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express-negotiate

0.0.6 • Public • Published

express-negotiate

Express content negotiation functions.

Installation

$ npm install express-negotiate

Usage

Require the module to add the request.negotiate method:

var express = require('express')
    , negotiate = require('express-negotiate');

Then use in the route handler:

app.get('/index', function(req, res, next) {
    req.negotiate({
          'application/json': function() {
            res.send('{ message: "Hello World" }');
        }
        , 'html': function() {
            res.send('<html><body><h1>Hello World</h1></body></html>');
        }
        , 'default': function() {
            // send HTML anyway
            res.send('<html><body><h1>Hello World</h1></body></html>');
        }
    });
});

Each handler key is either a full mimetype string, or a file extension string.

Specifiying priority

When multiple handlers are acceptable for satisfying the request, then any may be used the request (it is typically the first specified, however this is dependent on the javascript engine implementation).

To prioritise handlers, simply append a quality in the same notation as the client uses when specifying an Accept header:

app.get('/index', function(req, res, next) {
    req.negotiate({
          'application/json;q=0.9': function() {
            res.send('{ message: "Hello World" }');
        }
        , 'application/html;q=1.1': function() {
            res.send('<html><body><h1>Hello World</h1></body></html>');
        }
        , 'default': function() {
            // send HTML anyway
            res.send('<html><body><h1>Hello World</h1></body></html>');
        }
    });
});

Note that the handler priority is only used after the priorities specified by any Accept header in the request have been considered. A priority cannot be specified on the 'default' handler.

Combining handlers

When the same handler can be used for multiple types, then they can be combined in the string:

app.get('/index', function(req, res, next) {
    req.negotiate({
          'application/json;q=0.9': function() {
            res.send('{ message: "Hello World" }');
        }
        , 'html;q=1.1,default': function() {
            res.send('<html><body><h1>Hello World</h1></body></html>');
        }
    });
});

Handling unacceptable requests

If there are no acceptable handlers, and no 'default' handler is specified, then req.negotiate will throw a negotiate.NotAcceptable error. This can be caught and handled using express error handling:

app.get('/index', function(req, res, next) {
    req.negotiate({
          'application/json': function() {
            res.send('{ message: "Hello World" }');
        }
    });
});
 
app.error(function(err, req, res, next) {
    if (err instanceof negotiate.NotAcceptable) {
        res.send('Sorry, I dont know how to return any of the content types requested', 406);
    } else {
        next(err);
    }
});

In some cases, it is preferable to call next(err) rather than throw an error. If negotiate is passed the 'next' callback function, it will call that instead:

app.get('/index', function(req, res, next) {
    req.negotiate(next, {
          'application/json': function() {
            res.send('{ message: "Hello World" }');
        }
    });
});

Allowing route filename extensions to override Accept header

By parsing out any filename extension on the route, and passing this to req.negotiate, the client can force a particular Content-Type regardless of the Accept header.

app.get('/index.:format?', function(req, res, next) {
    req.negotiate(req.params.format, {
          'application/json': function() {
            res.send('{ message: "Hello World" }');
        }
    });
});

Picking up the filename extension on a "catch-all" route is a little trickier. The following example uses a regex to achieve this:

app.get(/^.*?(?:\.([^\.\/]+))?$/, function(req, res) {
    req.negotiate(req.params[0], {
          'json;q=0.9': function() {
            res.send({ error: 404, message: 'Not Found' }, 404);
        }
        , 'html;q=1.1,default': function() {
            res.statusCode = 404;
            res.send('<html><body><h1>Not Found</h1></body></html>');
        }
    });
});

License

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2011 Chris Leishman <chris@leishman.org>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

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Install

npm i express-negotiate

Repository

github.com/chrisleishman/express-negotiate

Homepage

github.com/chrisleishman/express-negotiate#readme

Weekly Downloads

21

Version

0.0.6

License

none

Unpacked Size

10.9 kB

Total Files

6

Last publish

Collaborators

  • chrisleishman
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