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Sub-apps

Sub-apps form the basis of the application. They are self-contained Express apps that can be mounted at a particular url.

Basic structure

Each sub-app should contain a recognised structure. This structure can change slightly based on its size.

Each should normally contain:

  • an index loader which exports router, displayName (optional), mountpath (optional)
  • a router
  • controllers
  • views

It can also contain:

  • middleware
  • repos
  • services

Components

Index loader

The loader is responsible for exporting the basic items needed for the sub-app.

  • router the express router that contains the routes to mount
  • displayName [optional] used to create a breadcrumb item for routes within this sub-app
  • mountpath [optional] the path all routes will be nested under

Router

Express documentation

This is where all routes are defined. It sets what middleware and controllers should be called for each route and also any sub-app level middleware that should be called.

Controllers

Controllers should be thin and not contain much logic. They should be responsible for deciding what action should be taken at the end of a route, normally rendering a view but often redirecting to a different URL.

Naming convention

TBD

Views

Views contain markup and components that are required for this route.

Middleware

Sub-app specific middleware or logic that is required for multiple routes within the sub-app.

Naming convention

TBD

API

Contain calls to the API and are responsible for sending/receiving data.

Transformers

Handle logic required to transform data to and from the API.

File structure

For small sub-apps it may not warrant splitting the code into folder and files but for larger apps it is suggested to help maintain the code.

A small app should start using this folder structure:

views/
controllers.js
middleware.js
index.js
router.js

As the app grows controllers, middlware, repos and services can be expanded to a folder structure:

views/
controllers/
  details.js
  edit.js
  index.js
  list.js
middleware/
  details.js
  form.js
  index.js
index.js
router.js

When a folder structure is added, index loaders should be added to each folder so that references don't need to be updated.

This is also the reason for using plurals even for smaller apps.