express-route-configuration

This project is a utility module that allows you to write your route configuration and validation in the controller module itself. The modules are auto-detected and the routes created without having to manually set them.

Usage

Supports both ESM and CommonJS.

ESM

server.js

import express from 'express';
import routeConfig from 'express-route-configuration';
import path from 'path';
import { fileURLToPath } from 'url';

const dirname = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));

const app = express();

routeConfig(app, path.join(dirname, 'routes'));

app.listen(3000);

routes/hello.js

import Joi from 'joi';

export default {
  helloWorld: {
    method: 'GET',
    path: '/hello/:name',
    config: {
      validate: {
        params: Joi.object({
          name: Joi.string().required(),
        }),
        query: Joi.object({
          age: Joi.number().min(0).max(100).optional(),
        }),
      },
      async handler(req, res) {
        if (req.query.age) {
          res.send(`Hello ${req.params.name}, age ${req.query.age}`);
        } else {
          res.send(`Hello ${req.params.name}, of unknown age`);
        }
      },
    },
  },
};

CommonJS

server.js

const express = require('express');
const routeConfig = require('express-route-configuration');
const path = require('path');

const app = express();

routeConfig(app, path.join(__dirname, 'routes'));

app.listen(3000);

routes/hello.js

const Joi = require('joi');

exports.hello = {
  path: '/hello',
  method: 'GET',
  config: {
    validate: {
      params: Joi.object({
        name: Joi.string().required(),
      }),
      query: Joi.object({
        age: Joi.number().min(0).max(100).optional(),
      }),
    },
    async handler(req, res) {
      res.send('Hello world');
    },
  },
};

The route is created automatically based on the discovery path. URL Parameters, query string and payload values are checked for their type and if matches the schema the handler is called.

Options:

routeConfig(app, path, options) task the following options:

• app: The instance of Express
• path: A path string where to search for routes
• options: Additional optional configuration parameters

Additional optional config includes:

• parsePayload: If true, use body-parser to convert payload body to object
• ignore: An array of paths and files to ignore when search for controllers
• validationErrorStatusCode: The HTTP Status Code to issue when validation fails, normally 422
• debug: More verbose logging

Controllers:

The controller modules are fairly simple in their setup. Create an exported object with the following schema:

{
  method: String('GET', 'POST', 'UPDATE', 'PUT', 'PATCH', 'DELETE'),
  path: String(),
  config: {
    validate: {
      params: optional JoiObject(),
      query: optional JoiObject(),
      payload: optional JoiObject(),
    },
    handler: async function(req, res),
  },
}

The path string follows the express.js format using a colon to define a variable, /path/:variable.

Validation fields use Joi, documentation here.

Building

To build both the ESM and CommonJS distribution run the script npm run build.

TODO Add more details on exactly what happens

Issue

There is a problem with V8's support of dynamic imports and how jest works with in band testing. This means using dynamic imports can be hit or miss. As a unit test option the main entry point now can take a string path or the imported controller module. If your unit tests fail try converting to something along these lines.

import express from 'express';
import configRoutes from 'express-route-configuration'
import helloRoutes from '../../controller/hello.js'

test('testing routes', async () => {
  const app = express();
  configRoutes(app, helloRoutes { debug: true });

  // Normal test accessing routes
});