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Express.js Cheatsheet

A comprehensive cheat sheet for Express.js, covering essential concepts, middleware, routing, and common tasks for building web applications and APIs.

Core Concepts & Setup

Basic Setup

Installation:

npm install express --save

Basic App Structure:

const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const port = 3000;

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
  res.send('Hello World!');
});

app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`Example app listening at http://localhost:${port}`);
});

Running the App:

node <your_app_file>.js

Middleware Basics

app.use(middleware)

Applies middleware to all routes. Middleware functions have access to the request object (req), the response object (res), and the next() middleware function in the application’s request-response cycle.

next()

A function to pass control to the next middleware function. Crucial for chaining middleware.

Example:

 
app.use((req, res, next) => {
  console.log('Time: ', Date.now());
  next();
});

Request and Response Objects

req.params

Access route parameters (e.g., /users/:userId).

req.query

Access query string parameters (e.g., /search?q=term).

req.body

Access the request body (requires body-parsing middleware).

res.send(body)

Sends the HTTP response. The body can be a string, an object, or an array.

res.json(json)

Sends a JSON response.

res.status(code)

Sets the HTTP status code.

Routing

Basic Routing

Route Methods:

app.get('/', (req, res) => { ... });        // GET route
app.post('/', (req, res) => { ... });       // POST route
app.put('/:id', (req, res) => { ... });    // PUT route
app.delete('/:id', (req, res) => { ... }); // DELETE route

Route Parameters:

app.get('/users/:userId', (req, res) => {
  res.send(`User ID: ${req.params.userId}`);
});

Chaining Route Handlers:

app.route('/book')
  .get((req, res) => { ... })
  .post((req, res) => { ... })
  .put((req, res) => { ... });

Route Paths

/

Matches only the path /.

/*/

Matches any single character except /.

/users/:userId?

The ? after userId makes the route parameter optional.

/:username([a-zA-Z]+)

Matches only if username contains letters.

Using `next()` in Routes 

app.get('/example', (req, res, next) => {
  console.log('First handler');
  next();
}, (req, res) => {
  console.log('Second handler');
  res.send('Hello from example!');
});

This allows you to define multiple handlers for a single route, performing different operations in sequence.

Middleware

Built-in Middleware

express.static(root, [options])

Serves static files (e.g., images, CSS, JavaScript) from a directory.
root specifies the root directory from which to serve static assets.

app.use(express.static('public'));

express.json([options])

Parses incoming requests with JSON payloads and is based on body-parser.

app.use(express.json());

express.urlencoded([options])

Parses incoming requests with URL-encoded payloads and is based on body-parser.

app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }));

Third-Party Middleware

Examples:

  • morgan: HTTP request logger middleware.
  • cors: Enable Cross-Origin Resource Sharing.
  • helmet: Helps secure Express apps by setting various HTTP headers.
  • cookie-parser: Parse Cookie header and populate req.cookies.

Example with Morgan:

npm install morgan

const morgan = require('morgan');
app.use(morgan('dev')); // 'dev' is a predefined format

Custom Middleware

You can create your own middleware functions to handle specific tasks.

const myLogger = (req, res, next) => {
  console.log('LOGGED');
  next();
};

app.use(myLogger);

Middleware can also be applied to specific routes:

app.get('/profile', myLogger, (req, res) => {
  res.send('Profile Page');
});

Advanced Topics

Error Handling

Express comes with a built-in error handler. To use it, you simply pass an Error object to next():

app.get('/error', (req, res, next) => {
  const err = new Error('This is an error!');
  next(err);
});

app.use((err, req, res, next) => {
  console.error(err.stack);
  res.status(500).send('Something broke!');
});

Remember to place the error-handling middleware after all other middleware and route handlers.

Template Engines

Setting up EJS

 
npm install ejs

app.set('view engine', 'ejs');

app.get('/template', (req, res) => {
  res.render('index', { name: 'World' }); // renders views/index.ejs
});

Popular Engines

Besides EJS, other template engines include Pug (formerly Jade), Handlebars, and Mustache.

Best Practices

  • Security: Use Helmet to secure HTTP headers, and sanitize user inputs to prevent XSS and SQL injection attacks.
  • Configuration: Use environment variables for configuration.
  • Logging: Use a logging library like Winston or Bunyan for structured logging.
  • API Versioning: Version your APIs to maintain backward compatibility.
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