Express Controllers

express-controllers adds controller style routing from the model-view-controller paradigm to express using express-resource.

Installation

npm:

$ npm install express-controllers

Usage

var express = require('express')
var controllers = require('express-controllers')

var app = module.exports = express().controllers();

if (!require.parent) {
  var server = app.listen(3000, function() {
    var host = server.address().address;
    var port = server.address().port;
    console.log('Express 4 server listening at http://%s:%s', host, port);
  });
}

By default, the app.controllers() method will load any controllers in the directory named controllers of your application (wherever server.js/app.js is). If you prefer to store your controllers in a different location, simply specify your desired path in the app setting via app.set('controllers path', '/path/to/controllers/').

To get started simply require('express-controllers'), and this module will monkey-patch Express, enabling the controller style routing by providing the app.controllers() method.

Controllers

A "controller" is simply a module which defines one of more of the supported "actions", listed below:

exports.index = function(req, res) {
  res.send('forum index');
};

exports.new = function(req, res) {
  res.send('new forum');
};

exports.create = function(req, res) {
  res.send('create forum');
};

exports.show = function(req, res) {
  res.send('show forum ' + req.params.forum);
};

exports.edit = function(req, res) {
  res.send('edit forum ' + req.params.forum);
};

exports.update = function(req, res) {
  res.send('update forum ' + req.params.forum);
};

exports.destroy = function(req, res) {
  res.send('destroy forum ' + req.params.forum);
};

Default Action Mapping

Actions are then mapped as follows (by default), providing req.params.forum which contains the substring where ":forum" is shown below:

GET     /forums              ->  index
GET     /forums/new          ->  new
POST    /forums              ->  create
GET     /forums/:forum       ->  show
GET     /forums/:forum/edit  ->  edit
PUT     /forums/:forum       ->  update
DELETE  /forums/:forum       ->  destroy

Content-Negotiation

Currently express-controllers (by way of express-resource) supports basic content-negotiation support utilizing extnames or "formats". This can currently be done two ways, first we may define actions as we normally would, and utilize the req.format property, and respond accordingly. The following would respond to GET /pets.xml, and GET /pets.json.

var pets = ['tobi', 'jane', 'loki'];

exports.index = function(req, res) {
  switch (req.format) {
    case 'json':
      res.send(pets);
      break;
    case 'xml':
      res.send('<pets>' + pets.map(function(pet) {
        return '<pet>' + pet + '</pet>';
      }).join('') + '</pets>');
      break;
    default:
      res.send(406);
  }
};

The following is equivalent, however we separate the logic into several callbacks, each representing a format.

exports.index = {
  json: function(req, res) {
    res.send(pets);
  },

  xml: function(req, res){
    res.send('<pets>' + pets.map(function(pet) {
     return '<pet>' + pet + '</pet>';
    }).join('') + '</pets>');
  }
};

We may also provide a default format, invoked when either no extension is given, or one that does not match another method is given:

exports.default = function(req, res) {
  res.send('Unsupported format "' + req.format + '"', 406);
};

License

The MIT License

Copyright (c) 2011-2014 Nicholas Penree <[email protected]>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.