Controller Builder

This package contains decorators that can be used in an Express application. These decorators allow you to easily define and mount HTTP routes for your Express server.

Installation

To use this module, you must first install it using npm:

# using npm
npm install @dlvlup/controllerbuilder

# using yarn
yarn add @dlvlup/controllerbuilder

# using pnpm
pnpm add @dlvlup/controllerbuilder

Dependencies

• This module requires the express package to be installed and imported in your code.
• This module requires the reflect-metadata package to be installed and imported in your code.

Usage

This module exports three decorators that can be used to define HTTP routes in your Express application: @HttpRoute, @Get, and @Post. This decorators can be used on a class that extends BaseController class which is exported also from the package. That way we can define a controller like so:

HttpRoute

The @HttpRoute decorator is a class decorator that allows you to define HTTP routes for your Express server. This decorator takes a string argument that specifies the name of the route.

Only one of this should be declared on top of the class that will extend BaseController

import {BaseController} from "@dlvlup/controllerbuilder";
import {HttpRoute} from "@dlvlup/controllerbuilder/lib/decorators";

@HttpRoute('example-name')
class ExampleController extends BaseController {
    // ...
}

Get

The @Get decorator is a method decorator that allows you to define a GET route for your Express server. This decorator takes a string argument that specifies the endpoint of the route.

import {BaseController} from "@dlvlup/controllerbuilder";
import {Get, HttpRoute} from "@dlvlup/controllerbuilder/lib/decorators";
import {Request, Response, NextFunction} from 'express';

@HttpRoute('example-name')
class ExampleController extends BaseController {

    @Get('/exampleGetRoute')
    async exampleGetFunction(req: Request, res: Response, next: NextFunction) {
        // ...
    }
}

Post

The @Post decorator is a method decorator that allows you to define a POST route for your Express server. This decorator takes a string argument that specifies the endpoint of the route.

import {BaseController} from "@dlvlup/controllerbuilder";
import {HttpRoute, Post} from "@dlvlup/controllerbuilder/lib/decorators";
import {Request, Response, NextFunction} from 'express';

@HttpRoute('example-name')
class ExampleController extends BaseController {

    @Post('/examplePostRoute')
    async examplePostFunction(req: Request, res: Response, next: NextFunction) {
        // ...
    }
}

Middleware

The @Middleware decorator is a method decorator that allows you to specify middleware for a route. This decorator takes a function argument that executes before the route specific function.

import {BaseController} from "@dlvlup/controllerbuilder";
import {HttpRoute, Post, Middleware} from "@dlvlup/controllerbuilder/lib/decorators";
import {Request, Response, NextFunction} from 'express';

@HttpRoute('example-name')
class ExampleController extends BaseController {

    @Post('/exampleRouteWithMiddleware')
    @Middleware((req: Request, res: Response, next: NextFunction) => {
        // ...code to execute
        next();
    })
    public examplePostFunctionWithMiddleware(req: Request, res: Response) {
        // ...
    }
}

Mounting controllers

To be able to see these routes on your express app we call the constructor of each controller class passing our express app to each. This is what we call "Mounting the controllers".

In your App.ts do something like:

// import your controllers as an default array of modules preferably
import Controllers from './controllers';
import express, {Express} from "express";

const app: Express = express()
    .use(express.json())
    .use(cors());

Controllers.forEach(controller => new controller(app));

Now all the routes will be "mounted" on your express app and accessible when your app start listening.

Notes

• These decorators are not meant to be used as regular functions.