I am writing an app in node.js, I have the following code.
API for retrieving topic from DB
allTopics = function (req, res) {
db.Topic.all({limit: 10}).success(function (topics) {
res.send(topics)
});
};
Route for topics index
app.get('/topics', function (req, res){
res.render('topics/index.ejs',{ topics : allTopics })
});
Is the above code correct for route?
Also I have index.ejs file where I want to list all the topics (i.e. retrieve data from json response). How do I achieve this?
Your code as-is won't work but you could rewrite it as follows:
// notice how I am passing a callback rather than req/res
allTopics = function (callback) {
db.Topic.all({limit: 10}).success(function (topics) {
callback(topics);
});
};
// call allTopics and render inside the callback when allTopics()
// has finished. I renamed "allTopics" to "theData" in the callback
// just to make it clear one is the data one is the function.
app.get('/topics', function (req, res){
allTopics(function(theData) {
res.render('topics/index.ejs',{ topics : theData });
});
});
Related
I currently have a POST route defined in an Express Node.js application as so:
var locationService = require("../app/modules/locationservice.js");
app.post('/createstop', isLoggedIn, function(req, res) {
locationService.createStop(res, req.body);
});
(for this question, please assume the routing in & db works.. my record is created on form submission, it's the response I am struggling with)
In the locationservice.js class I then currently have
var models = require('../models');
exports.createStop = function(res, formData) {
models.location.build({ name: formData.name })
.save()
.then(function(locationObj) {
res.json({ dbResult : locationObj });
});
};
So as you can see, my route invokes the exported function CreateStop which uses the Sequelize persistent layer to insert a record asynchronously, after which I can stick the result on the response in the promised then()
So at the moment this only works by passing the response object into the locationservice.js method and then setting res.json in the then() there. This is sub-optimal to me with regards to my service classes, and doesn't feel right either.
What I would like to be able to do is "treat" my createStop method as a promise/with a callback so I can just return the new location object (or an error) and deal with it in the calling method - as future uses of this method might have a response context/parameter to pass in/be populated.
Therefore in the route I would do something more like:
var locationService = require("../app/modules/locationservice.js");
app.post('/createstop', isLoggedIn, function(req, res) {
locationService.createStop(req.body)
.then(dataBack) {
res.json(dataBack);
};
});
Which means, I could call createStop from else where in the future and react to the response in that promise handler. But this is currently beyond me. I have done my due diligence research, but some individual expert input on my specific case would be most appreciated.
Your locationservice.js could look like that
exports.createShop = function(data){
// here I have used create instead of build -> save
return models.location.create(data).then(function(location){
// here you return instance of saved location
return location;
});
}
And then your post() method should be like below
app.post('/createstop', isLoggedIn, function(req, res){
locationService.createShop(req.body).then(function(location){
// here you access the location created and saved in createShop function
res.json(location);
}).catch(function(error){
// handle the error
});
});
Wrap your createStop function with a promise like so:
exports.createStop = function(res, formData) {
return new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
models.location.build({ name: formData.name })
.save()
.then(function(locationObj) {
resolve({ dbResult : locationObj });
});
//in case of error, call reject();
});
};
This will allow you to use the .then after the createStop within your router.
I have built , using express() , a variety of methods. for simplicity let's I assume I built 2 POST() functions and I want to be able to use them by themselves and also to concatenate them via middleware for combine usage.
app.post('/create_obj_1' , function (req,res) {
//create Object_type_1
// send Object_type_1 via EXTERNAL API to somewhere
res.json({{ "statusCode": 200, "message": "OK" }
}
app.post('/create_obj_2' , function (req,res) {
//create Object_type_2
// send Object_type_2 via EXTERNAL API to somewhere
res.json({{ "statusCode": 200, "message": "OK" }
}
I want to have a new POST() that can invoke both of the other 2 (but still support stand alone invoking of the original 2
I think it's possible via middleware but I am not sure how - this is how I thought the new POST() should look like -
app.post('/create_obj_all' , function (req,res) {
//I want to invoke the create_obj_1 & create_obj_2 , check all OK, and finish
res.json({{ "statusCode": 200, "message": "OK" }
}
I am not sure how to approach the middleware usage in such case.
