inversify-express-utils

Some utilities for the development of express applications with Inversify.

Installation

You can install inversify-express-utils using npm:

$ npm install inversify inversify-express-utils reflect-metadata --save

The inversify-express-utils type definitions are included in the npm module and require TypeScript 2.0. Please refer to the InversifyJS documentation to learn more about the installation process.

The Basics

Step 1: Decorate your controllers

To use a class as a "controller" for your express app, simply add the @Controller decorator to the class. Similarly, decorate methods of the class to serve as request handlers. The following example will declare a controller that responds to `GET /foo'.

import * as express from 'express';
import { interfaces, Controller, Get } from 'inversify-express-utils';
import { injectable, inject } from 'inversify';

@Controller('/foo')
@injectable()
export class FooController implements interfaces.Controller {

    constructor( @inject('FooService') private fooService: FooService ) {}

    @Get('/')
    private index(req: express.Request): string {
        return this.fooService.get(req.query.id);
    }
}

Step 2: Configure container and server

Configure the inversify container in your composition root as usual.

Then, pass the container to the InversifyExpressServer constructor. This will allow it to register all controllers and their dependencies from your container and attach them to the express app. Then just call server.build() to prepare your app.

In order for the InversifyExpressServer to find your controllers, you must bind them to the TYPE.Controller service identifier and tag the binding with the controller's name. The Controller interface exported by inversify-express-utils is empty and solely for convenience, so feel free to implement your own if you want.

import { Container } from 'inversify';
import { interfaces, InversifyExpressServer, TYPE } from 'inversify-express-utils';

// set up container
let container = new Container();

// note that you *must* bind your controllers to Controller
container.bind<interfaces.Controller>(TYPE.Controller).to(FooController).whenTargetNamed('FooController');
container.bind<FooService>('FooService').to(FooService);

// create server
let server = new InversifyExpressServer(container);

let app = server.build();
app.listen(3000);

InversifyExpressServer

A wrapper for an express Application.

.setConfig(configFn)

Optional - exposes the express application object for convenient loading of server-level middleware.

import * as morgan from 'morgan';
// ...
let server = new InversifyExpressServer(container);

server.setConfig((app) => {
    var logger = morgan('combined')
    app.use(logger);
});

.setErrorConfig(errorConfigFn)

Optional - like .setConfig(), except this function is applied after registering all app middleware and controller routes.

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

.build()

Attaches all registered controllers and middleware to the express application. Returns the application instance.

// ...
let server = new InversifyExpressServer(container);
server
    .setConfig(configFn)
    .setErrorConfig(errorConfigFn)
    .build()
    .listen(3000, 'localhost', callback);

Decorators

@Controller(path, [middleware, ...])

Registers the decorated class as a controller with a root path, and optionally registers any global middleware for this controller.

@Method(method, path, [middleware, ...])

Registers the decorated controller method as a request handler for a particular path and method, where the method name is a valid express routing method.

@SHORTCUT(path, [middleware, ...])

Shortcut decorators which are simply wrappers for @Method. Right now these include @Get, @Post, @Put, @Patch, @Head, @Delete, and @All. For anything more obscure, use @Method (Or make a PR 😄).

Examples

Some examples can be found at the inversify-express-example repository.

License

License under the MIT License (MIT)

Copyright © 2016 Cody Simms

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.