Spatcher NPM | npm.io

spatcher is here to help you to avoid manually writing all routes to dispatch requests in an express app.

Getting started

Your files should look something like:

myAppName/
	app/
		controllers/
			helloController.js
			indexController.js

Your helloController.js looks like:

module.exports = {
	'fooAction': function(req, res) {
		res.send("foo of hello", {'Content-Type': 'text/html'}, 200);
	},
	'indexAction': function(req, res) {
		res.send("index of hello", {'Content-Type': 'text/html'}, 200);
	},
};

Your indexController.js looks like:

module.exports = {
	'indexAction': function(req, res) {
		res.send("index of index", {'Content-Type': 'text/html'}, 200);
	},
};

npm install --save spatcher

Then in your main application file, app.js :

var app = require('express')();
var spatcher = require('spatcher');

var spatcherInstance = spatcher(app, 'myAppName/app/controllers');

// then you just process as you are used to.
var server = app.listen(3000, function() {
  console.log('Listening on port %d', server.address().port);
});

Launch your server:

node app.js

Then you can just go to:

http://localhost:3000/
http://localhost:3000/hello/
http://localhost:3000/hello/foo

Advanced usage

require('spatcher')()

The function returned by the module can be called without any argument. The returned object can be configured and then used to route requests.

var spatcherInstance = require('spatcher')();

spatcherInstance.appendControllerToName = false; 
spatcherInstance.appendActionToName  = false;
spatcherInstance.errorOnActionNameLeadingUnderscore = false;

// The path in which controllers will be looked up
var controllersModulePath = 'myApp/myControllers';
// the url prefix to use (default is nothing) in order to look for controllers
var urlPrefix = '/somePrefixInTheUrl';
spatcherInstace.route(expressAppInstance, controllersModulePath, urlPrefix);

require('spatcher')(app, controllersModuleRootPath, urlPrefix)

If you call the module with some arguments, an object is instantiate and the route() method is directly called with the provided arguments.

Multiple controller route and chaining

spatcher handles multiple routes calling.

var app = require('express')();
var spatcherInstance = require('spatcher')();

spatcherInstance.route(app, 'myapp/backoffice/controllers');
spatcherInstance.route(app, 'myapp/frontoffice/controllers');
spatcherInstance.route(app, 'someexternalstuff/controllers', 'extrautil');

Configuration

Configuration can be done before or after wiring the routes.

var app = require('express')();
var spatcherInstance = require('spatcher')(app, 'app/mycontrollers');

// This option is true by default and happens "Controller" to the name of
// the called module
spatcherInstance.appendControllerToName = false; 

// This option is true by default and happens "Action" to the name
// of the called function
spatcherInstance.appendActionToName  = false;

// This option is true by default, this blocks the call to any function prefixed
// by an underscore (the common naming convention for private function)
spatcherInstance.errorOnActionNameLeadingUnderscore = false;

// ...

If you want different configuration for different contexts, you have to call spatcher another time.

// ...

var secondSpatcherInstance = require('spatcher')(app, 'somemodule/somecontrollersrootpath');

// ...

Parameters extraction ---

If you want sexy urls, you can!

http://myserver.com/something/myTool/a/1/b/2/c/3/a/checkThat

The req (first) parameter received by your somethingController module's myToolAction function will contain a key a value ['1', 'checkThat'] and you guess that b and c will hold '2' and '3'.