Organizing an Express App

Warmup

Given the code that you currently have in the index.js file:

• Walk through each line of code and describe what it’s doing.
• How might you split the code in the routing functions into smaller functions?
• How might you split it into separate files?

Creating a Paper Model

With a partner see if you can extract methods to create a Paper model.

• What will this file be called?
• Where will you put it?
• What are its responsibilities?
• Are there things currently in the routing functions that are specifically not the responsibility of the model?
• Go ahead and see if you can move your code and ensure that everything still works.

Share

Creating a Papers Controller

With a partner see if you can extract methods to create a Papers Controller.

• What code from our app.js looks like it might belong in a controller?
• How could you extract that code in to a function or functions?
• If you had to extract this code to another file, what questions would you have?
• Go ahead and see if you can move your code and ensure that everything still works.

Share

Routes

# lib/routes/api/v1/footnotes.js

const express = require('express');
const router  = express.Router();
const footnotesController = require('../../../controllers/footnotes_controller')

router.get('/', footnotesController.index);

module.exports = router

# index.js
const footnotes = require('./lib/routes/api/v1/footnotes')

app.use('/api/v1/footnotes', footnotes)

Questions

Express is not as opinionated as Rails when it comes to orgnizing our app.

• Can you think of another way to organize these responsibilities?
• What advantages/disadvantages do you see to an unopinionated framework over a more opinionated framework?

Going Further

See lesson plan.