connect

What is connect?

The connect npm package is a middleware layer for Node.js, designed to be used as a part of the 'http' module. It allows developers to create a series of middleware functions to handle requests and responses in a sequential manner. Connect is often used to set up middleware that can perform various tasks such as logging, parsing, session handling, and more.

What are connect's main functionalities?

Logging

This feature allows you to log every request that comes into the server with the method and URL.

const connect = require('connect');
const app = connect();

// Middleware for logging
function logger(req, res, next) {
  console.log('%s %s', req.method, req.url);
  next();
}

app.use(logger);

app.listen(3000);

Static File Serving

This feature serves static files from a specified directory, in this case, 'public'.

const connect = require('connect');
const serveStatic = require('serve-static');
const app = connect();

app.use(serveStatic('public'));

app.listen(3000);

Body Parsing

This feature allows you to parse the body of incoming requests in middleware before handling them.

const connect = require('connect');
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
const app = connect();

app.use(bodyParser.json());

app.use(function(req, res) {
  res.end(JSON.stringify(req.body));
});

app.listen(3000);

Cookie Parsing

This feature allows you to parse cookies attached to the client request object.

const connect = require('connect');
const cookieParser = require('cookie-parser');
const app = connect();

app.use(cookieParser());

app.use(function(req, res) {
  res.end(JSON.stringify(req.cookies));
});

app.listen(3000);

Other packages similar to connect

express

Express is a web application framework for Node.js, built on top of connect. It extends connect's middleware model with additional functionality like routing, template engine support, and more. Express is more feature-rich and is considered a de facto standard for Node.js web applications.

koa

Koa is a web framework designed by the creators of Express, aiming to be a smaller, more expressive, and more robust foundation for web applications and APIs. Koa uses async functions to eliminate callbacks and greatly increase error-handling capabilities. It does not bundle any middleware within its core, and it provides an elegant suite of methods that make writing servers fast and enjoyable.

hapi

Hapi is a rich framework for building applications and services. It enables developers to focus on writing reusable application logic instead of spending time building infrastructure. Hapi is known for its powerful plugin system and comprehensive API.

restify

Restify is a Node.js web service framework optimized for building semantically correct RESTful web services ready for production use at scale. It is somewhat similar to Express but is more focused on enabling the building of correct REST web services.

README

Connect

Connect is an extensible HTTP server framework for node, providing high performance "plugins" known as middleware.

Connect is bundled with over 20 commonly used middleware, including a logger, session support, cookie parser, and more. Be sure to view the 2.x documentation.

var connect = require('connect')
  , http = require('http');

var app = connect()
  .use(connect.favicon())
  .use(connect.logger('dev'))
  .use(connect.static('public'))
  .use(connect.directory('public'))
  .use(connect.cookieParser())
  .use(connect.session({ secret: 'my secret here' }))
  .use(function(req, res){
    res.end('Hello from Connect!\n');
  });

http.createServer(app).listen(3000);

Middleware

• csrf
• basicAuth
• bodyParser
• json
• multipart
• urlencoded
• cookieParser
• directory
• compress
• errorHandler
• favicon
• limit
• logger
• methodOverride
• query
• responseTime
• session
• static
• staticCache
• vhost
• subdomains
• cookieSession

Running Tests

first:

$ npm install -d

then:

$ make test

Authors

Below is the output from git-summary.

 project: connect
 commits: 2033
 active : 301 days
 files  : 171
 authors: 
  1414	Tj Holowaychuk          69.6%
   298	visionmedia             14.7%
   191	Tim Caswell             9.4%
    51	TJ Holowaychuk          2.5%
    10	Ryan Olds               0.5%
     8	Astro                   0.4%
     5	Nathan Rajlich          0.2%
     5	Jakub Nešetřil          0.2%
     3	Daniel Dickison         0.1%
     3	David Rio Deiros        0.1%
     3	Alexander Simmerl       0.1%
     3	Andreas Lind Petersen   0.1%
     2	Aaron Heckmann          0.1%
     2	Jacques Crocker         0.1%
     2	Fabian Jakobs           0.1%
     2	Brian J Brennan         0.1%
     2	Adam Malcontenti-Wilson 0.1%
     2	Glen Mailer             0.1%
     2	James Campos            0.1%
     1	Trent Mick              0.0%
     1	Troy Kruthoff           0.0%
     1	Wei Zhu                 0.0%
     1	comerc                  0.0%
     1	darobin                 0.0%
     1	nateps                  0.0%
     1	Marco Sanson            0.0%
     1	Arthur Taylor           0.0%
     1	Aseem Kishore           0.0%
     1	Bart Teeuwisse          0.0%
     1	Cameron Howey           0.0%
     1	Chad Weider             0.0%
     1	Craig Barnes            0.0%
     1	Eran Hammer-Lahav       0.0%
     1	Gregory McWhirter       0.0%
     1	Guillermo Rauch         0.0%
     1	Jae Kwon                0.0%
     1	Jakub Nesetril          0.0%
     1	Joshua Peek             0.0%
     1	Jxck                    0.0%
     1	AJ ONeal                0.0%
     1	Michael Hemesath        0.0%
     1	Morten Siebuhr          0.0%
     1	Samori Gorse            0.0%
     1	Tom Jensen              0.0%

Node Compatibility

Connect < 1.x is compatible with node 0.2.x

Connect 1.x is compatible with node 0.4.x

Connect (master) 2.x is compatible with node 0.6.x

CLA

http://sencha.com/cla

License

View the LICENSE file. The Silk icons used by the directory middleware created by/copyright of FAMFAMFAM.