Expressjs Development

Express.js Development Skill

This skill provides comprehensive guidance for building production-ready web applications and REST APIs using Express.js, covering routing, middleware, request/response handling, error handling, authentication, validation, and deployment best practices.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Building RESTful APIs for web and mobile applications
• Creating backend services and microservices
• Developing web servers with server-side rendering
• Implementing API gateways and proxy servers
• Building real-time applications with WebSocket support
• Creating middleware-based request processing pipelines
• Developing authentication and authorization systems
• Implementing file upload and download services
• Building webhook handlers and integrations
• Creating serverless functions with Express

Core Concepts

Application Setup

Express applications are built by creating an instance of Express and configuring middleware and routes.

Basic Express Application:

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

// Middleware
app.use(express.json());
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }));

// Routes
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.send('Hello World!');
});

// Start server
const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3000;
app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`Server running on port ${PORT}`);
});

Application with Configuration:

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

// App settings
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3000);
app.set('env', process.env.NODE_ENV || 'development');
app.set('trust proxy', 1); // Trust first proxy

// View engine setup (optional)
app.set('view engine', 'ejs');
app.set('views', './views');

// Static files
app.use(express.static('public'));

// Body parsing
app.use(express.json());
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }));

module.exports = app;

Routing

Routing refers to how an application's endpoints (URIs) respond to client requests.

Basic Routes:

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

// HTTP Methods
app.get('/users', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ message: 'Get all users' });
});

app.post('/users', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ message: 'Create user' });
});

app.put('/users/:id', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ message: `Update user ${req.params.id}` });
});

app.delete('/users/:id', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ message: `Delete user ${req.params.id}` });
});

// Multiple methods on same route
app.route('/users/:id')
  .get((req, res) => res.json({ message: 'Get user' }))
  .put((req, res) => res.json({ message: 'Update user' }))
  .delete((req, res) => res.json({ message: 'Delete user' }));

Route Parameters:

// Single parameter
app.get('/users/:userId', (req, res) => {
  const { userId } = req.params;
  res.json({ userId });
});

// Multiple parameters
app.get('/users/:userId/posts/:postId', (req, res) => {
  const { userId, postId } = req.params;
  res.json({ userId, postId });
});

// Optional parameters with regex
app.get('/users/:userId/posts/:postId?', (req, res) => {
  // postId is optional
  res.json(req.params);
});

// Parameter validation
app.param('userId', (req, res, next, id) => {
  // Validate or transform parameter
  if (!id.match(/^\d+$/)) {
    return res.status(400).json({ error: 'Invalid user ID' });
  }
  req.userId = parseInt(id);
  next();
});

Query Strings:

// GET /search?q=express&limit=10&page=2
app.get('/search', (req, res) => {
  const { q, limit = 20, page = 1 } = req.query;
  res.json({
    query: q,
    limit: parseInt(limit),
    page: parseInt(page)
  });
});

Router Modules:

// routes/users.js
const express = require('express');
const router = express.Router();

router.get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ message: 'Get all users' });
});

router.get('/:id', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ message: `Get user ${req.params.id}` });
});

router.post('/', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ message: 'Create user' });
});

module.exports = router;

// app.js
const usersRouter = require('./routes/users');
app.use('/api/users', usersRouter);

Middleware

Middleware functions have access to the request object (req), the response object (res), and the next middleware function in the application's request-response cycle.

Application-Level Middleware:

// Executed for every request
app.use((req, res, next) => {
  console.log(`${req.method} ${req.path}`);
  next();
});

// Executed for specific path
app.use('/api', (req, res, next) => {
  req.startTime = Date.now();
  next();
});

// Multiple middleware functions
app.use(
  express.json(),
  express.urlencoded({ extended: true }),
  cookieParser()
);

Router-Level Middleware:

const router = express.Router();

// Middleware for all routes in this router
router.use((req, res, next) => {
  console.log('Router middleware');
  next();
});

// Middleware for specific route
router.get('/users',
  authMiddleware,
  validationMiddleware,
  (req, res) => {
    res.json({ users: [] });
  }
);

Built-in Middleware:

// Parse JSON bodies
app.use(express.json());

// Parse URL-encoded bodies
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }));

// Serve static files
app.use(express.static('public'));
app.use('/uploads', express.static('uploads'));

Third-Party Middleware:

const cors = require('cors');
const helmet = require('helmet');
const morgan = require('morgan');
const compression = require('compression');

// Security headers
app.use(helmet());

// CORS
app.use(cors({
  origin: 'https://example.com',
  credentials: true
}));

// Logging
app.use(morgan('combined'));

// Compression
app.use(compression());

Custom Middleware:

// Request logging middleware
function requestLogger(req, res, next) {
  const start = Date.now();

  res.on('finish', () => {
    const duration = Date.now() - start;
    console.log(`${req.method} ${req.path} ${res.statusCode} ${duration}ms`);
  });

  next();
}

// Authentication middleware
function requireAuth(req, res, next) {
  const token = req.headers.authorization?.split(' ')[1];

  if (!token) {
    return res.status(401).json({ error: 'No token provided' });
  }

  try {
    const decoded = jwt.verify(token, process.env.JWT_SECRET);
    req.user = decoded;
    next();
  } catch (error) {
    res.status(401).json({ error: 'Invalid token' });
  }
}

// Request validation middleware
function validateUser(req, res, next) {
  const { email, password } = req.body;

  if (!email || !password) {
    return res.status(400).json({
      error: 'Email and password are required'
    });
  }

  if (!email.includes('@')) {
    return res.status(400).json({ error: 'Invalid email' });
  }

  next();
}

app.use(requestLogger);
app.post('/login', validateUser, loginHandler);
app.get('/protected', requireAuth, protectedHandler);

Request Object

The request object represents the HTTP request and has properties for query strings, parameters, body, headers, etc.

Request Properties:

app.post('/api/users/:id', (req, res) => {
  // Route parameters
  const { id } = req.params;

  // Query string
  const { sort, filter } = req.query;

  // Request body
  const { name, email } = req.body;

  // Headers
  const userAgent = req.get('User-Agent');
  const contentType = req.get('Content-Type');

  // Request info
  const method = req.method;
  const path = req.path;
  const url = req.url;
  const baseUrl = req.baseUrl;
  const protocol = req.protocol;
  const hostname = req.hostname;
  const ip = req.ip;

  // Cookies (requires cookie-parser)
  const { sessionId } = req.cookies;

  res.json({ id, name, email });
});

Request Methods:

app.post('/upload', (req, res) => {
  // Check content type
  if (req.is('application/json')) {
    // Handle JSON
  }

  // Check accept header