@inertianode/express

Express adapter for InertiaNode with a clean, intuitive API and automatic version detection.

Installation

npm install @inertianode/express

Usage

Basic Setup

import express from "express";
import { inertiaExpressAdapter, InertiaExpress } from "@inertianode/express";

const app = express();

// Add the Inertia middleware with automatic version detection
app.use(inertiaExpressAdapter());

// Your routes
app.get("/", async (req, res) => {
  await InertiaExpress.renderForExpress(
    "Index",
    {
      title: "Welcome to Inertia Express",
    },
    req
  ).toExpressResponse(res);
});

Automatic Version Detection

The Express adapter now includes automatic version detection that works out of the box:

• Development Mode: Automatically detects version from the Vite hot file (public/hot)
• Production Mode: Automatically detects version from manifest files:
  • Vite: public/build/manifest.json
  • Laravel Mix: public/mix-manifest.json
  • Custom: public/manifest.json

No configuration needed! The version is automatically calculated based on your current mode and asset files.

Custom Version Detection

If you need custom version detection, you can still provide your own:

app.use(
  inertiaExpressAdapter({
    version: () => "my-custom-version",
    // or
    version: "static-version-string",
  })
);

Clean API

The new InertiaExpress API provides a much cleaner way to handle Inertia responses:

// ❌ Old way (verbose and error-prone)
app.get("/users", async (req, res) => {
  const webRequest = expressRequestToWebRequest(req);
  const response = await Inertia.render("Users", { users: [] }).toResponse(
    webRequest
  );

  response.headers.forEach((value, key) => {
    res.setHeader(key, value);
  });

  res.status(response.status).send(response.body);
});

// ✅ New way (clean and simple)
app.get("/users", async (req, res) => {
  await InertiaExpress.renderForExpress(
    "Users",
    {
      users: [],
    },
    req
  ).toExpressResponse(res);
});

Advanced Usage

You can also access the underlying InertiaResponse for advanced usage:

app.get("/complex", async (req, res) => {
  const expressResponse = InertiaExpress.renderForExpress(
    "Complex",
    {
      data: "some data",
    },
    req
  );

  // Access the underlying InertiaResponse
  const inertiaResponse = expressResponse.getInertiaResponse();

  // Do something with it...
  const webRequest = expressRequestToWebRequest(req);
  const webResponse = await inertiaResponse.toResponse(webRequest);

  // Custom handling
  res.status(webResponse.status).send(webResponse.body);
});

API Reference

InertiaExpress.renderForExpress(component, props, req)

Renders an Inertia component and returns an Express-specific response handler.

• component (string): The component name to render
• props (object): Props to pass to the component
• req (ExpressRequest): The Express request object

Returns: ExpressInertiaResponse

ExpressInertiaResponse.toExpressResponse(res)

Sends the Inertia response to an Express response object.

• res (ExpressResponse): The Express response object

ExpressInertiaResponse.getInertiaResponse()

Returns the underlying InertiaResponse for advanced usage.

Benefits

1. Cleaner Code: No more manual request/response conversion
2. Type Safety: Full TypeScript support with proper types
3. Error Handling: Automatic header conversion and error handling
4. Consistency: Same API across all Express routes
5. Flexibility: Access to underlying InertiaResponse when needed