express-npm-view

Not ready for primetime yet!

Express middleware to lookup npm package data.

How?

Unfortunately, due to the npm api, middleware initialize() needs to be async.

npm install express-npm-view. Then use it, like one of these examples:

var npmView = require('express-npm-view');

npmView.initialize(function (err) {
    app.use(npmView({
        fields: ["name"]
    });
    
    app.get("/package/:package", function (req, res) {
        res.send(req.npm);
    });
});

var npmView = require('express-npm-view');

npmView.initialize({ fields: ["name"] }, function (err) {
    app.get("/package/:package", npmView(), function (req, res) {
        res.send(req.npm);
    });
    
    app.get("/module/:module", npmView({ queryProperty: "module" }), function (req, res) {
        res.send(req.npm);
    });
});

API

initialize({}, cb)

Async setup things. This is needed because we need to call npm.load which is async.

Optionally pass a configuration object (below are their default values):

{
    fields: [], // the fields we lookup, these get passed to npm.commands.view
    queryProperty: "package", // the property we get the package name from
    propertyName: "npm", // the property we export the data on
    npmOptions: {} // these get passed to npm.load
}

queryProperty is a bit tricker than the rest - it's not immediately clear where we lookup this property, so i'm calling it out explicitly. We first try req.params[queryProperty], then req.query[queryProperty] and finally req.body[queryProperty]. If we still haven't found it, we fail silently (that means they'll be no impact to your app, other than req[propertyName] won't be set).

Pass a callback function (cb) that will be called with err if there's an error. Otherwise it's called with nothing, when everything is setup.

({})

This is the middleware provider. Optionally pass a configuration object with any of the options documented above in initialize() (with the exception of npmOptions). Any options passed here override options passed to initialize().

It will return a middleware function (that is, something that matches the (req, res, next) signature) that you can app.use.