How do I separate one route in a different module and "require it" in index.js?

Question

I have a Node/Express application, and I need to move one route to a different file. This is my index.js.

'use strict';

let express         = require('express'),
    bodyParser      = require('body-parser'),
    logger          = require('morgan'),
    _               = require('lodash');



let app = express();
app.use(logger('combined'));
app.use(express.static('public'));
app.use(bodyParser.json({}));
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }));

console.log("I am open");

let users = [///stuff    ];

let games = [];


// Handle POST to create a user session
app.post('/v1/session', function(req, res) {
    // do things
});

// Handle POST to create a new user account
app.post('/v1/user', function(req, res) {
    // do things
});

// Handle GET to fetch user information
app.get('/v1/user/:username', function(req, res) {
    // do things
});

// Handle POST to create a new game
app.post('/v1/game', function(req, res) {
    // do things
});

// Handle GET to fetch game information
app.get('/v1/game/:id', function(req, res) {
    // do things
});


let server = app.listen(8080, function () {
    console.log('Example app listening on ' + server.address().port);
});

I want to have a new server side route (GET /v1/game/shuffle?jokers=false), but I don't quite understand how to separate it into a new file, perhaps in ./routes/shuffleRoute.js.

I read through this one, but I don't quite understand it due to the file names being similar. How to separate routes on Node.js and Express 4?

And I'm just trying to separate one route, not all.

Answer 1

Create a file in routes, called shuffleRoute.js. In this file write something like

var express = require('express');
var router = express.Router();
router.get("/shuffle", function (req, res, next) {
    // magic here
});

router.get("/:id", function (req, res, next) {
    // more magic here
});

module.exports = router;

and in your server.js

app.get("/v1/games", require("./routes/shuffleRoute.js"));

It's important to node that in your case, as you are using a param for id, your shuffle route needs to come before the :id route. Otherwise express will interpret shuffle as an id (which will hopefully not be an id)

If you only want to "outsource" "/v1/games/shuffle, make sure that comes before app.get("/v1/games/:id"...) in your server.js file