Using routes in Express-js

Question

So I'm starting to use Node.js. I saw the video with Ryan Dahl on Nodejs.org and heard he recommended Express-js for websites.

I downloaded the latest version of Express, and began to code. I have a fully fledged static view up on /, but as soon as I try sending parameters, I get errors like this:

Cannot GET /wiki 

I tried following the guide on expressjs.com but the way one uses routes has changed in the latest version, which makes the guide unusable.

Guide:

app.get('/users/:id?', function(req, res, next){     var id = req.params.id;     if (id) {         // do something     } else {         next();     } }); 

Generated by Express:

app.get('/', routes.index); 

My problem arises when I try and add another route.

app.get('/wiki', routes.wiki_show); 

I've tried a bunch of approaches, but I keep getting the Cannot GET /wiki (404) error.

routes/index.js looks like this:

exports.index = function(req, res) {     res.render('index', { title: 'Test', articles: articles, current_article: current_article, sections: sections }) }; 

The only thing I did there was add some parameters (arrays in the same file) and this i working. But when I copy the contents and change exports.index to exports.wiki or exports.wiki_show I still get the Cannot GET /wiki error.

Can anyone explain to me what I'm missing here? - Thanks.

Answer 1

So, after I created my question, I got this related list on the right with a similar issue: Organize routes in Node.js.

The answer in that post linked to the Express repo on GitHub and suggests to look at the 'route-separation' example.

This helped me change my code, and I now have it working. - Thanks for your comments.

My implementation ended up looking like this;

I require my routes in the app.js:

var express = require('express')   , site = require('./site')   , wiki = require('./wiki'); 

And I add my routes like this:

app.get('/', site.index); app.get('/wiki/:id', wiki.show); app.get('/wiki/:id/edit', wiki.edit); 

I have two files called wiki.js and site.js in the root of my app, containing this:

exports.edit = function(req, res) {      var wiki_entry = req.params.id;      res.render('wiki/edit', {         title: 'Editing Wiki',         wiki: wiki_entry     }) } 

Answer 2

The route-map express example matches url paths with objects which in turn matches http verbs with functions. This lays the routing out in a tree, which is concise and easy to read. The apps's entities are also written as objects with the functions as enclosed methods.

var express = require('../../lib/express')   , verbose = process.env.NODE_ENV != 'test'   , app = module.exports = express();  app.map = function(a, route){   route = route || '';   for (var key in a) {     switch (typeof a[key]) {       // { '/path': { ... }}       case 'object':         app.map(a[key], route + key);         break;       // get: function(){ ... }       case 'function':         if (verbose) console.log('%s %s', key, route);         app[key](route, a[key]);         break;     }   } };  var users = {   list: function(req, res){     res.send('user list');   },    get: function(req, res){     res.send('user ' + req.params.uid);   },    del: function(req, res){     res.send('delete users');   } };  var pets = {   list: function(req, res){     res.send('user ' + req.params.uid + '\'s pets');   },    del: function(req, res){     res.send('delete ' + req.params.uid + '\'s pet ' + req.params.pid);   } };  app.map({   '/users': {     get: users.list,     del: users.del,     '/:uid': {       get: users.get,       '/pets': {         get: pets.list,         '/:pid': {           del: pets.del         }       }     }   } });  app.listen(3000);