How do I split up index.js file in a node/mean/express application?

Question

I've got one incredibly long index.js route file for my node/mongo/express application. Here is the structure.

app.js
/models
    Schedule.js
    Task.js
    etc...
/routes
    index.js
/public
    /javascript
    etc...

I want something like this

app.js
/models
    Schedule.js
    Task.js
    etc...
/routes
    index.js
    schedule.js
    tasks.js
    etc...
/public
    /javascript
    etc...

How can I split up my index.js file?

For example, I have tried to do something like this in my app.js file

var routes = require('./routes/index');
var tasks  = require('./routes/tasks');

// later in the file

app.use('/', routes);
app.use('/tasks', tasks);

However, it is not finding my task routes like it did before when I had only the index.js. This is probably because I took all the routes starting with "/task" from my routes/index.js and placed them in routes/task.js, but why express not recognizing the routes in this new file?

Any advice at all would be helpful, my friend and I are very new to the whole meanjs way of doing things, and basically cobbled together what we have from various tutorials. Now we desperately need to refactor, because routes/index.js is getting too long to work with. I did my best to do what makes sense intuitively, could anyone out there give advice on how to break up our routes file?

var tasks = require('./routes/tasks'); should have been var tasks = require('./routes/task'). file name is different. — Olatunde Garuba, May 14 '15 at 00:17
Possible duplicate of [How to include route handlers in multiple files in Express?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6059246/how-to-include-route-handlers-in-multiple-files-in-express) — Incinerator, Jan 14 '18 at 11:41

theWanderer4865 · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-14T16:53:41.310

1

Well, the answer to this question lies in how you import (require in this context) the router instance. Each one of those files should do a module.exports with a router object or something similar where the routes can be mounted on the app instance you create.

For example, have a look at how I do it (with yeoman's help that is) in a project I have on GitHub here, then refer to how the router object is exported for each route like this example.

As another example of doing this, here is an open source project I've been contributing to here. Notice that we have a slightly similar approach here, then have a look at an example route declaration (with the corresponding export) here.

edited May 14 '15 at 16:53

answered May 14 '15 at 00:20

theWanderer4865

861
13
20

Ok. We tried to do it your way with using glob and I can see the merits of that approach. Unfortunately I think our code is too different than yours to immediately switch over like that. I'll be reading the documentation for express js today, mostly because I still don't know what the hell I am doing. I appreciate the response and examples. I might not end up using your solution, but I'm sure it will help others, so I'll give you the accepted. – Zack May 14 '15 at 15:26

How do I split up index.js file in a node/mean/express application?

1 Answers1