separate file for routes in express

Question

I was wondering how do I move all of my api routes in express into a separate routes.js file from my server.js file

I have a long list of api routes using app.use() for each route. So each route is in its own file, e.g. movies.js, movie.js but when I list these it makes for a long list in server.js

So I want to remove the list of api endpoints section from the below server.js out to a routes.js file.

Here is what I have currently:

server.js

import path from 'path' import express from 'express' import webpack from 'webpack' import webpackDevMiddleware from 'webpack-dev-middleware' import webpackConfig from './webpack.config.dev'  const app = express();  /* api endpoints, can be many more, I want them in routes.js */     app.use('/api/movies', require('./src/api/routes/movies')) app.use('/api/movie', require('./src/api/routes/movie'))  app.use(webpackDevMiddleware(webpack(webpackConfig), {   publicPath: webpackConfig.output.publicPath }));  app.use('/public', express.static(__dirname + '/public'))      app.get('*', function(req, res) {   res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, 'index.html')); });   app.listen(3000, 'localhost', function (err) {   if (err) {     console.log(err);     return;   } }) 

An example route

movies.js

var express = require('express'); var request = require("request"); var router = express.Router();  router.get('/', function(req, res) {   res.json({}) });  module.exports = router; 

Answer 1

You can try to use the following modular approach. Define controller files having logic per feature. e.g. movie.

movieController.js

module.exports = {     getMovie : function(req, res){        //do something     },     getMovies : function(req, res){        //do something     },     postMovie : function(req, res){        //do something     } } 

Then, reference that controller in routes files and simply plug those functions.

routes.js

var express = require('express'); var movieCtrl = require('./movieController');  var router = express.Router();  router.route('/movie').get(movieCtrl.getMovie); router.route('/movie').post(movieCtrl.postMovie); router.route('/movies').get(movieCtrl.getMovies);  module.exports = router; 

And, in app.js, mount the routes to suitable location, e.g. /api

app.js

var routes = require('./routes'); app.use('/api', routes);