rainbow

Rainbow

A node Express router middleware for Ajax RESTful API base on certain folder path.

Rainbow mapping all HTTP request route to controllers folder each as path to file as URL.

Installation

$ npm install rainbow

Usage

In your express application main file app.js:

var express = require('express');
var rainbow = require('rainbow');

var app = express();

// Here using Rainbow to initialize all routers
rainbow.route(app);

app.listen(6060);

Controllers

All your controllers for catching HTTP request should be defined in each file in controllers/ folder (could be changed) as same path in URL.

This is the core design for Rainbow! And it makes routing much simpler only by files' paths!

Here writes a router something.js in your controllers/ folder like this:

exports.get = {
	// filters were introduced below
	filters: ['authorization'],
	// your real business process handler
	process: function (req, res, next) {
		res.send(200, 'Got you!');
	}
};

If you don't need any filters, just write simplier like this:

exports.get = function (req, res, next) {
	res.send(200, 'Simple getting.');
};

Also you could define other HTTP methods handlers, but make sure in one file each URL! Example in controllers/user.js:

exports.get = function (req, res, next) {
	User.find({where: req.query.name}).success(function (user) {
		res.send(200, user);
	});
};

exports.put = function (req, res, next) {
	User.create(req.body).success(function (user) {
		res.send(201, user.id);
	});
};

// You can also define `post` and `delete` handlers.
// ...

If you want all methods to be process in only one controller(something not RESTful), just make exports to be the handle function:

module.exports = function (req, res, next) {
	// all your process
};

Notice

Rainbow controllers only design for tranditional URL form like /path?query=value but not like /path/user/:id yet.

In rich Ajax apps tranditional URL form could be more useful. However, Rainbow may consider param form URL in future versions.

Filters

Make sure the filters you need had been defined in filters/ folder (could be changed) as same module name, because them will be required when initilizing. Here authorization.js is a example for intecepting by non-authenticated user before GET http://yourapp:6060/something:

module.exports = function (req, res, next) {
	console.log('processing authorization...');
	var session = req.session;
	
	if (session.userId) {
		console.log('user(%d) in session', session.userId);
		next();
	} else {
		console.log('out of session');
		// Async filter is ok with express!
		db.User.find().success(function (user) {
			if (!user) {
				res.send(403);
				res.end();
			}
		});
	}
};

You could see filters is as same as a origin router in Express, just be put together in filters/ folder to be interceptors like in Java SSH.

Change default path

Controllers and filters default path could be changed by passing a path config object to route function when initializing:

rainbow.route(app, {
	controllers: 'your/controllers/path',
	filters: 'your/filters/path'
});

These paths are all RELATIVE to your app path!

Troubleshooting

1. Gmail me: mytharcher
2. Write a issue
3. Send your pull request to me.

MIT Licensed

-EOF-