way of telling express that your current
middleware function is done, and it should now call the next piece of
middleware. This can either be called "empty" as next(); or with an
error next(new Error());. If it is called empty, it will trigger
the next piece of middleware, if it is called with an error then it
will call the first piece of error middleware. If next is not called at the
end of a piece of middleware, then the request is deemed finished and the
response object is sent to the user.
app.use is a way of setting middleware, this means it will run for every request (unless next() is either not called by the previous piece of middleware for some reason, or it's called with an error). This middleware will run for any HTTP request type (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc).
app.use can take multiple arguments, the important ones for beginners to learn are: app.use(func) and app.use(path, func). The former sets "global" middleware which runs no matter what endpoint (url path) the client requests, the latter (with a specific path) is run only if that specific path is hit. I.e. app.use('/hello', (req, res, next) => { res.send('world'); }); will return "world" when the endpoint "/hello" is hit, but not if the client requests "/hi". Where as app.use((req, res, next) => { res.send('world'); }); would return "world" when you hit any endpoint.
There are more complex things you can do with this, but that's the basics of attaching middleware to your application. The order they are attached to the application, is the order in which they will run.
One more thing, this will blow your mind, an express application made with the standard const app = express() can also be used as middleware. This means you can create several express applications, and then mount them using app.use to a single express application. This is pretty advanced, but does allow you to do some really great things with Express.
Why can you not access res.locals in socket.io? (The real question)
Within your middleware handler, you are setting up a res.locals.use_id property. This only lives with that individual request, you can pass it around as long as the request is alive by passing it into other functions, but outside of that request it doesn't exist. res is literally the response object that tells Express how to respond to the clients request, you can set properties of it during the request but once that HTTP request has ended it's gone.
Socket.io is a way of handling web socket requests, not standard HTTP requests. Thus, in a standard express HTTP request you will not be able to hand off the connection to anything with socket.io, because the connection is a single short lived HTTP request. Likewise, you won't be able to do the same the other way.
If you wish to find the users id in a socket.io request, you'll have to do this within the socket.io request itself.
Right now, you're entering a piece of middleware for an Express.js request, you are then calling next() which runs the next piece of express middleware, at no point does it cross over into Socket.io realms. This is often confused by tutorials because Socket.io can handle requests across the same port as Express is listening on, but the two are not crossed over. So you will need to write separate middleware for both Express.js requests chains, and socket.io request chains. There are ways of writing this code once and then writing an adapter to use it across both platforms, but that's not what you've tried to do here.
I would suggest you look at doing just nodejs and express for a time before taking on socket.io as well, otherwise you're trying to learn a whole heap of technologies all at once is quite a lot to try and take on board all at once.
I'm doing an API in nodejs with express as router.
Now i'm trying to implement an client-id and an apikey to add some security to the API, and the problem that i'm facing is the next:
One of my API call is like this:
router.get("roles/get-objects/:mail/:filter*?")
So this means, that i can request an object like this:
/roles/get-objects/mail#mail.com/customer
Now the tricky part begins... when I needed to stablish a middleware to read an client-id and an apikey to verify that the client is authorized to se the API, so I did this:
In the declaration of the middleware, I use this wildcard:
router.all('/*', function (req, res, next) {
XXXX})
The thing is, I have tried in the middleware, as a wildcard everything...
I want that any API call is filtered thru that middleware, but apparently I can't find the right wildcard for it...
When I use /roles/* as wildcard, if I do a request to /roles it does work, but when I use the complete URL like: /roles/get-objects/mail#mail.com/customer it doesn't go thru my middleware.
So anybody has any idea? i'm starting to loose my mind
Thank you so much to all of you!
EDIT:
Now i'm using this middleware declaration:
router.use(function (req, res, next) {XXXX})
So when I call:
/roles/get-objects/
It's executed, the problem is when I add the email to the route:
/roles/get-objects/mail#mail.com
The app goes directly to the route that i have for that, but omits my middleware:
router.get("roles/get-objects/:mail",
I don't understand why is this happening, apparently everything should go thru my middleware first, or am I wrong?
If you want to establish a middleware to check all HTTP request whose URL starting with /roles/, the middleware should be placed before any other specific router definition:
router.use('/roles', function(req, res, next) {...});
...
router.get('/roles/get-objects/:mail', ...);
If the middleware is defined after specific route, when HTTP request comes in, the specific route is targeted and processed, the middleware won't be executed any more:
router.get('/roles/get-objects/:mail', ...);
...
router.use('/roles', function(req, res, next) {...}); // This middleware logic won't execute when request is sent to '/roles/get-objects/some-email', as the request has already been handled and response is already sent to browser.
I was just reading the documentation on express and found these two terms, app.use(); and router.use();
I know app.use(); is used in node for Mounting a middleware at a path, and we often use it in most of the node apps. but what is router.use(); are they both same? if not, whats the difference ?
I read about router here. I also found similar questions on SO What is the difference between "express.Router" and routing using "app.get"?
and Difference between app.all('*') and app.use('/'), but they do not really answer my question. Thanks.
router.get is only for defining subpaths. Consider this example:
var router = express.Router();
app.use('/first', router); // Mount the router as middleware at path /first
router.get('/sud', smaller);
router.get('/user', bigger);
If you open /first/sud, then the smaller function will get called.
If you open /first/user, then the bigger function will get called.
In short, app.use('/first', router) mounts the middleware at path /first, then router.get sets the subpath accordingly.
