How to structure app.configure in Express

Question

I'm using Express 3.0 alpha to build an app but am a little confused with the app config structure

app.configure ->
  app.set "views", __dirname + "/views"
  app.set "view engine", "jade"
  app.use express.bodyParser()
  app.use express.methodOverride()

app.configure "development", ->
  app.use express.logger("dev")

app.configure "production", ->
  app.use express.logger()

1. Is the first app.configure, -> required? I've been browsing other people's apps and it doesn't seem to matter if I use it.

2. How does ordering work for app.configure, ->? It seems correct to put the specific environments (development, and production) after the first app.configure, -> as I've seen in other apps but it doesn't seem to work with my app (i.e. the logger doesn't print anything in my console at all).

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

They're just executed in sequence. The first will be invoked for all environments, so it doesn't matter if it's wrapped with configure() at all; it just looks nicer. But if you look at the Express issue queue, they'll likely be disappearing in the future since they're effectively just glorified if statements.