express-static-router

Installation:

npm i express-static-router

Description:

Express Static Router is a middleware that makes it easy to implement file-system based router in your express app.

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Usage:

1- Specify router folder and passing express app instance Inside your server file "main file":

Note! Router folder is a folder that contains all source code files that represent all routes.

import express from "express";
import staticRouter from "express-static-router";
const app = express();
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staticRouter("./yourRouterFolder", app);

// OR to disable printing of detected routes.
staticRouter("./yourRouterFolder", app, { printDetectedRoutes :false });

2- Create a route:

Inside the provided router directory create js files named depending on route "endpoint" path.

Here are some examples that describe how to create a route:

• Example 1: To specify the home endpoint "/" you have to create index.js route file inside router directory.
  

• Example 2: Specifying the following route "/user" can be done by either by creating user.js route file inside router directory OR by creating index.js inside user folder that is created directly inside the provided router folder.
  

• Example 3: To define a route that can match all routes which starts with "/books/" create /books/[...].js. this will be equivalent to app.method("/books/*") when using express router.

Router folder structure tree illustrating the three previous examples:

router
│
├────── index.js
│
├────── user
│          └── index.js
│
└───── books
           └── [...].js

3- Define requests handlers:

After creating route file you have to export your requests handlers depending on request method.

Example:

// Will handle GET requests.
export const get = (req, res) => {
  res.send("Welcome to express static router.");
};

// Will handle POST requests.
export const post = (req, res) => {
  res.send("Welcome to express static router.");
};
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OR

// Will handle GET requests.
const getHandler = (req, res) => {
  res.send("Welcome to express static router.");
};

// Will handle POST requests.
const postHandler = (req, res) => {
  res.send("Welcome to express static router.");
};

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export default {
    get:getHandler,
    post:postHandler,
}

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Types:

staticRouter parameters

parameter	Description
routerFolder	Relative path points to router folder.
app	Express application instance.
options	An object to pass some options.

options type:

An object can be used to pass optional options which affect middleware behavior:

Property	Description
printDetectedRoutes	Boolean value that determines whether or not to print detected routes in the console.
onLoad	A callback function that executes after loading all routes files This is helpful to apply some logic after defining all routes.

handler type:

Exported handler can be either a function OR an object that receive the following properties:

Property	Description
handler	Handler function will be execute on demanding the related endpoint
paramsPattern	String can be used to specify route parameters order.specify
middleware	A function will be executed before executing handler function.

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More examples:

1- Middleware checks a parameter value

Let's guess that we have inside router folder the following index.js route file:

// function that checks if first params is equals to john
const isItJohn = (req, res, next) => {
  if (req.params.firstName.toLowerCase() === "john") {
    next();
  } else {
    res.send("Sorry you aren't John");
  }
};
// Will handle GET requests.
const getHandler = (req, res) => {
  res.send(req.res.params);
};
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export default {
    get:{
      handler:getHandler,
      paramsPattern:"/:firstName/:lastName",
      middleware: isItJohn
      },
}

When visiting /john/doe will respond the following response:

{ "firstName": "john", "lastName": "doe" }

but when visiting /doe/john will return:

Sorry you aren't John

2- Define not-found endpoint handler.

Because of this middleware loads routes files asynchronously you need to pass similar logic inside onLoad property instead of having the logic underneath staticRouter implementation.

import express from "express";
import staticRouter from "express-static-router";
const app = express();
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staticRouter("./router", app, {
  onLoad: () => {
    app.use((req, res) => {
      res.status(404).send();
    });
  },
});

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