router

Simple middleware-style router

Installation

This is a Node.js module available through the npm registry. Installation is done using the npm install command:

1$ npm install router

API

1var finalhandler = require('finalhandler')
2var http         = require('http')
3var Router       = require('router')
4
5var router = Router()
6router.get('/', function (req, res) {
7  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8')
8  res.end('Hello World!')
9})
10
11var server = http.createServer(function(req, res) {
12  router(req, res, finalhandler(req, res))
13})
14
15server.listen(3000)

This module is currently an extracted version from the Express project, but with the main change being it can be used with a plain http.createServer object or other web frameworks by removing Express-specific API calls.

Router(options)

Options

• strict - When false trailing slashes are optional (default: false)
• caseSensitive - When true the routing will be case sensitive. (default: false)
• mergeParams - When true any req.params passed to the router will be merged into the router's req.params. (default: false) (example)

Returns a function with the signature router(req, res, callback) where callback([err]) must be provided to handle errors and fall-through from not handling requests.

router.use([path], ...middleware)

Use the given middleware function for all http methods on the given path, defaulting to the root path.

router does not automatically see use as a handler. As such, it will not consider it one for handling OPTIONS requests.

• Note: If a path is specified, that path is stripped from the start of req.url.

1router.use(function (req, res, next) {
2  // do your things
3
4  // continue to the next middleware
5  // the request will stall if this is not called
6  next()
7
8  // note: you should NOT call `next` if you have begun writing to the response
9})

Middleware can themselves use next('router') at any time to exit the current router instance completely, invoking the top-level callback.

router[method](path, ...[middleware], handler)

The http methods provide the routing functionality in router.

Method middleware and handlers follow usual middleware behavior, except they will only be called when the method and path match the request.

1// handle a `GET` request
2router.get('/', function (req, res) {
3  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8')
4  res.end('Hello World!')
5})

Middleware given before the handler have one additional trick, they may invoke next('route'). Calling next('route') bypasses the remaining middleware and the handler mounted for this route, passing the request to the next route suitable for handling this request.

Route handlers and middleware can themselves use next('router') at any time to exit the current router instance completely, invoking the top-level callback.

router.param(name, param_middleware)

Maps the specified path parameter name to a specialized param-capturing middleware.

This function positions the middleware in the same stack as .use.

Parameter mapping is used to provide pre-conditions to routes which use normalized placeholders. For example a :user_id parameter could automatically load a user's information from the database without any additional code:

1router.param('user_id', function (req, res, next, id) {
2  User.find(id, function (err, user) {
3    if (err) {
4      return next(err)
5    } else if (!user) {
6      return next(new Error('failed to load user'))
7    }
8    req.user = user
9
10    // continue processing the request
11    next()
12  })
13})

router.route(path)

Creates an instance of a single Route for the given path. (See Router.Route below)

Routes can be used to handle http methods with their own, optional middleware.

Using router.route(path) is a recommended approach to avoiding duplicate route naming and thus typo errors.

1var api = router.route('/api/')

Router.Route(path)

Represents a single route as an instance that can be used to handle http methods with it's own, optional middleware.

route[method](handler)

These are functions which you can directly call on a route to register a new handler for the method on the route.

1// handle a `GET` request
2var status = router.route('/status')
3
4status.get(function (req, res) {
5  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8')
6  res.end('All Systems Green!')
7})

route.all(handler)

Adds a handler for all HTTP methods to this route.

The handler can behave like middleware and call next to continue processing rather than responding.

1router.route('/')
2  .all(function (req, res, next) {
3    next()
4  })
5  .all(check_something)
6  .get(function (req, res) {
7    res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8')
8    res.end('Hello World!')
9  })

Middleware

Middleware (and method handlers) are functions that follow specific function parameters and have defined behavior when used with router. The most common format is with three parameters - "req", "res" and "next".

• req - This is a HTTP incoming message instance.
• res - This is a HTTP server response instance.
• next - Calling this function that tells router to proceed to the next matching middleware or method handler. It accepts an error as the first argument.

Middleware and method handlers can also be defined with four arguments. When the function has four parameters defined, the first argument is an error and subsequent arguments remain, becoming - "err", "req", "res", "next". These functions are "error handling middleware", and can be used for handling errors that occurred in previous handlers (E.g. from calling next(err)). This is most used when you want to define arbitrary rendering of errors.

