connect
- high performance middleware framework for node
Connect is a high performance middleware framework for node featuring robust middleware for serving static files, advanced routing, cookie and session implementations, error handling and much more.
Below is an example which shows usage of the logger middleware bundled with Connect, as well as staticProvder.
var connect = require('connect');
var server = connect.createServer(
connect.logger(),
connect.staticProvider(__dirname + '/public')
);
server.listen(3000);
Connect middleware is simply a function which accepts the request, response objects. Optionally the third parameter next can be used to continue down the middleware stack. For example below is a middleware layer that simply responds with "hello world".
function helloWorld(req, res) {
res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
res.end('hello world');
}
connect.createServer(helloWorld).listen(3000);
Lets say we now have some middleware that will require a setup step, this can be done by returning a closure:
function respond(msg) {
msg = msg || 'hello world';
return function(req, res) {
res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
res.end(msg);
}
}
connect.createServer(respond('wahoo')).listen(3000);
To pass control to the next middleware layer, we may call the next()
function with an optional instanceof Error
.
Middleware with four parameters is an error handling middleware, the err
object can then be logged, used to issue a response, ignored, etc.
function fail(req, res, next) {
// Exceptions thrown will be automatically passed to next()
// however for custom exceptions / async exceptions you may pass them
next(new Error('something broke!'));
}
function errorHandler(err, req, res, next) {
res.writeHead(500, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
res.end(err.stack);
}
connect.createServer(fail, errorHandler).listen(3000);
To make your middleware available to others, typically you write a module, and export the function itself:
// delay.js
module.exports = function(ms){
ms = ms || 1000;
return function(req, res, next){
setTimeout(next, ms);
}
};
// app.js
// delay one second before continuing down the stack
connect.createServer(require('./delay')(1000)).listen(3000);
Connect ships with several helpful middleware modules, the following are currently provided out of the box:
bodyDecoder Buffers and parses json and urlencoded request bodies (extenable)
conditionalGet Provides 304 "Not Modified" support
errorHandler Handles exceptions thrown, or passed through the stack
gzip Compresses response bodies with gzip executable
lint Aids in middleware development
logger Provides common logger support, and custom log formats
methodOverride Provides faux HTTP method support by using the "_method" key by default
redirect Provides req.redirect() with "magic" urls, ex: req.redirect("back")
compiler Supports arbitrary static compilation of files, currently supports less and sass.
cacheManifest Provides cache manifest for offline apps
jsonrpc Provides JSON-RPC 2.0 support
staticProvider Serves static files
router Provides a feature rich routing API similar to Sinatra and Express
cookieDecoder Provides cookie parsing support
session Provides session support
cache Provides memory caching
repl Read Evaluate Print Loop attached to "/tmp/connect.sock" for inspecting live servers
vhost Virtual host support
To view middleware specific documentation execute:
$ man connect-MIDDLEWARE
For example:
$ man connect-bodyDecoder