Organize routes in Node.js

Question

I start to look at Node.js. Also I'm using Express. And I have a question - how can I organize web application routes? All examples just put all this app.get/post/put() handlers in app.js and it works just fine. This is good but if I have something more than a simple HW Blog? Is it possible to do something like this:

var app = express.createServer(); app.get( '/module-a/*', require('./module-a').urls ); app.get( '/module-b/*', require('./module-b').urls ); 

and

// file: module-a.js urls.get('/:id', function(req, res){...}); // <- assuming this is handler for /module-a/1 

In other words - I'd like something like Django's URLConf but in Node.js.

Answer 1

I found a short example in ´Smashing Node.js: JavaScript Everywhere´ that I really liked.

By defining module-a and module-b as its own express applications, you can mount them into the main application as you like by using connects app.use( ) :

module-a.js

module.exports = function(){   var express = require('express');   var app = express();    app.get('/:id', function(req, res){...});    return app; }(); 

module-b.js

module.exports = function(){   var express = require('express');   var app = express();    app.get('/:id', function(req, res){...});    return app; }(); 

app.js

var express = require('express'),     app = express();  app.configure(..);  app.get('/', ....) app.use('/module-a', require('./module-a'));     app.use('/where/ever', require('./module-b'));      app.listen(3000); 

This would give you the routes

localhost:3000/ localhost:3000/module-a/:id localhost:3000/where/ever/:id 

Answer 2

Check out the examples here:

https://github.com/visionmedia/express/tree/master/examples

'mvc' and 'route-separation' may be helpful.