On top - how can I connect them to use one each other res? let's say the EXTERNAL API returns some value from obj_1 creation which I want to use in obj_2 post() function..
a Pseudo code of my attempt to use request() inside the middlware_1 -
var middle_1 = function (req, res, next) {
req.middle_1_output = {
statusCode : 404,
message : "fail_1"
}
var options = {
method: 'PUT', url: `EXTERNAL_API`, headers:
{
'cache-control': 'no-cache',
'content-type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
apikey: `KEY`
}
};
request(options, function (error, response, body) {
if (error) throw new Error(error);
// CODE THAT DO SOMETHING AND GET INFORMATION
// OLD WAY OF res.send here , to allow using in post.POST() was - res.status(200).send(body);
//res.status(200).send(body);
req.middle_1_output.statusCode = 200;
req.middle_1_output.message = "hello world";
});
next(); // trigger next middleware
}
Given the current example, I don't think you can do it unless you tweak the middlewares for the first two routes a bit:
var middleware1 = function(req, res, next) {
//create Object_type_1
// send Object_type_1 via EXTERNAL API to somewhere
next(); // calling next() triggers the next middleware
};
var middleware2 = function(req, res, next) {
//create Object_type_2
// send Object_type_2 via EXTERNAL API to somewhere
next(); // calling next() triggers the next middleware
};
/**
* This middleware is only used to send success response
*/
var response_success = function(req, res) {
res.json({ "statusCode": 200, "message": "OK" });
}
app.post('/create_obj_1', middleware1, response_success);
app.post('/create_obj_2', middleware2, response_success);
app.post('/create_obj_all', middleware1, middleware2, response_success);
Note that this is a very simplistic solution that I made from your example. The actual implementation will depend on what input each middleware is expecting and what output they generate. Also unlike here, there may also be different middlewares for sending the response.
2nd Part Addressing the second part of your question, if I have got you correctly you want to pass the output from middleware1 to middleware2. You can simply attach the output to the req object before calling next();. Like so:
var middleware1 = function(req, res, next) {
// do something
some_external_api_call(function(error, data) {
if (error) {
// handle the error yourself or call next(error);
} else {
req.middleware1_output = data; // set the output of the external api call into a property of req
next();
}
});
};
var middleware2 = function(req, res, next) {
// check to see if the middleware1_output has been set
// (meaning that the middleware has been called from /create_obj_all )
if (req.middleware1_output) {
// do something with the data
} else {
// handle scenario when /create_obj_2 is called by itself
}
next(); // calling next() triggers the next middleware
};
Notice how you have to account for both scenarios where middleware2 is called from POST /create_obj_all or directly from POST /create_obj_2.
3rd Part You should call next from within the callback. See my above example. This is due to the asynchronous/non-blocking nature of javascript.
function middleware(req, res, next) {
// do something
call_1st_external_api(some_options, function(error, data) {
// executed after call_1st_external_api completes
req.output_of_1st_external_api = data; // store the data of this api call for access from next middleware
next(); // calls the next middleware
// nothing here will be executed as next has already been called
});
// anything here will be executed before call_1st_external_api is completed
next(); // this will call the next middleware before call_1st_external_api completes
}
To handle two external APIs in the same middlewares you have to nest them (or use async or promises):
function middleware(req, res, next) {
// do something
call_1st_external_api(some_options, function(error1, data1) {
// executed after call_1st_external_api completes
req.output_of_1st_external_api = data1; // store the data of this api call for access from next middleware
// executed after call_2nd_external_api completes
call_2nd_external_api(some_options, function(error2, data2) {
req.output_of_2nd_external_api = data2; // store the data of this api call for access from next middleware
next();
});
// anything here will be executed before call_2nd_external_api is completed
});
// anything here will be executed before call_1st_external_api is completed
}
You have to handle all the errors above like I've shown in the 2nd Part which I have not shown in the above example for the sake of simplicity.
I am currently working on an admin panel for this website I am creating, so I am able to accept payments via Braintree but I need to implement the ability to retrieve a customers transactions but once a header is sent it sends just one of them and not the whole thing. Is it possible to combine the json to an array so it will send in the one header?
