Page-block is a multi layered MCV framework for express. It provides an easy way to separate logic between common elements re appearing in almost all pages and page specific contents.

Motivation

A big web application becomes messy in express very soon. Because

• Lot of routes, managing this becomes an issue as soon as we have 15 or more routes.
• Lot of recurring presentation elements and no explicit way to handle then well.
• No easy way to integrate front-end development with back-end.

How page-block helps

• Provides better separation of concerns for different visual parts of web application.
• Natural way to represent the elements of a web-app.
• Better separation of concerns.
• Ease of integration of front-end and back-end development.

Usage

Load the library

  PageBlock = require('page-block')

Instantiate and use as a middleware in express

The page-block library will expose a function that will take a single parameter. An array of source directories from where page-block library can load controllers and views.

  app = express()
  app.use(PageBlock(['.']))

Create a controller

The controllers for pages will be loaded from controllers/pages from all the source directories. It uses explicit routing. That means if there is a controller index.js or index.coffee that will be used to serve route /.