Express router - :id?

Question

Real simple question guys: I see a lot of books/code snippets use the following syntax in the router:

app.use('/todos/:id', function (req, res, next) {   console.log('Request Type:', req.method);   next(); }); 

I'm not sure how to interpret the route here... will it route '/todos/anything'? and then grab the 'anything' and treat is at variable ID? how do I use that variable? I'm sure this is a quick answer, I just haven't seen this syntax before.

Answer 1

This is an express middleware.

In this case, yes, it will route /todos/anything, and then req.params.id will be set to 'anything'

Answer 2

On your code, that is for express framework middleware, if you want to get any id in the server code using that route, you will get that id by req.params.id.

app.use('/todos/:id', function (req, res, next) {   console.log('Request Id:', req.params.id);   next(); });