glue-controller

Goal

The goal of this projet is to deliver a Controller component, for a Node.js environemt, that can be used in a similar way as to a classic MVC framework.

Note: The package supports both express and koa libraries.

Install

npm i glue-controller --save-prod

Basic usage and setup

import Controller from 'glue-controller';
import express from 'express';

class ProductController extends Controller {

  static routesMap = {
    actionCreate: [{ method: 'POST' }]
  };

  actionList(req, res) {
    res.send('Response for "GET /product/list"');
  }

  actionCreate(req, res) {
    res.send('Response for "POST /product/create"');
  }
}

// setup with express
const app = express();
const router = express.Router();

new ProductsController({ router });

app.use(router);
app.listen(3000);

As you can see the above example, the routes path are automatically set by the library based on the given prefix (if setted), the controller name and followed by the action name. This feature that is present in a lot of MVC frameworks out there and that keep the application easy to follow through and less verbose. It's possible to change this behavior as explained bellow.

Advanced usage

class SiteController extends Controller {

  // middlewares to apply to all actions in the controller
  static middlewares = [authenticationMiddleware];

  // routing configuration
  static get routesMap() {
		return {
      actionProducts: [
        { method: 'GET' },
        { method: 'POST', delegate: 'createProduct' },
        {
          method: 'PATCH',
          delegate: 'updateProduct',
          path: `${this.prefix}/product/:id`
        }
      ],
      deleteProduct: [
        {
          method: 'DELETE',
          middlewares: [beforeDeleteMidleware],
          path: `${this.prefix}/product/:id`
        }
      ]
    };
  }

  static get prefix() {
		return '/site';
	}

  actionProducts(req, res) {
    res.send('Response for "GET /products"');
  }

  createProduct(req, res) {
    res.send('Response for "POST /site/product"');
  }

  updateProduct(req, res) {
    res.send(`Response for "PATCH /site/product/:id"`);
  }

  deleteProduct() {
    res.send('Response for "POST /site/product/:id"');
  }
}

As mentioned before, any method declared in the Controller class, that starts with action followed by an uppercase character, eg.: actionProducts, will be assumed as an action and a new route will be automatically set but it's also possible to change certain behaviors.

You can make use of the static property routesMap (object type) to configure existing actions or to create new ones. It's importante to note that all the keys must directly match a specific method name declared in the class.

As demonstrated in the example above you can mention directly a declared method that doesn't start with action. The only difference is that in a non-action name, eg.: deleteProduct the route is not automatically set for you, so you always need to set one. None of the approaches is better than other and it's encouraged to interchange the use as needed.

Controller properties

Name	Type	Visibility	Description
routesMap	object	public static	Routes configuration. All keys must directlly reference a method declared in the controller (more details bellow).
middlewares	array	public static	List of middlewares that will run in every action defined in the controller.
getControllerPath	function	public	returns the partial controller path (Controller name in kebab-case).
getRouter	function	public	returns the router object (express or koa router).
getPrefix	function	public	returns the prefix set when the controller instance was created.
getControllerName	function	public	returns the raw controller name.

Static property routesMap

Name	Type	Description
method	string	HTTP method/verb
delegate	string	Method to delegate the action execution. This method should be declared in the controller or should exist in it's prototype chain.
route	string	The route that is passed over to the express or koa router.
middlewares	array	List of middlewares to apply to a specific action.

Contributions

Contributions are very welcome. There's a lot of room for improvements and new features so feel free to fork the repo and get into it. Also, let me know of any bugs you come across, any help on bug fixing is also a plus!