Routing¶

Using Routing Defined in routes.json¶

Although routes.json has been deprecated in Mojito v0.9, you can still attach (use) the configured routes by calling the method attachRoutes from your Mojito instance as shown below:

your app.js:

'use strict';

// Create instances for Express and Mojito as well
// as allowing for debugging.
var debug = require('debug')('app'),
    express = require('express'),
    libmojito = require('mojito'),
    app;

// Create an Express application.
app = express();

//  Mojito extends the functionality of the Express app, so that it Mojito can dispatch mojits, etc.
libmojito.extend(app);

// Use the routes defined in `routes.json`.
app.libmojito.attachRoutes();

Single Route¶

To create a route, you need to create a mojit instance that can be mapped to a path. In the application.json below, the hello instance of type Hello is defined.

application.json

[
  {
    "settings": [ "master" ],
    "specs": {
      "hello": {
        "type": "Hello"
      }
    }
  }
]

The hello instance and a function in the Hello controller can now be mapped to a route path in app.js file. In the app.js below, the index function is called when an HTTP GET call is made on the root path.

app.js

var express = require('express'),
    libmojito = require('mojito'),
    app;

app = express();
libmojito.extend(app);

// map "/" to "hello.index"
app.get('/', libmojito.dispatch('hello.index'));

Routing for Anonymous Mojits¶

Instead of using a mojit instance defined in the application.json, you can create an anonymous instance by prepending “@” to the mojit name. You can then use parametrized paths in app.js to execute an action of the anonymous mojit instacne with the following:

var express = require('express'),
    libmojito = require('mojito'),
    app;

app = express();

// Allow anonymyous mojit instances w/ actions to be dispatched
app.get('/:mojit/:action', libmojito.dispatch("{mojit}.{action}"));

Multiple Routes¶

To specify multiple routes, you simply specify different paths with app.[verb], where verb is any HTTP method.

In the example app.js below, routing paths for /foo, /bar, and /* are defined:

var express = require('express'),
    libmojito = require('mojito'),
    app;

app = express();
libmojito.extend(app);

// Remember that libmojito.dispatch() returns a middleware fn.
app.get('/bar', libmojito.dispatch('bar-1.index', {page: 1, log_request: true}));
app.get('/foo', libmojito.dispatch('foo-1.index'));
app.get('/*', libmojito.dispatch('foo-1.index'));

Adding Routing Parameters¶

You can configure a routing path to have routing parameters by passing an object with key-value pairs to the dispatch method. Your mojits can then access the routing parameters from the ActionContext object using the Params addon.

In the example app.js below, the routing parameters page and log_request are passed to dispatch`, allowing a mojit controller To get the value for ``page using ac.params.getFromRoute("page").

var express = require('express'),
    libmojito = require('mojito'),
    app;

app = express();
libmojito.extend(app);

libmojito.dispatch('foo-1.index', { page: 1, log_request: true}));
/* OR the verbose way
    app.get('/*', function (req, res, next) {
        req.params.page = 1;
        req.params.log_request = true;
        next();
    }, libmojito.dispatch('foo-1.index'));
*/

Using Parameterized Paths to Call a Mojit Action¶

Your routing configuration can also use parameterized paths to call mojit actions. We looked at this feature in Routing for Anonymous Mojits.

In the app.js below, the :mojit_action property uses parameters to capture a part of the matched URL and then uses that captured part to replace with the captured value. Any value can be used for the parameter as long as it is prepended with a colon (e.g., :foo). After the parameter has been replaced by a value given in the path, the call to the action should have the following syntax: {mojit_instance}.(action}

var express = require('express'),
    libmojito = require('mojito'),
    app;

app = express();
libmojito.extend(app);

var methods = ['get', 'post', 'put'];

methods.forEach(function (verb) {
    app.[verb]('/foo/:mojit_action', libmojito.dispatch('@foo-1.{mojit_action}'));
    app.[verb]('/bar/:mojit_action', libmojito.dispatch('@bar-1.{mojit_action}'));
});

Using Regular Expressions to Match Routing Paths¶

You can also use regular expressions to match a routing path.

For example, in the app.js below, if the path of the request matches the regular expression \\d{1,2}_[Mm]ojitos?, the index action of the mojit instance myMojit is called.

var express = require('express'),
    libmojito = require('mojito'),
    app;

app = express();
libmojito.extend(app);

 // Specify a regular expression to match routing paths.
app.get(/\d{1,2}_[Mm]ojitos?/, libmojito.dispatch('myMojit.index'));

Based on the above regular expression, the following URLs would be matched:

• http://localhost:8666/1_mojito
• http://localhost:8666/99_Mojitos

Generate URLs from the Controller¶

The Mojito API includes the Url addon that allows you to create a URL with the mojit instance, the action, and parameters from the controller.

To create a URL based on routing paths, you have to register a routing path in app.js with the app.map method. For example, in the app.js below, the routing path / is defined with app.get, but the Url addon cannot create a URL based on that routing definition until app.map registers the route.

var debug = require('debug')('app'),
    express = require('express'),
    libmojito = require('../../../'),
    app;

app = express();
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 8666);
libmojito.extend(app);

app.get('/', libmojito.dispatch('hello.index'));
app.map('/', 'hello_index');

In this code snippet from controller.js, the Url addon with the make method uses the routing path hello_index registered in our example app.js above to to create the URL / with the query string parameters ?foo=bar.

...
  index: function(ac) {
    ac.url.make('hello_index', 'index', null, 'GET', {'foo': 'bar'});
  }
...

The index function above returns the following URL: http://localhost:8666/?foo=bar