What is @vercel/express?
@vercel/express is a lightweight wrapper around the Express.js framework, designed to work seamlessly with Vercel's serverless functions. It allows developers to create APIs and web applications using the familiar Express.js syntax while optimizing for serverless environments.
What are @vercel/express's main functionalities?
Creating a basic server
This code demonstrates how to create a basic server using @vercel/express. It sets up a simple GET route that responds with 'Hello World!' when accessed. This is similar to how you would set up a server using Express.js, but optimized for deployment on Vercel.
const express = require('@vercel/express');
const app = express();
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
res.send('Hello World!');
});
module.exports = app;
Middleware support
This example shows how to use middleware in @vercel/express. Middleware functions have access to the request and response objects and can modify them or end the request-response cycle. This is useful for logging, authentication, and other pre-processing tasks.
const express = require('@vercel/express');
const app = express();
app.use((req, res, next) => {
console.log('Request URL:', req.originalUrl);
next();
});
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
res.send('Hello World!');
});
module.exports = app;
Route handling
This code demonstrates route handling with dynamic parameters using @vercel/express. It sets up a route that captures a user ID from the URL and responds with it. This feature is useful for creating RESTful APIs.
const express = require('@vercel/express');
const app = express();
app.get('/user/:id', (req, res) => {
res.send(`User ID: ${req.params.id}`);
});
module.exports = app;
Other packages similar to @vercel/express
express
Express is a fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework for Node.js. It is the original framework that @vercel/express is based on. While Express is more feature-rich and widely used, @vercel/express is specifically optimized for serverless environments on Vercel.
fastify
Fastify is a web framework highly focused on providing the best developer experience with the least overhead and a powerful plugin architecture. Compared to @vercel/express, Fastify is known for its speed and low overhead, making it a good choice for high-performance applications.
koa
Koa is a new web framework designed by the team behind Express, aiming to be a smaller, more expressive, and more robust foundation for web applications and APIs. Unlike @vercel/express, Koa uses async functions and is more modular, allowing developers to build applications with a more modern JavaScript syntax.