CODE:
router.get('/:cid/test', function(req, res) {
var stream = gateway.transaction.search(function (search) {
search.customerId().is(req.params.cid);
}, function (err, response) {
response.each(function (err, transaction) {
return res.render('admin/test', {transaction: transaction});
});
});
});
This is solely following the Braintree documentation and I know exactly why the error occurs. Any help is really appreciated and I am terrible at explaining so if you need to know more information please give me a holler!
UPDATE: So, I figured I would explore another method and I noticed the 'response' gives back an array of ids. So I will just use EJS to loop through all those and then have a seperate page for each transaction.
Disclaimer: I work for Braintree :)
As Robert noted, you can only call res.render (or any of the response methods that end the request) once per request (hence the error from express).
Unfortunately, you cannot treat response as an array, so you will need to use
one of the two documented ways of interacting with search responses. I personally prefer the streams approach because it is clearer:
app.get('/stream', function (req, res) {
var transactions = []
var transactionStream = gateway.transaction.search(function (search) {
search.customerId().is(req.params.cid);
})
transactionStream.on('data', function (transaction) {
transactions.push(transaction)
})
transactionStream.on('error', function () { /* handle errors */ })
transactionStream.on('end', function () {
res.json({transactions: transactions});
})
})
Alternately, you can use the ids property of response to compare the transactions array that you build from each to know when to end the request:
app.get('/calback', function (req, res) {
var transactionStream = gateway.transaction.search(function (search) {
search.customerId().is(req.params.cid);
}, function (err, response) {
var transactions = []
response.each(function (err, transaction) {
transactions.push(transaction)
if (transactions.length === response.ids.length) {
res.json({transactions: transactions});
}
})
})
})
You can only render one response per route. So you can only call this once and not in a loop:
res.render('admin/test', {transaction: transaction}); });
You can use the each method to iterate through the response and build up a result:
var transactions =[];
response.each(function (err, transaction) { transactions.push(transaction) });
return res.render('admin/test', {transaction: transactions});
That would work if the each method is synchronous. If it's not (and Nick would know), use the solution below.
Background
Yes, there are a lot of different Node.js logging library winston, bunyan and console.log. It's easy to log down the information of the specific request when it has called and when and what information would be in response.
The problem
The problem begins with the sub function calls. When under one request your calling multiple functions which also uses the same logging, how would you pass the request meta - data to these log calls (function parameters seems to be one possible way but these are really messy) ?
Example
Small visual for coders:
// Middleware to set some request based information
app.use(function (req, res, next) {
req.rid = 'Random generated request id for tracking sub queries';
});
app.get('/', function (req, rest) {
async.series({
'users': async.apply(db.users.find),
'posts': async.apply(db.posts.find),
}, function (err, dbRes) {
console.log('API call made ', req.rid)
res.end(dbRes);
});
});
// Now the database functions are in other file but we also need to track down the request id in there
(db.js)
module.exports = {
users: {
find: function () {
console.log('Calling users listing ', req.rid); // ERROR this is not possible to access, not in this scope
// Make query and return result
}
},
posts: {
find: function () {
console.log('Calling post listing ', req.rid); // ERROR this is not possible to access, not in this scope
// Make query and return result
}
}
};
You can log your requests with simple conf in your app.js with;
app.use(function(req, res, next){
console.log('%s %s', req.method, req.url);
next();
});
However, you need to provide logs for specific functions in your controller.
Most of my handlers look as follows:
function(req, res) {
var data = ...;
res.render('my_view', data);
}
I know that If I want to return JSON I need to change res.render to res.json, as follows:
function(req, res) {
var data = ...;
res.json(data);
}
when debugging I often want to see the raw data (in JSON format that was computed by the handler). To do that, I (manually) go to the handler callback and change res.render('...', to res.json(.
I am wondering whether there is a way to tell express that if the URL meets a certain condition token (say, ends with .json, or, alternatively, has a ?format=json query param) then res.view will seamlessly delegate to res.json ?
If it is just for debugging purpose then you could make a middleware that would override render method to json.
I will not recommend to use this in production.
In your app.configure add this:
app.use(function(req, res, next) {
if (req.query.json !== undefined) {
res.render = function(name, data) {
res.json(data);
}
}
return next();
});
So what it does: if request has json in query, then it will override render method and will call json instead.
So test it with: http://example.com/test?json