Node.js Express 4 routes

Question

Since I am new to Express 4, I will try to make my question as simple as possible. I have been referring to some online tutorials and a confusion has raised.

Normally, the Express 4 setup for app.js has the following type of routes code

.
.
.
var routes = require('./routes/index');
var users = require('./routes/users');
.
.
.

app.use('/', routes);
app.use('/users', users);

I use either Get or Post with whatever parameters, the above works perfect. However, in another tutorial, I see it done differently -like this

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

I am confused, because normally, I use the app.get method inside the /routes/index.js file OR for anything user related, I use the app.get method in /routes/users.js

Why do we use the app.get directly in the app.js file rather then in the /routes/user.js or /routes/index.js files. Is there any special purpose for doing it this way?

Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks, in advance.

Answer 1

We all have specific ways that we like to do things. I say this is one of that situations. Only special purpose that I can think of for these types is that some implementations are more suitable for some scenarios.

Example that I have given below is another way of implementing this. I completely move all codes related to routes to another file because I do not need to access router in the app.js

If I want to access router in the app.js , I would have used one of the above implementations.

//We can pass both app, express or just app based on our requirements.

//app.js
require('./app/routes.js')(app, express);

//app/routes.js
module.exports  = function(app, express) {
    var router = express.Router();

      router.route('/users')
       .get(function(req,res){
           //......
       });

    app.use('/', router);
};

I hope you got my point.