engine-express v1.0.3

A lightweight Express wrapper that enables multiple APIs to be served from a single server given just the directory path and domain basename.

Installation

Engine-Express is available as an npm package.

// with npm
npm install engine-express

Quick Start

./index.js

const engine = require("engine-express")
const path = require("path")

var api_list = [
	{
		"routes_path":  path.join(__dirname, RELATIVE_PATH_TO_YOUR_API1_ROUTES_FILE),
		"basename":  "/api1"
	},
	{
		"routes_path":  path.join(__dirname, RELATIVE_PATH_TO_YOUR_API2_ROUTES_FILE),
		"basename":  "/api2"
	},
]

engine.start(PORT_NUMBER, api_list);

API1_ROUTES_FILE.js and API2_ROUTES_FILE.js

const router = require("express").Router()

router.route("/route").get((req, res) => res.send("Hello World! This is a route"))
router.get('/*', (req, res) => res.send("Hello World! This is API 2"))

module.exports = router

Documentation: Check out the documentation here.

Example Projects: All examples in this document can be found fully implemented here.

Overview: Engine-Express enables a node server to serve multiple Express APIs from the same port. If you want to configure the underlying server before listening, simply access engine.server to make modifications to the underlying express application. To use the tool and start the server, simply pass the configuration parameters to the start function. Besides the port number and the optional HTTPS credentials, the start function will also take an array of APIs in the format of a basename and path. The basename represents the subdomain of the server where the API should be accessible, and the path represents the location of the routes that make up the API.

The specified routes file should export a Router, as well as define as act as the head of the routes. It is possible to both exhaustively define all routes in this file, as well as simply defining routes that filter to subsequent routes in other files. Both of these cases are demonstrated below in the Routes File Examples section.

API

Index File Examples

Example with HTTPS

const engine = require("engine-express")

var api_list = [
	{
		"routes_path":  PATH_TO_ROUTES_FILE,
		"basename":  "/api1"
	},
	{
		"routes_path":  PATH_TO_ROUTES_FILE,
		"basename":  "/api2"
	},
]

var https_creds = {
    "certificate_path": PATH_TO_HTTPS_CERTIFICATE,
    "private_key_path": PATH_TO_HTTPS_PRIVATE_KEY
}

engine.start(5000, api_list, https_creds);

Example with server configurations

const engine = require("engine-express")
const fs = require("fs")
const path = require("path")
const bodyParser = require("body-parser")
const cors = require("cors")
const morgan = require("morgan")
const fileUpload= require("express-fileupload")

var api_list = [
	{
		"routes_path":  PATH_TO_ROUTES_FILE,
		"basename":  "/api1"
	},
	{
		"routes_path":  PATH_TO_ROUTES_FILE,
		"basename":  "/api2"
	},
]
engine.server.use(bodyParser.json())
engine.server.use(cors())
engine.server.use(fileUpload())
engine.server.use(morgan('combined', { stream: fs.createWriteStream(path.join(__dirname, '../engine-express.log'), { flags: 'a' }) }))

engine.start(5000, api_list);

Routes File Examples

Example with controllers

ROUTES_FILE.js

const router = require("express").Router()
const controllers = require("./controllers")

router.get('/*', controllers.sendResponse)
module.exports = router

./controllers.js

exports.sendResponse = (req, res) => res.send("Hello World")

Example with routing

ROUTES_FILE.js

const router = require("express").Router()

router.use('/public', require("./publicRoutes"))
router.use('/private', require("./privateRoutes"))

module.exports = router

./publicRoutes

const publicRouter = require("express").Router()

publicRouter.get("/*",(req, res) => res.send("Public page: Hello World"))

module.exports = publicRouter

./privateRoutes

const privateRouter = require("express").Router()

privateRouter.get("/*",(req, res) => res.send("Private page: Hello World"))

module.exports = privateRouter

Example with middleware

ROUTES_FILE.js

const router = require("express").Router()

const log = (req, res, next) => {
	console.log("Request recieved")
	next()
}

const authenticate = (req, res, next) => {
	if (Math.random() > .5){
		console.log(`${req.params.name ? req.params.name : "An unamed user"} had improper credentials`)
		res.send("Access denied");
	}
	else{
		console.log(`${req.params.name ? req.params.name : "An unamed user"} had proper credentials`)
		next()
	}
}

const respond = (req, res) => res.send(`${req.params.name ? req.params.name : "An unamed user"} says 'Hello World!'`)

router.get('/:name?', log, authenticate, respond)

module.exports = router