barista

Barista is a simple URL router for NodeJS.

In a nutshell

router.get( '/:beverage/near/:location(.:format)' )
      .to( 'beverage.byLocation' )

router.first( '/coffee/near/90210', 'GET' )
// -> { controller:'beverage', action:'byLocation', beverage:'coffee', location:90210 }

router.url({
  controller: 'beverage',
  action: 'byLocation',
  beverage: 'coffee',
  location: 90210,
  format: 'json'
})
// -> '/coffee/near/90210.json'

Getting Barista

Install via npm, thusly:

npm install barista

Using Barista

var Router = require('barista').Router;

var router = new Router;

Adding routes

A simple example

router.match( '/products', 'GET' )
      .to( 'products.index' )

Rails-esque variable names

router.match( '/products/:id', 'GET' )
      .to( 'products.show' )

router.match( '/profiles/:username', 'GET' )
      .to( 'users.show' )

router.match( '/products/:id(.:format)', 'GET' )
      .to( 'products.show' )

Globs (they also capture slashes)

router.get('/timezones/*tzname')
      .to( 'timezones.select' )

router.first( '/timezones/America/Toronto', 'GET' )
// -> { controller:'timezones', action:'select', tzname:'America/Toronto' }


router.match( '/*path(.:format)' ) // a "catch-all" route:
      .to( 'errors.notFound' )

router.first( '/somewhere/that/four-oh-fours.json', 'GET' )
// -> { controller:'errors', action:'notFound', path:'somewhere/that/four-oh-fours', format:'json' }

Match conditions

router.match( '/:beverage/near/:zipcode', 'GET' )
      .to( 'beverage.byZipCode' )
      .where({
        // an array of options
        beverage: [ 'coffee', 'tea', 'beer', 'warm_sake' ],
        // a regex pattern
        zipcode: /^\d{5}(-\d{4})?$/
      })

router.match( '/:beverage/near/:location', 'GET' )
      .to( 'beverage.byLocation' )
      .where({
        // could be a postal code
        // OR a zip code
        // OR the word 'me' (geolocation FTW)
        location: [ /^\d{5}(-\d{4})?$/, /^[ABCEGHJKLMNPRSTVXY]{1}\d{1}[A-Z]{1} *\d{1}[A-Z]{1}\d{1}$/, 'me' ]
      })

Convenience methods

router.get( '/products/:id(.:format)' )
      .to( 'products.show' )

router.put( '/products/:id(.:format)' )
      .to( 'products.update' )

router.post( '/products' )
      .to( 'products.create' )

router.del( '/products' )
      .to( 'products.destroy' )

router.options( '/products' )
      .to( 'products.options' )

REST Resources

router.resource( 'products' )

is equivalent to:

router.get( '/products(.:format)' )
      .to( 'products.index' )

router.get( '/products/add(.:format)' )
      .to( 'products.add' )

router.get( '/products/:id(.:format)' )
      .to('products.show' )

router.get('/products/:id/edit(.:format)' )
      .to( 'products.edit' )

router.post('/products(.:format)' )
      .to( 'products.create' )

router.put('/products/:id(.:format)' )
      .to( 'products.update' )

router.del('/products/:id(.:format)' )
      .to( 'products.destroy' )

Removing Routes

In some cases, you will need to remove routes on a running router. The router.remove( name ) method will work for this, but requires use of the otherwise unused route.name( name ) method.

Adding a name (currently only used with this functionality)

router.match( '/products/:id', 'GET' )
      .to( 'products.show' )
      .name('products_show')

Removing a named route

router.remove('products_show')

Resolution & dispatching

The router.first( url, method [, callback] ) method can be used in two ways:

var params = router.first( '/products/15', 'GET' )

OR

router.first( '/products/15', 'GET', function( params ){
  // dispatch the request or something
})

You can get all the matching routes like so:

var params = router.all( '/products/15', 'GET' )

//=> [params, params, params....]

Route generation

Pass in a params hash, get back a tasty string:

router.url( {
  controller: 'products',
  action: 'show',
  id: 5
} )
//=> '/products/5'

router.url( {
  controller: 'products',
  action: 'show',
  id: 5,
  format: 'json'
} )
//=> '/products/5.json'

Set the optional second parameter to true if you want extra params appended as a query string:

router.url({
  controller: 'products',
  action: 'show',
  id: 5,
  format: 'json',
  love: 'cheese'
}, true )
//=> '/products/5.json?love=cheese'

Caveats & TODOs

nested optional segments are currently unsupported. e.g. this won't work:

router.get( '/:controller(/:action(/:id(.:format)))' )

nesting routes & resources is also still on the TODO list

Things I forgot...

...might be in the /docs folder...

...or might not exist at all.

It's broken!

Shit happens.

Write a test that fails and add it to the tests folder, then create an issue!

Patches welcome :-)

Who are you?

I'm Kieran Huggins, partner at Refactory in Toronto, Canada.