Web routes from files

Recursively traverses a given directory structure and uses convention to create a list of web route objects that map Express-style URL paths to JavaScript callback files.

Installation

npm i @small-tech/web-routes-from-files

Usage

const getRoutes = require ('web-routes-from-files')

const routes = getRoutes('.')

routes.forEach(route => {
  console.log(`${route.path}: ${route.callback}`)
})

Details

Given the following directory structure:

.routes
   ├─── index.js
   ├─── my-folder
   │       ├── index.cjs
   │       └── other.js
   ├─── person
   │       └── index_personId__book_bookId.js
   ├─── rabbit_rabbitName.js
   └─── neat.mjs

And the following invocation:

const getRoutes = require ('web-routes-from-files')
const routes = getRoutes('.routes')

You will get the following data structure:

[
  { path: '/', callback: '.routes/index.js' },
  { path: '/my-folder', callback: '.routes/my-folder/index.js' },
  { path: '/my-folder/other', callback: '.routes/my-folder/other.js' },
  { path: '/person/:personId/book/:bookId', callback: '.routes/person/index_personId__book_bookId.js' },
  { path: '/rabbit/:rabbitName', callback: '.routes/rabbit_rabbitName.js' },
  { path: '/neat', callback: '.routes/neat.mjs' }
]

Which, for example, you could pass to an Express app (as Site.js) does:

const path      = require('path')
const express   = require('express')
const getRoutes = require ('..')

const app = express()
const routes = getRoutes(path.join(__dirname, '.routes'))

// Note that while .mjs and .cjs files are supported,
// this module cannot defy the laws of ECMAScript. So the
// same rules defining mixing of CommonJS and ESM apply here too.
if (!route.callback.endsWith('.mjs')) {
  app.get(route.path, require(route.callback))
}

app.listen(8080, () => console.log('\nServer running on http://localhost:8080'))

Your routes should export standard middleware-style functions. e.g.,

function route (request, response, next) {
  response.end('Hello, world!')
}
module.exports = route

Routes that take parameters (introduced in version 3.0.0) can access them from the request.params object. e.g., in the .routes/person/index_personId__book_bookId.js callback file:

function route (request, response, next) {
  response.end(`person/${request.params.personId}/book/${request.params.bookId}`)
}
module.exports = route

This example is included in the source code. Run it with:

node example

Note: This module will ignore node_modules folders and any folder within the root folder being traversed that begins with a dot (i.e., any hidden folder).

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Audience

This is small technology.

If you’re evaluating this for a “startup” or an enterprise, let us save you some time: this is not the right tool for you. This tool is for individual developers to build personal web sites and apps for themselves and for others in a non-colonial manner that respects the human rights of the people who use them.

Copyright

© 2020 Aral Balkan, Small Technology Foundation.

License

AGPL version 3.0 or later.