express_controller v1.0.1

express controller

Easy way to do controllers using express

With support to Async/Await and Generator based control flow

Steps to setup a controller

1. Create a new file to be a controller;

2. Import the library

const Controller = require( 'express_controller' );

3. Instantiate the controller with its base path

const ctrl = new Controller( '/' );

4. Append any filters you want

ctrl.restrict( AuthFilter );

A filter is an abstraction for any route middleware used by the express, so it is a function with this signature:

filter( req, res, next ) {
  // ...
  next();
}

Check out Express.js docs for more info.

5. Define the routes (again, like plain express.js):

ctrl.get( '/clients', ( req, res ) => {
  res.render('clients/index');
} );

6. Export the routes at the end of the files

module.exports = ctrl.routes;

7. Import this controller in your main app.js

const app = express();
app.use('/', require('your_controller_1.js') );
app.use('/', require('your_controller_2.js') );
// ...
app.use('/', require('your_controller_N.js') );

// OR, if those are in a path:
walk(path.join(__dirname, '/app/controllers')).forEach(file => app.use('/', require(file)));

In the example, walk is a library to get all files from a path, you can find here.

Wait there is more!

1. Async/await

If you want to have async methods inside one route logic, just do it:

ctrl.get( '/client', async ( req, res ) => {
  const clients = await Clients.find( {} );
  res.render( 'clients/index', { clients } );
});

2. Generator based control flow

If you want to yield your code, with promises, inside a generator, this is supported too

ctrl.get( '/client', function *( req, res ) => {
  const clients = yield Clients.find( {} );
  res.render( 'clients/index', { clients } );
});

This is done using simplerunner library info here.

3. Errors! Errors! and more Errors!

Once more, the error treatment is express-ish, just append this after your routes:

// errors
app.use( function (err, req, res, next) {
  // here your have the errors
});

More info here.

This errors include exceptions and rejections threw by the yield/awaited functions as well.