Routez

Routez is a simple and lightweight Express based package that allows you to create routes using the file-based routing system similar to NextJS. Which means,

NO MORE ROUTE IMPORTS! 🎉

and

app.use("/api", require("./routes/api"));

If you're interested in NextJS or you've already used it in past, you'll feel right at home. 😁

Getting Started

1. Initialize a new Node.js project,

   npm init -y
   # or
   yarn init -y
   # or
   pnpm init -y
   # or
   bun init -y

2. Install the package,

   npm install routez
   # or
   yarn add routez
   # or
   pnpm add routez
   # or
   bun add routez

3. Create a new file named server.js and add the following code,

   import path from "path";
   import express from "express";
   import { createRouter } from "routez";
   
   const port = process.env.PORT || 3001;
   const app = express();
   createRouter(app);
   
   app.listen(port, () => {
       console.log("Server started on port " + port);
   });

   We suggest using TypeScript for better type safety. If you want to use TypeScript, create a new file named server.ts instead of server.js.

   • If you've a src directory, just add this code and make sure to add the server.js file inside the src directory.

     createRouter(app, {
         directory: path.join(process.cwd(), "src/server"),
     });

4. Create a new directory named app in the root directory of your project (or inside src, if you have one), and create another directory named api inside the app directory.

5. Create a new folder named users inside the api directory and create a new file named route.js inside the users directory.

   export function GET(req, res) {
       res.json({ message: "GET users" });
   }

6. Run the server using the following command,

   node server.js

7. Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:3001/api/users. You should see the following JSON response,

   {
       "message": "GET users"
   }

8. That's it! You've successfully created your first route using Routez. 🎉

If you're using routez with JavaScript, make sure to use import statements instead of require statements. This package does not support CommonJS modules.

Features

• File-based Routing (similar to NextJS): No more route imports! Just create a new file in the app directory and it will be automatically registered as a route.
• TypeScript: Written in TypeScript, so no more type errors!

Configuration

The configuration is done in the createRouter function in here. This function is invoked in the app.ts file. The createRouter function takes two arguments,

Option	Type	Default	Description	Required
app	Express	undefined	The Express app instance.	Yes
options	Options	{}	The options object.	No
options.direrctory	string	path.join(process.cwd(), "app")	The directory where the routes are located.	No

If you want to change the directory where the routes are located, you can do it by changing the options.directory option. Here's an example,

// ... Your existing imports ...
import path from "path";
import express from "express";
import { createRouter } from "./lib";

export function createApp() {
    const app = express();

    // ... Your existing code ...

    createRouter(app, {
        directory: path.join(process.cwd(), "routes"),
    });

    // ... Your existing code ...

    return app;
}

Now, all the routes will be loaded from the routes directory instead of the app directory.

Routes

The routes are defined in the examples/src/app directory. Here's how you can define a route:

src
└── app
    └── api
        ├── users
        │   ├── route.ts
        │   └── [userId]
        │       └── route.ts
        ├── blogs
        │   └── route.ts
        └── uploads
            └── route.ts

• The app directory is the root directory for all the routes.
• The api directory is the root directory for all the API routes. Although, you can change this name to anything you want.
• The users directory is a route for the /users path.
• The route.ts file is the entry point for the /users path.
  • See here for an example.
• The [userId] directory is a route for the /users/:userId path.
  • The :userId is a dynamic parameter. You can access it using req.params.userId.
  • See here for an example.
• Files that are inside the api directory must follow the rules written below,
  • The file must be named as route.ts/route.js. This is the entry point for the route.
  • The file named route.ts must not have a default export.
  • These files can have named exports (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.).
  • See here for an example.

Defining Dynamic Routes

• Dynamic routes are supported both in the api directory and outside of it.
• To define a dynamic route, create a directory with the name of the dynamic parameter inside the directory of the route.
• For example, to define a dynamic route for /users/:userId, create a directory named [userId] inside the users directory.
• The name of the directory must be the same as the name of the dynamic parameter.
• You can access the dynamic parameter using req.params.userId inside the route.ts file.
• See here for an example.

Adding Middleware

You can,

• Add middleware to the whole application by adding it to the app.use function in the app.ts file.

• Or add middleware to a specific route by converting the exported function to an array of functions. See here for an example.

  import { Request, Response } from "express";
  import multer from "multer";
  
  const upload = multer({ dest: "uploads/" });
  
  export const POST = [
      upload.single("file"),
      (req: Request, res: Response) => {
          res.json({
              file: req.file,
          });
      },
  ];

• Thus, the POST function is now an array of functions. The first function is the multer middleware and the second function is the actual route handler.

• You can add as many middleware as you want. Just make sure that the last function is the actual route handler.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Feedback

Feel free to send me feedback on X or file an issue. Feature requests are always welcome. If you wish to contribute, please take a quick look at the guidelines!

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