express-route-helper v1.0.1

express-route-helper

An express route helper. This package allows writing and managing express routes and middlewares easily. And it provides some additional features. And all of this without adding any request overhead.

Installation

Install express-route-helper with npm

  npm install express-route-helper

Install express-route-helper with yarn

  yarn add express-route-helper

Usage/Examples

Let the directory tree of your project be:

|--- app.js
|--- routes/
|    |--- home.js
|    |--- chat.js
|    |--- somefile.skip.js
|
|--- middlewares/
|    |--- auth.js
|    |--- role.js
|    |--- chat.js
|    | somefile.skip.js

Any file that ends with .skip.js will not be imported automatically.

And your app.js file looks like:

import express from 'express';
import loadRoutes from 'express-route-helper';

const app = express();

await loadRoutes(app);

app.listen(3000, ()=>{
    console.log('http://localhost:3000');
});

Then export middlewares from files of middlewares folder like this

export const log = (req, res, next) => {
    console.log('Logged');
    next();
}

export const log2 = (req, res, next) => {
    console.log('Logged 2');
    next();
}

export const log3 = (req, res, next) => {
    console.log('Logged 3');
    next();
}

Then write your routes file like this:

import {get, post, put, patch, del, all, use, middleware, route, via} from 'express-route-helper';

get('/nolog', (req, res)=>{
    res.send('No log..');
});

route('/').via('log').middleware(['log3']).group(()=>{
    get('/', (req, res)=>{
        res.send('Alhamdulillah! Home is fine.');
    });
    get('/:name', (req, res)=>{
        res.send('Hello, '+req.params.name+'!');
    });
    get('/string', (req, res)=>{
        res.send('String path!');
    });
    via('log2').group(()=>{
        get('/log2', (req, res)=>{
            res.send('Nested example!');
        });
    });
});

Function Reference

loadRoutes(app, routes_dir, middlewares_dir)

import express from 'express';
import loadRoutes from `express-route-helper`;
const app = express();
await loadRoutes(app);
app.listen(3000);

Note: This function is exported as default.

http methods

• get(path, handler);
• post(path, handler);
• put(path, handler);
• patch(path, handler);
• del(path, handler);
• all(path, handler);
• use(path, handler);

Note: del is used instead of delete

middleware(functions)

via(functions)

route(path)

All of the functions can be chained together including group

Features

1. Clean & Elegant syntax

This syntax is highly inspired from Laravel

import {get} from 'express-route-helper';

get('/path', (req, res)=>{
    res.send('How is that?');
});

import {get, post, route} from 'express-route-helper';

get('/path', (req, res)=>{
    res.send('How is that?');
});

route('/chat').middleware([]).group(()=>{
    get('/', (req, res)=>{
        //GET /chat
    })
    post('/new', (req, res)=>{
        //GET /chat/new
    })
});

2. No need to import middlewares manually

Normally, if you want to keep your middlewares and routes in separate files, you must import them in order to use. But not anymore.

// middlewares/log.js

export const log = (req, res, next) =>{
    console.log('New request!');
    next();
}

Now in routes file you can just specify the name like this:

// routes/main.js

import {get} from 'express-route-helper';

get('/', (req, res)=>{
    //Your code
}).middleware(['log', 'some_other_middleware']);

3. No duplication of middlewares

This might seem illogical, like why would anyone add the same middleware twice. Let's just use this for demo purpose.

import express from 'express';

const app = express();
const log = (req, res, next)=>{
    console.log('Incoming request!');
    next();
};

app.get('/', log);


app.get('/about', log);

app.listen(3000);

In this case visiting /about will print Incoming request! twice in the console. But in the following way, this just prints once.

import {get} from 'express-route-helper';

const log = (req, res, next)=>{
    console.log('Incoming request!');
    next();
};

get('/', (req, res)=>{
    //Stuff
}).middleware(log);


get('/about', (req, res)=>{
    //Stuff
}).middleware(log);;

4. Automatic sorting of routes

Let's consider the following code:

import express from 'express';

const app = express();

app.get('/:id', (req, res)=>{
    res.send('Hello from dynamic id page!');
});


app.get('/about', (req, res)=>{
    res.send('Hello from about page!');
});

app.listen(3000);

In this example, you can never access the /about page because the /:id route is described before the /about route. Imagine managing this order in dozens of files.

But this problem can be solved using express-route-helper like this:

// routes/main.js

import {get} from 'express-route-helper';

get('/:id', (req, res)=>{
    res.send('Hello from dynamic id page!');
});

get('/about', (req, res)=>{
    res.send('Hello from about page!');
});

Internally this is sorted in a way that all of the routes can be accessed!

5. via - New way of middlewares

Same as middleware. Included as a shorthand.

import {get} from 'express-route-helper';

get('/path', (req, res)=>{
    res.send('This is parent');
}).via(['fn1', 'fn2']);

get('/path/:param', (req, res)=>{
    res.send('This is parent');
});

6. Route grouping

Routes that shares common properties can be grouped.

import {get, post, route} from 'express-route-helper';

get('/', (req, res)=>{
    res.send('Home! sweet home...');
});

route('/chat').middleware(['auth', 'some_other']).group(()=>{

    get('/', (req, res)=>{
        //Stuff
    });

    get('/info', (req, res)=>{
        //Stuff
    });

    post('/send', (req, res)=>{
        //Stuff
    });

});

This above code is equevalent to:

import {get, post, route} from 'express-route-helper';

get('/', (req, res)=>{
    res.send('Home! sweet home...');
});

get('/chat/', (req, res)=>{
    //Stuff
}).middleware(['auth', 'some_other']);

get('/chat/info', (req, res)=>{
    //Stuff
}).middleware(['auth', 'some_other']);

post('/chat/send', (req, res)=>{
    //Stuff
}).middleware(['auth', 'some_other']);

License

MIT

Authors

• Sakibur Rahman Khan (Saad)

Feedback

If you have any feedback or feature request, please reach out to us at Github