Router Dex for Express

Router-dex is a route and middleware inspector compatible with Express >= 4.

Developed initially as part of bananasplit-js superset template but later moved as a standalone module.

Installation

yarn add router-dex -D | npm i router-dex -D

Requirements

Express >= 4

Integration as module script

package.json

{
  "name": "your-project",
  "version": "1.0",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "route:list": "node -r router-dex src/app.js default"
  },
}

Just add the relative pathname to the file where your express application is exported.

If your application is exported under a namespace instead of default, then change it.

Typescript

"scripts": {
  "route:list": "ts-node -r router-dex src/app.ts default"
},

If you are using typescript custom paths then use tsconfig-paths

"route:list": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register -r router-dex src/app.ts default"

It is important to require router-dex last.

Integration inside a script file

This implementation allows to you to do some stuffs before and after router-dex is executed.

src/scripts/route-list.js

const routerDex = require("router-dex/inspector")
const app = require("../app")

routerDex(app, "My App")

Then add the script to your package.json

{
  "name": "your-project",
  "version": "1.0",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "route:list": "node src/scripts/route-list.js"
  },
}

Typescript

import routerDex from "router-dex/inspector"
import app from "../app"

routerDex(app, "My Typescript App")

package.json

"route:list": "ts-node src/scripts/route-list.ts"

If you are using typescript custom paths then use tsconfig-paths

"route:list": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register src/scripts/route-list.ts"

Usage in any javascript file

Also is possible to get all the routes in a object notation format

const { getAllRoutes } = require("router-dex/inspector")
const app = require("./src/app")

const { routes, sortedRoutes } = getAllRoutes(app)

You will get all the routes and all of them sorted by alphabet + base path + without parameters first.

Example

{
  routes: [
    { path: '/store', method: 'GET', middlewares: [Array] },
    { path: '/products', method: 'GET', middlewares: [Array] },
    { path: '/users', method: 'GET', middlewares: [Array] }
  ],
  sortedRoutes: [
    { path: '/products', method: 'GET', middlewares: [Array] },
    { path: '/store', method: 'GET', middlewares: [Array] },
    { path: '/users', method: 'GET', middlewares: [Array] }
  ]
}

Typescript

import { getAllRoutes, DexRoute } from "router-dex/inspector"
import app from "./src/app"

const { routes }: { routes: DexRoute[] } = getAllRoutes(app)

Command-line filtering

Router Dex groups all routes by default. To filter by type, just add it at the end of the script call

yarn route:list store | npm run route:list store

Also is possible to pass multiple

yarn route:list store products | npm run route:list store products

Types passed must match exactly with the group name.

Symbols and meanings

In the middleware column of the generated table you can see the following notations:

• *: means the middleware/controller function passed is binded controller.bind(ref)
• anonymous: means the middleware/controller function was passed directly into the router/app

Inside the middleware array of each route returned by getAllRoutes you can see the following values:

• bound middlewareName: means the middleware/controller function passed is binded
• <anonymous>: means the middleware/controller function passed is anonymous

Considerations: Avoid anonymous middlewares!

Instead of

router.get("/products", (req, res) => {
  res.json({ status: 200 })
})

Use

const { getProducts } = require("./src/controllers/products")
router.get("/products", getProducts)

Reason why is when you are passing the middleware function directly into the app/router, you are losing track of the reference name to the function itself. This ocurrs because you are not storing it at memory in first place.

In that case you will receive a command-line warning like

* Do not use anonymous functions as middlewares, store them in a constant instead.

License

MIT. Read the license

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