Simple API Router

Overview

Simple API Router is a lightweight npm package that simplifies setting up Express APIs. It automatically detects all API routes in a defined directory and binds them to an Express app. Additionally, it provides an API client generator for frontend integration and automatic API documentation generation.

Installation

To install the package in an existing project, use the following command:

npm install @notnexx/n-sar

Usage

1. Manual Setup

Create an Express app and use @notnexx/n-sar to automatically load all routes from the api/ directory:

const express = require('express');
const loadRoutes = require('@notnexx/n-sar');

const app = express();
const PORT = 3000;

app.use(express.json());
loadRoutes(app);

app.listen(PORT, () => {
    console.log(`Server running at http://localhost:${PORT}`);
});

2. Automatically Generate a Sample Project

The package allows easy creation of a sample project with a predefined structure:

npx n-sar create my-api-project

This creates a new folder my-api-project with the following structure:

my-api-project/
├── api/
│   ├── router.js
│   └── user.js
├── package.json
└── server.js

Then, start the project:

cd my-api-project
npm install
node server.js

3. Generate an API Client for Frontend Integration

With n-sar, you can automatically generate a frontend API client that connects to your backend (localhost or your server domain/IP):

npx n-sar export-routes http://localhost:3000

This creates an apiClient.js file with functions for each detected route, making API calls simple:

import APIClient from './apiClient';

APIClient.user_get().then(response => console.log(response));

4. Generate API Documentation

You can automatically generate API documentation based on your routes:

npx n-sar generate-docs

This will create an API_DOCS.md file containing all detected API endpoints and their methods.

API Definitions

The package expects API files to be located in the api/ directory. Each file corresponds to a route. Example:

api/user.js

const express = require('express');
const router = express.Router();

router.get('/', (req, res) => {
    res.json({ message: 'User endpoint' });
});

module.exports = router;

This automatically creates the route:

GET /user

License

This package is licensed under the MIT License.

Author

Created by NotNexx.