How to properly set up Coffeescript with Node.js

Question

I'm trying to define some Node routes using Coffeescript in the following way:

My app.js file:

/**
 * Module dependencies.
 */

require('coffee-script');

var express = require('express');


var http = require('http');

var path = require('path');

var app = express();

// all environments

app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3000);

app.set('views', path.join(__dirname, 'views'));

app.set('view engine', 'jade');

app.use(express.favicon());

app.use(express.logger('dev'));

app.use(express.json());

app.use(express.urlencoded());

app.use(express.methodOverride());

app.use(app.router);

app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));

// development only

if ('development' == app.get('env')) {
  app.use(express.errorHandler());
}

require('./routes')(app);

http.createServer(app).listen(app.get('port'), function(){
  console.log('Express server listening on port ' + app.get('port'));
});

My routes.coffee file (located at the same level as app.'s):

routes = (app) ->


app.get '/login', (req,res) ->

    res.render "views/login",

        title: 'Login'

        stylesheet: 'login'

module.exports = routes

My issue are:

1 when I try to run node app - I get:

module.js:340
    throw err;
      ^
Error: Cannot find module './routes'

If I explicitly specify the .coffee suffix: require('./routes.coffee')(app); - I get:

routes = (app) ->
                ^
SyntaxError: Unexpected token >

What is the proper way of doing this, please?

Answer 1

In CoffeeScript 1.7, the line require('coffee-script') no longer allows you to require CoffeeScript files. Instead, you need to either:

require('coffee-script/register')

or

require('coffee-script').register()

See the documentation.