Improve WebApp.connectHandlers.use documentation

core
1

Currently the docs contain the following example (docs and source):

/* global WebApp Assets */
import crypto from 'crypto'
import connectRoute from 'connect-route'

WebApp.connectHandlers.use(connectRoute(function (router) {
    router.get('/', function (req, res, next) {
        const buf = Assets.getText('index.html')

        if (buf.length > 0) {
            const eTag = crypto.createHash('md5').update(buf).digest('hex')

            if (req.headers['if-none-match'] === eTag) {
                res.writeHead(304, 'Not Modified')
                return res.end()
            }

            res.writeHead(200, {
                ETag: eTag,
                'Content-Type': 'text/html'
            })

            return res.end(buf);
        }

        return res.end('<html><body>Index page not found!</body></html>')
    })
}))

I do not see why connect-route gets pulled in. Can exactly the same result not be achieved without it and with less code? On top of that, connect-route has not had a commit in four years.

1 Like
2

Mmh, wait a minute. Does WebApp.connectHandlers.use work with request params (/a/b/c/:param)?

3

Personally I always hook in express. This also allows you to use all available express middleware and bypass the limitations (incl bad docs) for WebAppp.connectHandlers. Besides express is very light-weight.

const express = require('express')
const app = express()

app.get('some/route', (req, res, next) => { ... }

WebApp.connectHandlers.use(app)
4

No, it does not. The reason is that it uses connect underneath it. If you want to use it like that you need Picker

1 Like
5

@satya That looks cool. First cons I see is bundle size. Express is huge. I do not know how well your example can be tree shaken. Even if it only ends up in the server bundle, that could perhaps harm build time. I’ll see.

@storyteller Picker looks cool but I fear for introducing another legacy package. Are you maintaining it?

6

Express is server side so bundle size should usually not be important.

7

Picker has been forked under community packages, that fork has been updated and is being maintained by me.