How to include route handlers in multiple files in Express

Question

In my NodeJS express application I have app js that has a few common routes  Then in a wf js file I would like to define a few more routes    How can I get app js to recognize other route handlers defined in wf js file    A simple require does not seem to work

User · Answer

Even though this an older question I stumbled here looking for a solution to a similar issue. After trying some of the solutions here I ended up going a different direction and thought I would add my solution for anyone else who ends up here.

In express 4.x you can get an instance of the router object and import another file that contains more routes. You can even do this recursively so your routes import other routes allowing you to create easy to maintain url paths. For example if I have a separate route file for my '/tests' endpoint already and want to add a new set of routes for '/tests/automated' I may want to break these '/automated' routes out into a another file to keep my '/test' file small and easy to manage. It also lets you logically group routes together by URL path which can be really convenient.

Contents of ./app.js:

var express = require('express'),
    app = express();

var testRoutes = require('./routes/tests');

// Import my test routes into the path '/test'
app.use('/tests', testRoutes);

Contents of ./routes/tests.js

var express = require('express'),
    router = express.Router();

var automatedRoutes = require('./testRoutes/automated');

router
  // Add a binding to handle '/tests'
  .get('/', function(){
    // render the /tests view
  })

  // Import my automated routes into the path '/tests/automated'
  // This works because we're already within the '/tests' route so we're simply appending more routes to the '/tests' endpoint
  .use('/automated', automatedRoutes);
 
module.exports = router;

Contents of ./routes/testRoutes/automated.js:

var express = require('express'),
    router = express.Router();

router
   // Add a binding for '/tests/automated/'
  .get('/', function(){
    // render the /tests/automated view
  })

module.exports = router;

User · Answer

I wrote a small plugin for doing this  got sick of writing the same code over and over   https   www npmjs com package js-file-req  Hope it helps

User · Answer

index js const express   require  quot express quot    const app   express    const http   require  http    const server   http createServer app  listen 3000   const router    global router    express Router      app use   books   require    routes books    app use   users   require    routes users    app use router    routes users js const router   global router router get       req  res    gt        res jsonp  name   John Smith       module exports   router  routes books js const router   global router router get       req  res    gt        res jsonp  name   Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama       module exports   router  if you have your server running local  http   localhost 3000  then    Users curl --request GET  localhost 3000 users    gt   name   John Smith       Books curl --request GET  localhost 3000 users    gt   name   Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

User · Answer

This is possibly the most awesome stack overflow question answer s  ever  I love Sam s Brad s solutions above  Thought I d chime in with the async version that I implemented   function loadRoutes folder       if   folder           folder     dirname     routes               fs readdir folder  function err  files           var l   files length          for  var i   0  i  lt  l  i                 var file   files i               fs stat file  function err  stat                   if  stat  amp  amp  stat isDirectory                         loadRoutes folder         file                           else                       var dot   file lastIndexOf                           if  file substr dot   1       js                            var name   file substr 0  dot                               I m also passing argv here  from optimist                             so that I can easily enable debugging for all                            routes                          require folder   name  app  argv                                                                                 My directory structure is a little different  I typically define routes in app js  in the root directory of the project  by require-ing    routes   Consequently  I m skipping the check against index js because I want to include that one as well   EDIT  You can also put this in a function and call it recursively  I edited the example to show this  if you want to nest your routes in folders of arbitrary depth

User · Answer

Full recursive routing of all  js files inside  routes folder  put this in app js      Initialize ALL routes including subfolders var fs   require  fs    var path   require  path     function recursiveRoutes folderName        fs readdirSync folderName  forEach function file             var fullName   path join folderName  file           var stat   fs lstatSync fullName            if  stat isDirectory                  recursiveRoutes fullName             else if  file toLowerCase   indexOf   js                  require        fullName  app               console log  require      fullName                              recursiveRoutes  routes       Initialize it   in  routes you put whatevername js and initialize your routes like this   module exports   function app        app get      function req  res            res render  index     title   index                   app get   contactus   function req  res            res render  contactus     title   contactus

User · Answer

If you re using express-4 x with TypeScript and ES6  this would be the best template to use   src api login ts  import express    Router  Request  Response   from  express    const router  Router   express Router       POST  user signin router post   signin   async  req  Request  res  Response    gt        try           res send  OK          catch  e            res status 500  send e toString                export default router    src app ts  import express    Request  Response   from  express   import compression from  compression       compresses requests import expressValidator from  express-validator   import bodyParser from  body-parser   import login from    api login    const app   express     app use compression     app use bodyParser json     app use bodyParser urlencoded   extended  true      app use expressValidator      app get   public hc    req  Request  res  Response    gt      res send  OK         app use   user   login    app listen 8080       gt        console log  Press CTRL-C to stop n          Much cleaner than using var and module exports

