How to structure a express.js application?

by

I have mine broken up as follows:

~/app
|~controllers
| |-monkey.js
| |-zoo.js
|~models
| |-monkey.js
| |-zoo.js
|~views
| |~zoos
|   |-new.jade
|   |-_form.jade
|~test
|  |~controllers
|    |-zoo.js
|  |~models
|    |-zoo.js
|-index.js

I use Exports to return what’s relevant. For instance, in the models I do:

module.exports = mongoose.model('PhoneNumber', PhoneNumberSchema);

and then if I need to create a phone number, it’s as simple as:

var PhoneNumber = require('../models/phoneNumber');
var phoneNumber = new PhoneNumber();

if I need to use the schema, then PhoneNumber.schema

(which assumes that we are working from the routes folder and need to go 1 level up and then down to models)

EDIT 4

The express wiki has a list of frameworks built on top of it.

Of those, I think Twitter’s matador is structured pretty well. We actually used a very similar approach to how they load up parts of the app.

derby.js also looks extremely interesting. It’s akin to meteor without all of the hype and actually gives credit where credit is due (notably, node and express).

EDIT 3

If you are a fan of CoffeeScript (I am not) and reeeeaaaaaally want the L&F of Rails, there is also Tower.js.

EDIT 2

If you are familiar with Rails and don’t mind the bleed-over of some concepts there is Locomotive. It is a light-weight framework built on Express. It has a very similar structure as RoR and carries over some of the more rudimentary concepts (such as routing).

It’s worth checking out even if you don’t plan to use it.

EDIT 1

nodejs-express-mongoose-demo is very similar to how I have mine structured. Check it out.

More Related Contents:

  1. Client on Node.js: Uncaught ReferenceError: require is not defined
  2. How to access POST form fields in Express
  3. Error: request entity too large
  4. Node.js global variables
  5. Render basic HTML view?
  6. Using socket.io in Express 4 and express-generator’s /bin/www
  7. How do I remove documents using Node.js Mongoose?
  8. Rest with Express.js nested router
  9. What is NODE_ENV and how to use it in Express?
  10. TypeError: Router.use() requires middleware function but got a Object
  11. How to convert CSV to JSON in Node.js
  12. SyntaxError: expected expression, got ‘
  13. using AngularJS html5mode with nodeJS and Express
  14. TypeScript import/as vs import/require? [duplicate]
  15. Running multiple Node (Express) apps on same port
  16. How to send flash messages in Express 4.0?
  17. Node + Express with static HTML. How to route all requests to index.html?
  18. res.sendfile in Node Express with passing data along
  19. How to get updated document back from the findOneAndUpdate method?
  20. Loop through asynchronous request
  21. Can I determine if a string is a MongoDB ObjectID?
  22. Node.js / Express.js – How to override/intercept res.render function?
  23. Does every object in JS have a toString() method?
  24. MissingSchemaError: Schema hasn’t been registered for model “User”
  25. Calling Express Route internally from inside NodeJS
  26. multer – req.file always undefined
  27. In Node.js/Express, how do I automatically add this header to every “render” response?
  28. express.js – how to intercept response.send() / response.json()
  29. Node.js passing parameters to client via express render
  30. Can’t get rid of header X-Powered-By:Express

Leave a Comment