But if we instead use the following:
app.use('/first', fun);
app.get('/sud', bigger);
app.get('/user', smaller);
If you open /first in your browser, fun will get called,
For /sud, bigger will get called
For /user, smaller will get called
But remember for /first/sud, no function will get called.
This link may also help: http://expressjs.com/api.html#router
router.use(); mounts middleware for the routes served by the specific router, app.use(); mounts middleware for all routes of the app (or those matching the routes specified if you use app.use('/ANYROUTESHERE', yourMiddleware());).
Example use case could be an app with one router with standard routes and one router that handles api routes, which need a valid user.
You would then mount the authentication middleware for the api router only with router.use(yourAuthMiddleware());.
If you would have an app though that requires a valid user for all routes, mount the middleware for the app with app.use(yourAuthMiddleware());
app.use() used to Mounts the middleware function or functions at the specified path,the middleware function is executed when the base of the requested path matches path.
router.use() is used to middleware function or functions, The defaults mount path to “/”.
But in
app.use() you will have to give a specified path like that:
var adsRouter = require('./adsRouter.js');
app.use('/ads', adsRouter);
or
app.use('/ads', function(req, res, next) {
// write your callback code here.
});
But while using router.use() you can give only middleware, like this:
router.use(function(req, res, next) {
console.log('%s %s %s', req.method, req.url, req.path);
next();
});
or
router.use('/test', function(req, res, next) {
// write your callback code here.
next();
});
or
//in router.js
router.use('/admin', authUtil.verifySessionId, authUtil.verifyLisencee);
router.post('/admin', controllerIndex.ads.adListingAdmin);
In the above code when the end point is '/admin' then first it will call the authUtil.verifySessionId and authUtil.verifyLisencee then it will execute next line with 'admin' end point and according to controllerIndex.ads.adListingAdmin method.
app.use(middleware): application-level middleware.
router.use(middleware): router-level middleware.
("middleware" refers to methods/functions/operations that are called between processing the request and sending the response.)
See https://expressjs.com/en/guide/using-middleware.html for a comparison of different types of middleware used in an Express app.
When looking at the express js docs for Routing (https://expressjs.com/en/guide/routing.html#express-router):
Use the express.Router class to create modular, mountable route handlers. A Router instance is a complete middleware and routing system; for this reason, it is often referred to as a “mini-app”.
A Router created with express.Router() is no different than an app created with express() in terms of functionality; it's like a logical grouping of routes/handlers/services/databases/etc. The biggest difference is the scope that it affects. A router just affects its own scope while the app is like the master/global scope for your web/app server. You could have many routers or "apps" running on one main app/web server instance. This is why you could listen to requests on an app instance via app.listen(80) but not on a router.
So I've seen TJ's guide to creating modular Express-apps, followed it to good effects, but want to know more about the details of how it works, however a search gives me no answers.
In short I am wondering: When mounting apps in Express, what parts of the apps are shared and what parts are not?
Some examples to clarify my question:
app.js:
app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.use(loginApi); //loginApi is an express app
app.listen(3000);
This example works. But if I place the app.use(loginApi) before app.use(express.bodyParser()); , the body parser will not be available in the loginApi subapp. Why is that?
Another example:
submodule.js
var app = module.exports = require('express')();
app.all('*', function(req, res, next){
console.log('nifty middleware');
next();
});
app.js
app.get('/funtimes', fn);
app.use(submodule);
app.listen(3000);
Now in this example, If I understand it correctly, the /funtimes route will not be affected by the submodule middleware for all routes. But what about the rest of the routes of app.js ? Will they be affected? And what if I add another module, will it be affected?
if I place the app.use(loginApi) before app.use(express.bodyParser()); , the body parser will not be available in the loginApi subapp. Why is that?
That's because of the way Express handles requests. Any incoming request starts at the top of the middleware stack, starting with app.use() stack.
Middleware are simply functions that have the function signature function(req, res, next) which either call next() if they want to hand off the request to subsequent functions, or send a response themselves. You define a 'middleware chain' of a bunch of these functions (many are provided by express, like express.logger() and express.compress().)
So in the following scenario:
app.use(express.bodyParser());
var loginApi = require('./api/index.js')
app.use(loginApi);
app.use(app.router);
then an incoming request will first hit app.use(express.bodyParser()), parsing req.body. Then that function calls its internal next(), passing it to the next function in the middleware chain (app.use(loginApi)). The loginApi app has its own middleware chain, but the requests already have req.body set from the outer app. If the loginApi doesn't send a response, the request will continue to app.use(app.router) and at that point the requests will go to the routing functions you set up in your outer app.
So the answer is: A mounted app will have the middleware functions shared, which are placed before the line app.use(loginApi)
Middleware runs in order (until one of the middlewares doesn't call next()).
If you use() your mounted app before use()ing bodyParser, the entire sub-app will run before bodyParser adds its properties.
What you're asking about is middleware. This confused me for a while. Middleware are the functions that run in order to take a request in and serve back a response. app.use() takes a function as its only argument. That function manipulates the request in a consistent way.
app.use is a lot like app.all("*").
The order matters. For example, you might want to run a validator before serving the response.
One thing I learned recently is that you can pass an array of middleware functions to a route. For example
app.get("/whatever",[
function(req,res,next}{
...validation...
next();
},
function(req,res) {
...actions....
res.send(200);
}
]);
The next callback tells express to run the next function in the middleware. Middleware can also modify the request object. This is used a lot in authentication. For example, you'll see req.user getting defined from the database so in later middleware you'll be able to refer to properties of the user. But, it can also be used for a ton of other stuff.