Schemas with zod

Part of the REST APIs section of Coddy's Node.js journey. Lesson 7 of 18.

Hand checks grow with every field and every route. A zod schema describes the shape once, and safeParse tests a value against it:

import { z } from 'zod';

const Event = z.object({
    name: z.string().trim().min(1).max(80),
    seats: z.number().int().min(1),
}).strict();

const result = Event.safeParse(req.body);
if (!result.success) {
    return res.status(400).json({ error: z.flattenError(result.error) });
}
// result.data holds the checked body, with name trimmed

.strict() refuses fields the schema does not list. Event.partial() makes every field optional, which is what a PATCH needs, and Event.partial({ seats: true }) only seats. z.flattenError lists the problems by field. Event.parse does the same check but throws on a bad value, and a throw in a route becomes a 500.

Challenge

Easy

Replace the hand checks with a Task schema: title a trimmed string of 1 to 100 characters, done a boolean, .strict().
POST (done optional, default false), PATCH (all optional) and PUT use safeParse; a bad body answers 400 with z.flattenError(result.error) as error.

Send POST with { "title": " Order new chairs ", "color": "red" }, then without color.

Try it yourself

import { Router } from 'express';
import { nextId, tasks } from '../store.js';

const router = Router();

// Why a title cannot be stored, or null when it can.
const titleError = (title) => {
    if (typeof title !== 'string' || title.trim() === '' || title.length > 100) {
        return 'title must be a string of 1 to 100 characters';
    }
    return null;
};

router.get('/', (req, res) => {
    res.json(tasks);
});

router.get('/:id', (req, res) => {
    const task = tasks.find((t) => t.id === Number(req.params.id));
    if (!task) {
        return res.status(404).json({ error: 'Task not found' });
    }
    res.json(task);
});

router.post('/', (req, res) => {
    const { title } = req.body ?? {};
    const problem = titleError(title);
    if (problem) {
        return res.status(400).json({ error: problem });
    }
    const task = { id: nextId(), title, done: false, createdAt: new Date().toISOString() };
    tasks.push(task);
    res.status(201).location(`/api/tasks/${task.id}`).json(task);
});

router.patch('/:id', (req, res) => {
    const task = tasks.find((t) => t.id === Number(req.params.id));
    if (!task) {
        return res.status(404).json({ error: 'Task not found' });
    }
    const { title, done } = req.body ?? {};
    if (title !== undefined && titleError(title)) {
        return res.status(400).json({ error: titleError(title) });
    }
    if (done !== undefined && typeof done !== 'boolean') {
        return res.status(400).json({ error: 'done must be true or false' });
    }
    if (title !== undefined) task.title = title;
    if (done !== undefined) task.done = done;
    res.json(task);
});

router.put('/:id', (req, res) => {
    const index = tasks.findIndex((t) => t.id === Number(req.params.id));
    if (index === -1) {
        return res.status(404).json({ error: 'Task not found' });
    }
    const { title, done } = req.body ?? {};
    if (title === undefined || done === undefined) {
        return res.status(400).json({ error: 'PUT needs every field: title and done' });
    }
    const { id, createdAt } = tasks[index];
    tasks[index] = { id, title, done, createdAt };
    res.json(tasks[index]);
});

router.delete('/:id', (req, res) => {
    const index = tasks.findIndex((t) => t.id === Number(req.params.id));
    if (index === -1) {
        return res.status(404).json({ error: 'Task not found' });
    }
    tasks.splice(index, 1);
    res.status(204).end();
});

export default router;