union

What is union?

The 'union' npm package is a hybrid routing HTTP server with a powerful middleware ecosystem. It is designed to create custom Node.js HTTP servers by combining various middleware and routing logic. Union is particularly useful for building applications that require a high level of customization in their HTTP server behavior.

What are union's main functionalities?

Custom Server Creation

This code sample demonstrates how to create a custom HTTP server using Union. The 'before' array allows you to add middleware functions that process requests before they reach your main logic.

const union = require('union');
const http = require('http');

const server = union.createServer({
  before: [
    function (req, res) {
      res.emit('next');
    }
  ]
});

server.listen(3000, function () {
  console.log('Server running on port 3000');
});

Middleware Integration

This example shows how to integrate a routing library, 'director', as middleware in a Union server. The router's dispatch method is bound and used as middleware, allowing for route handling within the Union server.

const union = require('union');
const director = require('director');

const router = new director.http.Router();
const server = union.createServer({
  before: [
    function (req, res) {
      res.emit('next');
    },
    router.dispatch.bind(router)
  ]
});

Other packages similar to union

express

Express is a widely used web application framework for Node.js, designed for building web applications and APIs. It is more abstracted and less flexible in terms of raw HTTP handling compared to Union, but it offers a simpler, more feature-rich interface for common server tasks.

connect

Connect is an extensible HTTP server framework for node using 'plugins' known as middleware, similar to Union. It is the foundation upon which Express was built. While Connect is more minimalistic compared to Union, it serves a similar purpose in allowing middleware to be chained for request handling.

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 Union, Koa uses a modern approach with generators and async/await to ditch callbacks and greatly increase error-handling capabilities.

README

Synopsis

A hybrid streaming middleware kernel backwards compatible with connect.

Motivation

The advantage to streaming middlewares is that they do not require buffering the entire stream in order to execute their function.

Status

Installation

There are a few ways to use union. Install the library using npm. You can add it to your package.json file as a dependancy

  $ [sudo] npm install union

Usage

Union's request handling is connect-compatible, meaning that all existing connect middlewares should work out-of-the-box with union.

(Union 0.3.x is compatible with connect >= 2.1.0)

In addition, the response object passed to middlewares listens for a "next" event, which is equivalent to calling next(). Flatiron middlewares are written in this manner, meaning they are not reverse-compatible with connect.

A simple case

var fs = require('fs'),
    union = require('../lib'),
    director = require('director');

var router = new director.http.Router();

var server = union.createServer({
  before: [
    function (req, res) {
      var found = router.dispatch(req, res);
      if (!found) {
        res.emit('next');
      }
    }
  ]
});

router.get(/foo/, function () {
  this.res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' })
  this.res.end('hello world\n');
});

router.post(/foo/, { stream: true }, function () {
  var req = this.req,
      res = this.res,
      writeStream;

  writeStream = fs.createWriteStream(Date.now() + '-foo.txt');
  req.pipe(writeStream);

  writeStream.on('close', function () {
    res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
    res.end('wrote to a stream!');
  });
});

server.listen(9090);
console.log('union with director running on 9090');

To demonstrate the code, we use director. A light-weight, Client AND Server side URL-Router for Node.js and Single Page Apps!

A case with connect

Code based on connect

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('my secret here'))
  .use(connect.session())
  .use(function (req, res) {
    res.end('Hello from Connect!\n');
  });

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

Code based on union

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

var server = union.createServer({
  buffer: false,
  before: [
    connect.favicon(),
    connect.logger('dev'),
    connect.static('public'),
    connect.directory('public'),
    connect.cookieParser('my secret here'),
    connect.session(),
    function (req, res) {
      res.end('Hello from Connect!\n');
    },
  ]
}).listen(3000);

SPDY enabled server example

API

union Static Members

createServer(options)

The options object is required. Options include:

Specification

  function createServer(options)

  @param options {Object}
  An object literal that represents the configuration for the server.

    @option before {Array}
    The `before` value is an array of middlewares, which are used to route and serve incoming
    requests. For instance, in the example, `favicon` is a middleware which handles requests
    for `/favicon.ico`.

    @option after {Array}
    The `after` value is an array of functions that return stream filters,
    which are applied after the request handlers in `options.before`.
    Stream filters inherit from `union.ResponseStream`, which implements the
    Node.js core streams api with a bunch of other goodies.

    @option limit {Object}
    (optional) A value, passed to internal instantiations of `union.BufferedStream`.

    @option https {Object}
    (optional) A value that specifies the certificate and key necessary to create an instance of
    `https.Server`.

    @option spdy {Object}
    (optional) A value that specifies the certificate and key necessary to create an instance of
    `spdy.Server`.

    @option headers {Object}
    (optional) An object representing a set of headers to set in every outgoing response

Example

var server = union.createServer({
  before: [
    favicon('./favicon.png'),
    function (req, res) {
      var found = router.dispatch(req, res);
      if (!found) {
        res.emit('next');
      }
    }
  ]
});

An example of the https or spdy option.

{
  cert: 'path/to/cert.pem',
  key: 'path/to/key.pem',
  ca: 'path/to/ca.pem'
}

An example of the headers option.

{
  'x-powered-by': 'your-sweet-application v10.9.8'
}

Error Handling

Error handler is similiar to middlware but takes an extra argument for error at the beginning.

var handle = function (err, req, res) {
  res.statusCode = err.status;
  res.end(req.headers);
};

var server = union.createServer({
  onError: handle,
  before: [
    favicon('./favicon.png'),
    function (req, res) {
      var found = router.dispatch(req, res);
      if (!found) {
        res.emit('next');
      }
    }
  ]
});

BufferedStream Constructor

This constructor inherits from Stream and can buffer data up to limit bytes. It also implements pause and resume methods.

Specification

  function BufferedStream(limit)

  @param limit {Number}
  the limit for which the stream can be buffered

Example

var bs = union.BufferedStream(n);

HttpStream Constructor

This constructor inherits from union.BufferedStream and returns a stream with these extra properties:

Specification

  function HttpStream()

Example

var hs = union.HttpStream();

HttpStream Instance Members

url

The url from the request.

Example

httpStream.url = '';

headers

The HTTP headers associated with the stream.

Example

httpStream.headers = '';

method

The HTTP method ("GET", "POST", etc).

Example

httpStream.method = 'POST';

query

The querystring associated with the stream (if applicable).

Example

httpStream.query = '';

ResponseStream Constructor

This constructor inherits from union.HttpStream, and is additionally writeable. Union supplies this constructor as a basic response stream middleware from which to inherit.

Specification

  function ResponseStream()

Example

var rs = union.ResponseStream();

Tests

All tests are written with vows and should be run with npm:

  $ npm test

Licence

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2010-2012 Charlie Robbins & the Contributors Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.