Connect Single Page Apps Request Filter Middleware

A Node.js Connect framework middleware for Single Page Applications APIs that filters requests by type, intercepting requests that aren't of 'application/json' type serving them the application shell HTML file, instead of passing them through to the API handlers.

This middleware takes care of the same Node.js server (Express.js app) at the same time and via the same URLs to serve both the application's JSON API endpoints and appliations assets needed for the browser to run the application.

Usage

For the middleware to run, it needs to be initialized with the proper parameters and prerequisites. It expects to receive an options object containing the following items

• appShell - optional hash object containing options to render the application shell HTML. Supported fields are:
  • view - indicates the name of the view (template) to render (default: 'index')
  • layout - indicates whether view should be rendered in a master layout (default: false)
• appConfig - required hash object with application configuration. Required fields:
  • appTitle - used to render the application shell HTML <title> tag
  • the whole object will be passed to the client-side through the app shell <script> tag
  • it can contain any additional config needed by the client-side app
• appData - optional hash object with application bootstrap data
  • default: {}
  • the whole object will be passed to the client-side through the app shell <script> tag
  • it should contain any initial set of data for the client-side app
• voidFilterRoutes - optional array of routes to void filtering on
  • default: []

Example of the middleware initialization and usage:

var express   = require('express')
  , ReqFilter = require('connect-spa-request-filter')
  , app       = express()
  , reqFilter;

reqFilter = ReqFilter.configure({
  appConfig       : { appTitle: 'My Super Single Page App' },
  appData         : {},
  appShell        : { view: 'index', layout: false },
  voidFilterRoutes: ['/logout']
});

// NOTE: use reqFilter **after** static middleware so it doesn't intercept static content serving
app.use(reqFilter());

History

• 0.3.0 - [2014-04-14] Included rendering of the app shell within the middleware, with configurable options
• 0.2.2 - [2014-04-14] Relaxing lodash version dependency
• 0.2.1 - [2013-xx-xx] Unpublished. Because reasons.
• 0.2.0 - [2013-05-09] Adding an option to void filtering on a defined set of routes
• 0.1.0 - [2013-04-22] Initial release

License

This library is licensed under the MIT License