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I'd like to separate routes and middleware out of my main app.coffee-file. (I'm using Express.js.)

This file has grown extensively and is not easy to skim anymore.

How can I put those into separate files so they are still aware of each other?

Example of route that uses middleware:

app.post '/signup', signup.inputsOK, signup.userIsNew, signup.createUser, allowUser, (req, res) ->
  res.redirect '/'

Every middleware function should be available for each route and each route should be available in the main app.coffee-file!

Thanks for ideas!

Timo
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1 Answers1

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Remember that Express middlewares are just functions, so as long as the function is required it can be used.

user_routes.coffee

hello_user = ( req, res, next ) ->
    res.json {"message": "hi"}

module.exports = {
    hello_user : hello_user
}

app.coffee

user_routes = require './user_routes' 
app.post '/signup', signup.inputsOK, signup.userIsNew, signup.createUser, allowUser, user_routes.hello_user

I would do the middleware setup like this: the app.coffee file is responsible for setting up the route with the middlewares and the actual business logic function... then all the last function needs to do is the actual work required. (This also makes the function easier to unit test, without having to fake out Express routing)

Alternatively with a little work you could separate out the routes and have each file do the app.add work. (I dislike this approach, but many apps do this).

user_routes.coffee

setupUserRoutes = (app) ->
    app.post '/signup', signup.inputsOK, signup.userIsNew, signup.createUser, allowUser, (req, res) ->
      res.redirect '/'

module.exports = setupUserRoutes

app.coffee

app = express()

require( './user_routes' )(app)

Here you're passing the Express object around to each new module you import. Since you set you exports to be only the one function - which takes one parameter, the created Express object - you can create your routes with the required middleware

RyanWilcox
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    Could you tell me a bit more how to separate middleware functions so I have access to them from within my routes-file ? – Timo Nov 06 '16 at 19:06
  • I cleaned up some misformatted code in the first example, but I'm not sure what else you want: create the function, add it to module.exports, then when you require() that module to a variable that variable reflects what was in module.exports. That explanation may have made everything _less_ helpful, but hopefully it did help – RyanWilcox Nov 06 '16 at 20:08
  • http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14958296/how-to-put-middleware-in-its-own-file-in-node-js-express-js this is a good answer. – Timo Nov 06 '16 at 21:38