I'm trying to figure out a few simple best practices when it comes to structuring a nodeJS server object. Please note that I'm coming from a LAMP background, so the whole thing is somewhat of a paradigm shift for me.
Static Content
Static content has documented examples, and works like a charm:
var http = require('http'),
url = require('url'),
fs = require('fs'),
sys = require(process.binding('natives').util ? 'util' : 'sys');
server = http.createServer(function(req, res){
var parsedURL = url.parse(req.url, true);
var path = parsedURL.pathname;
var query = parsedURL.query;
switch (path){
case '/':
res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/html'});
res.write('<h1>Greetings!</h1>');
res.end();
break;
default:
fs.readFile(__dirname + path, function(err, data){
if (err) return send404(res);
res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type':'text/html'})
res.write(data, 'utf8');
res.end();
});
}
}).listen(80);
send404 = function(res){
res.writeHead(404);
res.write('404');
res.end();
};
The server listens for requests, looks up the files, and shoots the content of those files back to the client. Obviously the example I gave is quite dumb and doesn't account for files that aren't text/html, but you get the idea.
Dynamic Content
But what if we don't want to serve static content? What if we want to, for instance, have a hello world file which takes in a value from the querystring and responds differently.
My first guess is that I should create a second file using the nodeJS module setup, give it some module methods which take in information, and just concatenate a crap load of strings together.
For instance, a hello world module called hello.js:
exports.helloResponse = function( userName ) {
var h = "<html>";
h += "<head><title>Hello</title></head>";
h += "<body>Hello, " + userName +"</body>";
h += "</html>";
}
and then add the following case to the server handler:
case 'hello':
res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type':'text/html'})
res.write(require("./hello.js").helloResponse(query["userName"]), 'utf8');
res.end();
I'm OK with the module, but I hate the fact that I have to create a giant concatenated string in javascript. Does the S.O. community have any ideas? What approaches have you taken to this situation?
