ctl

NodeCTL

NodeCTL is an easy way to manage all those routes and ugly handlers in ExpressJS or some other library.

How it works

In the most basic usage, it would be something like this:

server.js

var express = require('express');
var app = express.createServer();
app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.use(express.cookieParser('keyboard cat'));
app.use(express.session({ cookie: { maxAge: 60000 }}));
app.use(flash());
require('./controller.js').route(app);
app.listen(80);

controller.js

var host = require('ctl').init();
exports.route = function (server) {
	host.bind("/", function (page) {
		page.write("hello, world!");
	});
	host.serve(server);
}

Installation

npm install ctl

Please try it out! If you like it please say thank you. Or better, if you find bugs, have questions, or feedback, feel free to email me at [e-mail].

More Information

NodeCTL is really easy to use. The way it works is instead of the normal way of handling all this ugly stuff in req and res, that stuff is dealt with by a more civilized Request object that handles all of that for you (In the example, this object is passed in as page). Of course, this object is fully customizable, extendible, and interchangable by yours truly (see Advanced Usage).

The details of the standard Request object is listed below for your use and reference.

require('ctl').init([defaults]) - This function optionally takes defaults as values that are sent to the template engine for rendering (see render below).

defaults - Is a property holding the object you passed in with init().

headers() - Returns all of the headers from the client's request.

next() - Goes to the next handler (see express documentation)

accepts(mimetype) - Checks to see if mimetype is in the accept part of the header.

set(key,val) - Sets the session variable key with value val.

get(key) - Gets the value of the session variable key.

param(name,default) - This is used to get the variables from GET, POST or from the URL. Example uses of this is shown in the examples folder.

redirect(url) - Pretty straightforward. Redirects (with status 302) to url.

json(obj) - Responds with obj as a json string and ends the request.

write(str) - Responds with str and ends the request.

render(tmpl,params) - Renders the template tmpl as you would in ExpressJS, passing in the parameters params to the template. Note that you can set some default parameters that will be sent along if they are not specified by render (of course, render can overwrite defaults).

Advanced Usage

The init function actually has two parameters. The first being defaults and the second being a function that creates the actual request object. This function returns the object require('ctl').Request which contains all of the methods listed above. You can change the request object binded by the controller by passing in your own makeRequest function and returning your own controller.

require('ctl').init([[defaults], makeRequest(req,res)])

If you are still confused, just read the concise host.js file, or ask a question in issues.

Contact & Licensing

Feel free to use this for whatever you like, but don't blame me if someone loses an eye.

If you are using this, I'd love to hear about your project. It's great to know my code is being used somewhere by someone.

Leander Lee
[e-mail]