1router.get('/error_route', function (req, res, next) {
2  return next(new Error('Bad Request'))
3})
4
5router.use(function (err, req, res, next) {
6  res.end(err.message) //=> "Bad Request"
7})

Error handling middleware will only be invoked when an error was given. As long as the error is in the pipeline, normal middleware and handlers will be bypassed - only error handling middleware will be invoked with an error.

Examples

1// import our modules
2var http         = require('http')
3var Router       = require('router')
4var finalhandler = require('finalhandler')
5var compression  = require('compression')
6var bodyParser   = require('body-parser')
7
8// store our message to display
9var message = "Hello World!"
10
11// initialize the router & server and add a final callback.
12var router = Router()
13var server = http.createServer(function onRequest(req, res) {
14  router(req, res, finalhandler(req, res))
15})
16
17// use some middleware and compress all outgoing responses
18router.use(compression())
19
20// handle `GET` requests to `/message`
21router.get('/message', function (req, res) {
22  res.statusCode = 200
23  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8')
24  res.end(message + '\n')
25})
26
27// create and mount a new router for our API
28var api = Router()
29router.use('/api/', api)
30
31// add a body parsing middleware to our API
32api.use(bodyParser.json())
33
34// handle `PATCH` requests to `/api/set-message`
35api.patch('/set-message', function (req, res) {
36  if (req.body.value) {
37    message = req.body.value
38
39    res.statusCode = 200
40    res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8')
41    res.end(message + '\n')
42  } else {
43    res.statusCode = 400
44    res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8')
45    res.end('Invalid API Syntax\n')
46  }
47})
48
49// make our http server listen to connections
50server.listen(8080)

You can get the message by running this command in your terminal, or navigating to 127.0.0.1:8080 in a web browser.

1curl http://127.0.0.1:8080

You can set the message by sending it a PATCH request via this command:

1curl http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/set-message -X PATCH -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"value":"Cats!"}'

Example using mergeParams

1var http         = require('http')
2var Router       = require('router')
3var finalhandler = require('finalhandler')
4
5// this example is about the mergeParams option
6var opts = { mergeParams: true }
7
8// make a router with out special options
9var router = Router(opts)
10var server = http.createServer(function onRequest(req, res) {
11
12  // set something to be passed into the router
13  req.params = { type: 'kitten' }
14
15  router(req, res, finalhandler(req, res))
16})
17
18router.get('/', function (req, res) {
19  res.statusCode = 200
20  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8')
21
22  // with respond with the the params that were passed in
23  res.end(req.params.type + '\n')
24})
25
26// make another router with our options
27var handler = Router(opts)
28
29// mount our new router to a route that accepts a param
30router.use('/:path', handler)
31
32handler.get('/', function (req, res) {
33  res.statusCode = 200
34  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8')
35
36  // will respond with the param of the router's parent route
37  res.end(req.params.path + '\n')
38})
39
40// make our http server listen to connections
41server.listen(8080)

Now you can get the type, or what path you are requesting:

1curl http://127.0.0.1:8080
2> kitten
3curl http://127.0.0.1:8080/such_path
4> such_path

Example of advanced .route() usage

This example shows how to implement routes where there is a custom handler to execute when the path matched, but no methods matched. Without any special handling, this would be treated as just a generic non-match by router (which typically results in a 404), but with a custom handler, a 405 Method Not Allowed can be sent.

1var http = require('http')
2var finalhandler = require('finalhandler')
3var Router = require('router')
4
5// create the router and server
6var router = new Router()
7var server = http.createServer(function onRequest(req, res) {
8  router(req, res, finalhandler(req, res))
9})
10
11// register a route and add all methods
12router.route('/pet/:id')
13  .get(function (req, res) {
14    // this is GET /pet/:id
15    res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json')
16    res.end(JSON.stringify({ name: 'tobi' }))
17  })
18  .delete(function (req, res) {
19    // this is DELETE /pet/:id
20    res.end()
21  })
22  .all(function (req, res) {
23    // this is called for all other methods not
24    // defined above for /pet/:id
25    res.statusCode = 405
26    res.end()
27  })
28
29// make our http server listen to connections
30server.listen(8080)

License

MIT