How to test a file using Node.js

Question

It's the first time I use Node.js and Express. I would create a web scraping. This is my project structure:

WebScrape:
  |_ bin
  |_ node_modules
  |_ public
  |_ routes
  |_ view
  |_ app.js
  |_ package.js
  |_ package-lock.json

I've created a scrape.js file inside routes directory:

var express = require('express');
var fs = require('fs');
var request = require('request');
var cheerio = require('cheerio');
var app = express();

app.get('/scrape', function(req, res) {

    // the URL we will scrape from - in our example Anchorman 2
    url = 'http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1229340/';

    /**
     * The structure of our request call.
     * The first parameter is our URL.
     * The callback function takes 3 parameters: an error, a response status code and the html.
     */
    request(url, function(error, response, html) {

        // check to make sure no errors occurred when making the request
        if(!error) {
            // utilize the cheerio library on the returned html which will essentially give us jQuery functionality
            var $ = cheerio.load(html);

            // finally, we'll define the variables we're going to capture
            var title, release, rating;
            var json = { title : "", release : "", rating : ""};
        }
    }) // end request
}) // end get

app.listen('8081')
console.log('Magic happens on port 8081');

exports = module.exports = app;

How can I test it? Is this the right place to put it?

Answer 1

var express = require('express');
var fs = require('fs');
var request = require('request');
var cheerio = require('cheerio');
var router = express.Router();

router.get('/scrape', function(req, res) {

    // the URL we will scrape from - in our example Anchorman 2
    url = 'http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1229340/';

    /**
     * The structure of our request call.
     * The first parameter is our URL.
     * The callback function takes 3 parameters: an error, a response status code and the html.
     */
    request(url, function(error, response, html) {

        // check to make sure no errors occurred when making the request
        if(!error) {
            // utilize the cheerio library on the returned html which will essentially give us jQuery functionality
            var $ = cheerio.load(html);

            // finally, we'll define the variables we're going to capture
            var title, release, rating;
            var json = { title : "", release : "", rating : ""};
        }
    }) // end request
}) // end get

exports = module.exports = router;

Generally, app.js listens on ports for requests. You use express.Router to further extend and add routes in seperate router files.

In app.js you have to do this to actually add the routes:

const routes = require('./routes/scraper.js');

// app is the express() app
app.use(routes);