index.md

ftrouter

A minimal file tree based api router for building rest api's with node

About

RouteX started as a clone of the Next.js' Api Routes implmentation and is now on it's path to compete with other frameworks as the simplest way to setup API routes. There's been numerous posts on why using the folder tree makes it atomic and easier to handle the separation between logic. While you cannot bundle code with routex since each file is independent of the other and doesn't need the others for its execution.

The Idea and Inspiration for the creation remains to be Vercel's Next.js

Perks

• Custom Port and Directory
• Minimal so can be used with any bundler or process handler.
• Performance focused
• Pre-compiled state for handling route requests

Performance

Screenshot of autocannon to benchmark /api from the examples folder

Warning

This library is still in active development and is bound to have bugs , kindly make sure you use it only for testing and not for production as of now.

Installation

Stable Cli

# for global install to avoid installing the devDependencies
npm i -g barelyhuman/routex --only=prod
# for local install to avoid installing the devDependencies
npm i barelyhuman/routex --only=prod

Canary Cli

# for global install to avoid installing the devDependencies
npm i -g barelyhuman/routex#canary --only=prod
# for local install to avoid installing the devDependencies
npm i barelyhuman/routex#canary --only=prod

Usage

You can run routex in any folder and the .js files will be considered as routes. The CLI considers the api folder to be the root and will pass down http req,res to the exported function.

Then go ahead and create directories and files under any folder as mentioned or check the examples folder for reference.

Example file tree:

We create a folder example you might want to call it something like routes and point routex to it using -d ./routes to give you an http Server running for the files inside of the routes folder.

-example
  - api
    - me.js // this compiles to <host>:<port>/api/me
    - [id].js; // this compile to <host>:<port>/api/<dynamicParameterId>

Example me.js that only handles GET requests:

module.exports = (req, res) => {
  if(req.method === 'GET'){
    res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
    res.write('Hello World!');
    res.end();
    return;
  }

  res.statusCode = 404;
  res.end();
  return;
};

Example [id].js that handles the dynamic path param:

GET|POST|DELETE /api/1

module.exports = (req, res) => {
    res.write('path param ' + JSON.stringify(req.params)) // {"id":1};
    res.end();
};

Then run routex on the root folder of the project, this folder should contain the api folder or specify a directory using the -d or --dir command.

# If installed globally
routex -d ./example
# If installed locally
npx routex -d ./example

CLI Commands

• -d | --dir to specify the directory to be used for routes, defaults to api
• -p | --port to specify the port to start the http server on , defaults to 3000

Example, the following would use the example folder as the base path for the routes and start the server on port 3001

  routex -d ./example -p 3001