User · Answer

I know this is an old question  but I was trying to figure out something like for myself and this is the place I ended up on  so I wanted to put my solution to a similar problem in case someone else has the same issues I m having  There s a nice node module out there called consign that does a lot of the file system stuff that is seen here for you  ie - no readdirSync stuff   For example   I have a restful API application I m trying to build and I want to put all of the requests that go to   api    to be authenticated and I want to store all of my routes that go in api into their own directory  let s just call it  api    In the main part of the app   app use   api    authenticationMiddlewareFunction   require    routes api       Inside of the routes directory  I have a directory called  api  and a file called api js  In api js  I simply have   var express   require  express    var router   express Router    var consign   require  consign        get all routes inside the api directory and attach them to the api router    all of these routes should be behind authorization consign  cwd   routes       include  api      into router    module exports   router    Everything worked as expected  Hope this helps someone

User · Answer

If you want to put the routes in a separate file  for example routes js  you can create the routes js file in this way   module exports   function app        app get   login   function req  res           res render  login                 title   Express Login                             other routes       And then you can require it from app js passing the app object in this way   require    routes   app     Have also a look at these examples      https   github com visionmedia express tree master examples route-separation

User · Answer

you can put all route functions in other files modules    and link it to the main server file  in the main express file  add a function that will link the module to the server      function link routes app  route collection          route collection  get   forEach route   gt  app get route path  route func           route collection  post   forEach route   gt  app post route path  route func           route collection  delete   forEach route   gt  app delete route path  route func           route collection  put   forEach route   gt  app put route path  route func           and call that function for each route model   link routes app  require    login js      in the module files for example - login js file   define the functions as usual   const login screen    req  res    gt        res sendFile      dirname  pages login html        const forgot password    req  res    gt        console log  we will reset the password here       and export it with the request method as a key and the value is an array of objects  each with path and function keys   module exports        get    path     func login screen               post    path   login forgotPassword   func forgot password

User · Answer

And build yet more on the previous answer  this version of routes index js will ignore any files not ending in  js  and itself   var fs   require  fs     module exports   function app        fs readdirSync   dirname  forEach function file            if  file      index js     file substr file lastIndexOf        1       js               return          var name   file substr 0  file indexOf                require        name  app

User · Answer

If you want a separate  js file to better organize your routes  just create a variable in the app js file pointing to its location in the filesystem   var wf   require   routes wf     then   app get   wf   wf foo      where  foo is some function declared in your wf js file  e g      wf js file  exports foo   function req res              console log   request object is   req   response object is   res

User · Answer

I am trying to update this answer with  express     4 16 3   This answer is the similar as ShortRound1911   server js   x000D   x000D  const express   require  express    x000D  const mongoose   require  mongoose    x000D  const bodyParser   require  body-parser    x000D  const db   require    src config db    x000D  const routes   require    src routes    x000D  const port   3001  x000D   x000D  const app   new express    x000D   x000D       use body-parser x000D  app use bodyParser urlencoded   extended  true      x000D   x000D       fire connection x000D  mongoose connect db url   err  database    gt    x000D    if  err  return console log err   x000D   x000D         fire the routes x000D    app use      routes   x000D   x000D    app listen port       gt    x000D      console log  we are live on     port   x000D        x000D      x000D   x000D   x000D     src routes index js   x000D   x000D  const express   require  express    x000D  const app   express    x000D   x000D  const siswaRoute   require    siswa route    x000D   x000D  app get       req  res    gt    x000D    res json  item   Welcome ini separated page        x000D     x000D   use   siswa   siswaRoute   x000D   x000D  module exports   app  x000D   x000D   x000D     src routes siswa route js   x000D   x000D  const express   require  express    x000D  const app   express    x000D   x000D  app get       req  res    gt    x000D    res json  item   Siswa page        x000D      x000D   x000D  module exports   app  x000D   x000D   x000D    I hope this can help someone  Happy coding

User · Answer

One tweak to all of these answers   var routes   fs readdirSync  routes          filter function v            return    js    test v               Just use a regex to filter via testing each file in the array  It is not recursive  but it will filter out folders that don t end in  js

User · Answer

Building on  ShadowCloud  s example I was able to dynamically include all routes in a sub directory   routes index js  var fs   require  fs     module exports   function app       fs readdirSync   dirname  forEach function file            if  file     index js   return          var name   file substr 0  file indexOf                require        name  app               Then placing route files in the routes directory like so   routes test1 js  module exports   function app        app get   test1    function req  res                                other routes       Repeating that for as many times as I needed and then finally in app js placing  require    routes   app

[node.js] How to include route handlers in multiple files in Express?

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