WayJS

Lightweight and flexible URL pattern matching in JavaScript.

Test:

You'll need mocha to run the tests.

If you already have mocha installed globally you can simply run $ mocha.

If not, you can install the dependencies with $ npm install and then run $ npm test. No need to install mocha with -g or anything.

Minify:

You'll need uglify-js to minify the script.

Install the dependencies with $ npm install and then run $ npm run minify.

Usage:

First thing is to create a new instance.

In browser:

var way = new Way();

With AMD/require.js:

require('way', function(Way) {
  var way = new Way();
});

Or with Node:

var Way, way;
 
Way = require('way');
way = new Way();

Now, to register a new route:

way.map('/hello/world', function() {
  console.log('Hello, world');
});

Then match some path against route table:

var match = way.match('/hello/world');

This will return an object or undefined if no route matches. This object has the collection of actions and parameters.

match.actions; //-> [function() { console.log('Hello, world'); }]
match.params;  //-> {}

You can provide n actions when mapping a route.

way.map('/hello/world', function() {/* 1 */}, function() {/* 2 */}, ...);

Once you have a match, WayJS get out of the way. What to do with the action and parameters is totally up to you.

A common approach is to iterate over the actions, passing the parameters, and if one of them return false, you break the chain:

for(i = 0, t = match.actions.length; t--; i++) {
  if(match.actions[i](match.params) === false) {
    break;
  }
}
 

But that's just a simple suggestion. You can do whatever you need.

Pattern syntax:

Named parameters

Capture anything except forward slashes and save in params with given name.

way.map('/log/:message', function(params) {
  console.log(params.message);
});

Optional groups

Matches with or without the snippet inside the parenthesis.

way.map('(/good)/bye', function() {
  console.log('Farewell!!');
})

Splats

Capture everything, including slashes and save in params.splat. You can include multiple splats, returning an array.

way.map('/goto/*', function(params) {
  console.log('Goto: ', params.splat[0]);
});

All the special syntaxes above can be combined to create powerful matching patterns.

Changelog:

v0.4.0 2013-03-13

• Now Way constructor is properly exposed instead of an instance
• Moved routes out of the constructor to the prototype
• Fixed docs typos and outdated information
• Updated tests accordingly
• Dropped Makefile and in favor of npm scripts

v0.3.4 2012-09-06

• Fixed bug when casting #map arguments as array

v0.3.3 2012-09-05

• Added support for requirejs

v0.3.2 2012-09-05

• Changed to multiple actions instead of allowing multiple matches
• Accepts multiple splats
• Tests updated accordingly

v0.2.1 2012-08-24

• Changed patterns regex to do exact matches

v0.2.0 2012-08-23

• Accepts multiple matches, returning a collection of them
• Fixed bug with parameter values being sliced

v0.1.0 2012-08-21

• First version