drugged

Prototypal extendable HTTP router

Installation

npm install drugged

Example

var util = require('util');
var http = require('http');
var drugged = require('drugged');
 
// Create a router and attach it to a server
var router = new drugged.Router();
var server = http.createServer();
    server.on('request', router.dispatch.bind(router));
    server.listen();
 
// Extend the this keyword
router.attach(function () {
  this.prefix = 'file: ';
});
 
// Setup a simple router
router.get('/:file', function (file) {
  this.res.write(this.prefix + file + '\n');
  this.res.end('query: ' + this.url.search);
});

Documentation

var drugged = require('drugged');

There are two main components one is the required Router and the other is the optional Handle base constructor that you can use to extend the this keyword. You enable this key-feature by using the router.setHandle method.

Router constructor

You create a new router instance by calling drugged.Router.

var router = drugged.Router();

Router.dispatch(req, res)

To handle a server request call the Router.dispatch method with the req and res objects you got.

var router = new drugged.Router(Handle);
var server = http.createServer(router.dispatch.bind(router));
    server.listen(8000, '127.0.0.1');

Router.attach(fn)

When dispatching a request a new Handle object is created. This handle object can then be accessed by using the this keyword route methods. But before that happens you can extend the Handle object by using the attach method.

router.attach(function () {
  // this refer to the Handle object
  this.foo = 'bar';
});

Router.at(path, [method = all], fn)

To create a route handler you should call Rotuer.at.

The path is a string, see the http-hash module documentation for more information on the syntax.

The method argument is optional, if not set the fn will handle all methods, thats useful if you have some other module there takes care of everything.

router.at('/', function () {
  // this refer to the Handle object
  this.req.pipe(somemodule()).pipe(this.res);
});

otherwise the method can be any HTTP method that node.js supports:

router.at('/', 'POST', function () {
  // post message handler
});

Note the case that there is a GET route but no HEAD route, HEAD requests will be handled by the GET route.

router.at('/', 'GET', function () {
  // handles both GET and HEAD requests, but in in the HEAD case res.write
  //  won't write anything.
});
 
// Please note that the POST route still works

You can also set multiply routes at once using an object:

router.at('/', {
  'HEAD': function () { },
  'GET': function () { },
  'POST': function () { }
});
// Please note this will overwrite the previous set GET and HEAD routes and
//  because there now is a HEAD route, it won't be handled by the GET route.

Each route you set will be execute with a variable amount of arguments, where each argument will refer to an parameter (:colon) or splat (*) you might have in your route path.

router.at('/:first/:last/*', function (first, last, splat) {
 
});

Router[method](path, fn)

This is a simple shortcut to router.at where, eq. router.get is is a short cut to router.at(path, 'get', fn).

This shortcut exists for all the HTTP 1.1 methods, for other HTTP methods you must use the router.at method.

router.option(path, fn);
router.get(path, fn);
router.head(path, fn);
router.post(path, fn);
router.put(path, fn);
router.delete(path, fn);
router.trace(path, fn);
router.connect(path, fn);

The main method is drugged.Router it takes a Handle constructor function and returns a new Router instance.

Router.setHandle(Handle)

In case you want use your own Handle constructor use this method. For more information about the custom and default Handle constructor see below.

router.setHandle(Handle);

The default handler is drugged.DefaultHandle, but there is also a predefined drugged.DebugHandle that you can use. This has a special error handler that will print the error and then stop the process.

Handle constructor

You create a Handle constructor by extending the drugged.DefaultHandle constructor function. After this you have the opportunity to do sync/async operations like user authorization. When you are done you must call the callback

function Handle(callback) {
  // Sets `.url`, `.req`, `.res`
  drugged.DefaultHandle.apply(this, arguments);
 
  // Do async or sync stuff
  setTimeout(callback, 10);
}
util.inherits(Handle, drugged.DefaultHandle);

Handle.error(err)

This method is called when an error occur, the drugged.DefaultHandle class has a default error method, but you are welcome to overwrite it.

This is the default error handler and its also an example on how to overwrite it:

DefaultHandle.prototype.error = function (err) {
  var self = this;
  this.res.statusCode = err.statusCode || 500;
  this.res.end(err.message);
};

Errors can come from multiply places, depending on the origin the err object will have a different statusCode property value.

• No matching route was found: 404
• A route was found but the method is unsupported: 405

You can also call error your self, in that case no statusCode will be set.

Handle.req

The native server request object, see node.js documentation.

Handle.res

The native server response object, see node.js documentation.

Handle.url

The url.parse result, but without parseQueryString enabled, see node.js documentation.

The name

I wrote this module while I was medically drugged, which was pretty hard :)