Node.js (Express) error handling middleware with router

Question

Here's my application structure:

- app.js
- routes
---- index.js

The ExpressJS app creates error handlers for development and production environments. Here's a code snippet from app.js:

app.use('/', routes); // routing is handled by index.js in the routes folder

//The following middleware are generated when you create the Express App

// catch 404 and forward to error handler
app.use(function (req, res, next) {
    var err = new Error('Not Found');
    err.status = 404;
    next(err);
});

// development error handler
// will print stacktrace
if (app.get('env') === 'development') {
    app.use(function (err, req, res, next) {
        res.status(err.status || 500);
        res.render('error.ejs', {
            message: err.message,
            error: err
        });
    });
}

// production error handler
// no stacktraces leaked to user
app.use(function (err, req, res, next) {
    res.status(err.status || 500);
    res.render('error', {
        message: err.message,
        error: {}
    });
});

And inside of routes/index.js, where I handle all the routing:

var router = express.Router();

router.get('/', function (req, res) {
    someAsyncFunction(function(err, result) {
        if (err) throw err; // Handle this error
    }
});

module.exports = router;

I want the err to be passed to one of the error handlers instead of being thrown. How can I do this?

Answer 1

You can also create a middleware function to handle error in all routes without copying code everywhere, using arrow functions if you like.

1) Create a const function to handle errors.

either:

const handleErrorAsync = func => (req, res, next) => {
    func(req, res, next).catch((error) => next(error));
};

or

const handleErrorAsync = func => async (req, res, next) => {
    try {
        await func(req, res, next);
    } catch (error) {
        next(error);
    }
};

2) In your router use it for every request:

var router = express.Router();

router.get('/req1', handleErrorAsync(async (req, res, next) => {
   let result = await someAsyncFunction1();
   if(result){
       // res.send whatever
   }
}));
router.post('/req2', handleErrorAsync(async (req, res, next) => {
    let result = await someAsyncFunction2(req.body.param1);
    if(result){
        // res.send whatever
    }
}));
router.post('/req3', handleErrorAsync(async (req, res, next) => {
    let result = await someAsyncFunction3(req.body.param1, req.body.param2);
    if(result){
        // res.send whatever
    }
}));

module.exports = router;

3) In your server main app handle error:

// development error handler
// will print stacktrace
if (app.get('env') === 'development') {
    app.use(function (err, req, res, next) {
        res.status(err.status || 500);
        res.render('error.ejs', {
            message: err.message,
            error: err
        });
    });
}

// production error handler
// no stacktraces leaked to user
app.use(function (err, req, res, next) {
    res.status(err.status || 500);
    res.render('error', {
        message: err.message,
        error: {}
    });
});

This way you can reuse the error handling function in any route. Also, if there are any unhandled errors in any of your functions, this will catch them as well.

Try catch error handling taken from Here