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Exercise: Express Routing

Objective#

Your objective is to create a server using Express.js with Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) endpoints for interacting with mock user data.

Getting Started#

Fork and clone the node exercise repository.

Steps#

Exercise 1: Direct Requests to Routes#

In your server.js file:

  1. Use a default import to import router from the router/index.js file
  2. Use app.use() to handle all requests matching "/api" with router

Exercise 2: Create User CRUD Routes#

In routes/:

  1. Create a new file named users.route.js

  2. Import express from the express package

  3. Import db from mockdb/ (make sure to adjust the path relative to the current file)

    • db is a mock database service with CRUD methods to interact with the mock data

  4. Create a variable named router, and assign the return value from express.Router() as its value

  5. Create a get route that matches the path /:id?

  6. Create a post route that matches the path /

  7. Create a put route that matches the path /:id

  8. Create a delete route that matches the path /:id

  9. For each route, pass a second parameter that resembles:

    async (req, res, next) => {
    try {
    // TODO
    } catch (error) {
    next(error);
    }
    }

  10. Export router as the default export

We will direct paths already matching "/api/users" to these routes

Exercise 3: Finish the GET Users Route#

In the try block of the request handler for GET requests, set up the following:

  1. Destructure id from req.params
    • req.params is an object that contains the parsed key/value pairs from the url parameters
  2. Declare a variable named data
    • do not assign it a value
  3. Create an if/else statement that checks if id is truthy
    • if it is, data should be the result of await db.getOne(id)
    • if it isn't, data should be the result of await db.getAll()
  4. Send data as the json response to the request

Exercise 4: Finish the POST Users Route#

In the try block of the request handler for POST requests, set up the following:

  1. Declare a variable named newUser and assign it the value of req.body
    • req.body is an object that contains the parsed request body as JSON
  2. Declare a variable named data and assign it the value of await db.add(newUser)
  3. Send data as the json response to the request

Exercise 5: Finish the PUT Users Route#

In the try block of the request handler for PUT requests, set up the following:

  1. Destructure id from req.params
    • req.params is an object that contains the parsed key/value pairs from the url parameters
  2. Declare a variable named updatedUser and assign it the value of req.body
    • req.body is an object that contains the parsed request body as JSON
  3. Declare a variable named data and assign it the value of await db.update(id, updatedUser)
  4. Send data as the json response to the request

Exercise 6: Finish the DELETE Users Route#

In the try block of the request handler for DELETE requests, set up the following:

  1. Destructure id from req.params
    • req.params is an object that contains the parsed key/value pairs from the url parameters
  2. Declare a variable named data and assign it the value of await db.remove(id)
  3. Send data as the json response to the request

Exercise 7: Direct Requests to User Routes#

In routes/index.js:

  1. Import the router as userRouter from users.route.js
  2. Use router.use() to handle all requests matching "/users" with userRouter

Test your routes with the browser or postman. If there are any errors, go back to users.route.js and see if you can resolve the issues. Happy Hacking!

Helpful Links#

If you feel stuck, or would like to see the finished code for this exercise to check your work, check out: