Your First Middleware

Part of the Express Basics section of Coddy's Node.js journey. Lesson 11 of 20.

Some work belongs to every request, like writing a line to the log, and copying it into each route would never end.

let visits = 0;

app.use((req, res, next) => {
    visits++;
    next();
});

A function given to app.use is middleware: Express runs it for every request, in the order it was added, before the routes below it. It gets a third argument, next. Calling next() hands the request on to whatever comes next. A middleware that neither answers nor calls next() leaves the request waiting forever.

express.static from the last chapter is middleware too: it answers when it finds a file and calls next() when it does not.

Challenge

Easy

Add a middleware that prints the method and path of every request, like GET /recipes/2.

Send GET /recipes/2 and GET /nope, then read the Console.

Try it yourself

import express from 'express';
import { recipes } from './data.js';

const app = express();

app.use(express.static('public'));

const escapeHtml = (text) =>
    text
        .replaceAll('&', '&amp;')
        .replaceAll('<', '&lt;')
        .replaceAll('>', '&gt;')
        .replaceAll('"', '&quot;');

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
    const items = recipes.map((r) => `<li><a href="/recipes/${r.id}">${escapeHtml(r.title)}</a></li>`);
    res.send(`<link rel="stylesheet" href="/style.css"><h1>Recipe Box</h1><ul>${items.join('')}</ul>`);
});

// type('text') sends plain text, so each title shows on its own line.
app.get('/recipes', (req, res) => {
    const { tag } = req.query;
    const list = tag ? recipes.filter((recipe) => recipe.tags.includes(tag)) : recipes;
    res.type('text').send(list.map((recipe) => recipe.title).join('\n'));
});

app.get('/recipes/:id', (req, res) => {
    const recipe = recipes.find((r) => r.id === Number(req.params.id));
    if (!recipe) {
        res.status(404).send('No such recipe');
        return;
    }
    res.send(recipe.title);
});

app.get('/api/recipes', (req, res) => {
    res.json(recipes);
});

app.get('/api/recipes/:id', (req, res) => {
    const recipe = recipes.find((r) => r.id === Number(req.params.id));
    if (!recipe) {
        res.status(404).json({ error: 'No such recipe' });
        return;
    }
    res.json(recipe);
});

app.get('/about', (req, res) => {
    res.send('Recipe Box collects family recipes.');
});

app.get('/menu', (req, res) => {
    res.redirect(301, '/recipes');
});

app.get('/menu/:id', (req, res) => {
    res.redirect(301, `/recipes/${req.params.id}`);
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
    console.log('Recipe Box is running on port 3000');
});