How to Organize NodeJs Routes

A few routes in a NodeJs app -- no problem. Just put them in your app.js. More than a handful? You'll probably want to look at organizing your routes a different way. This will help keep your core app.js clean and make your actual routes easier to find.

Express Routes

The favorite http framework on NodeJs seems to be Express. I personally like it quite a bit. It's simple, declarative, and allows you to set up all the normal HTTP commands with ease.

Did you know that Express comes with a binary/cli command called express. This command will setup a project structure and a lot of the boilerplate code for you. The docs contain a guide on how to run this. It has support for other cool options like session support or various css preprocessors.

A sample run and the file structure that it will create looks something like this:

$ express --sessions --css stylus --ejs myapp

create : myapp
create : myapp/package.json
create : myapp/app.js
create : myapp/public
create : myapp/public/javascripts
create : myapp/public/images
create : myapp/public/stylesheets
create : myapp/public/stylesheets/style.styl
create : myapp/routes
create : myapp/routes/index.js
create : myapp/views
create : myapp/views/index.ejs

In that generated code, your app.js references a route like this:

var routes = require('./routes');
app.get('/', routes.index);

And the route, index.js, looks like:

exports.index = function(req, res){
  res.render('index', { title: 'Express' });
};

I like this, but it's still not the best. I don't like having to list the app.get(), etc. in app.js. This list will get long. So, how would I adjust?

All http commands in separate files

Instead, I want to tell app.js about my routes, but I want each route file to hook itself up to express directly.

Showing the adjustments, app.js:

var app = express();
var indexRt = require('./routes/index')(app);

This time, more goodies in index.js:

module.exports = function (app) {
  app.get('/', function (req, res) {
    res.render('index');
  });
}

The difference is somewhat slight. Now, instead of each http command listed in your app, only each resource (in REST terms) is listed in app. Each command for a resource is listed in that resource's route.js.

There are surely many ways to organize your NodeJs routes. Express gives a great starting pattern. Our adjustment adds a slight optimization. Organizing your routes will help your main app.js file stay way cleaner, and you'll be able to find your routes more easily.

But this surely can't be the best way for everyone. What are the ways that you've found successful in organizing your routes?

Note: this post uses express 3 syntax.