express-orm-mvc

As everyone the 1st time I start to use express, there was many problem i have to solve as

• Database
• App structure
• Router
• Separate modules
• ...

So hope this library help someone like me.

Any ideas are appreciated.

Features

• MVC
• This library just help you to structure your code and scale up later
• No Express or ORM hack
• Config Express and ORM by yourself (Fully control)

Dependencies

By default:

• Express ^4.0.0
• ORM ^2.1.5

You can specify those dependencies version by option, please refer to this

Installation

npm install express-orm-mvc --save

Database package

npm install <your database package>

//example
npm install mysql

Refer to ORM document Connecting to Database

App structure

/
    models/                     -- all of your models here
    controllers/                -- all of your controllers here
    views/
    config/
        express.js              -- your express config
        orm.js                  -- your orm config
        routes.js               -- router
        settings.js             -- app settings (ip, port, database, ...)
    app.js                      -- root

Please check example folder

How to use

Please check example folder or follow these document

Init

require(express-orm-mvc)(function(err){
    if(err) {
        console.log(err);
        return;
    }
    console.log('done');
});

Models

A model file should be like this

module.exports = function (orm, db) {
    //define your orm model here
};

Example:

models/post.js

module.exports = function (orm, db) {
    var Post = db.define('post', {
        title:      { type: 'text' },
        content:    { type: 'text' }
    });
};

Check ORM document Defining Models

Note:

express-orm-mvc loads models by alphabet order.

For example comment model has one post (many-to-one relationship) as post_id field, so post model must be loaded before comment model.

Solution: name the file models name as 0_post.js and comment.js.

You can check example

Controllers

A controller file should be like this

module.exports = {
    //define your controller here
};

Example:

controllers/post.js

module.exports = {
    home: function(req, res, next){
        res.send('home page');
    },
    get: function(req, res, next) {
        req.models.post.find(function(err, data) {
            res.send(data);
        });
    },
    create: function(req, res, next) {
        req.models.post.create({
            title: 'title',
            content: 'content'
        }, function(err, result) {
            res.send(result);
        });
    }
};

Note: you can list all of your models in req.models, check more here

Settings

config/settings.js

A settings file should be like this

module.exports = {
    mode1: { //development
        ip: <ip>,
        port: <port>,
        db: // orm database setting object
    },
    mode2: { //production
        ip: <ip>,
        port: <port>,
        db: // orm database setting object
    }
};

Example:

module.exports = {
    development: {
        ip: '127.0.0.1',
        port: 8080,
        db: {
            host: '127.0.0.1',
            port: 3306,
            protocol: 'mysql',
            user: 'root',
            password: '123456789',
            database: 'express-orm-mvc-test',
            connectionLimit: 100
        }
    },
    production: {
        ip: '127.0.0.1',
        port: 8080,
        db: {
            host: '127.0.0.1',
            port: 3306,
            protocol: 'mysql',
            user: 'root',
            password: '123456789',
            database: 'express-orm-mvc-test',
            connectionLimit: 100
        }
    }
};

Note: You should set your NODE_ENV variable (development or production), or you can by pass by send directly the mode option when init, check here

Check ORM document Connecting to Database

Express config

config/express.js

A express config file should be like this

module.exports = function(app, express) {
    //any express config here
};

Example:

module.exports = function(app, express) {
    app.set('title', 'testing');
    app.set('views', '../views');
    app.set('view engine', 'ejs');
    app.use(express.favicon());
};

Check Express document api

Note:

• As you see there is no views folder in app structure, so create and manage by yourself
• Library will start a server automatically, so no need this kind of this stuff

http.createServer(app).listen(function(){});

ORM config

config/orm.js

A orm config file should be like this

module.exports = function(orm, db) {
    //any orm config here
};

Example:

module.exports = function(orm, db) {
    db.settings.set('test', 'testing data');
};

Check ORM document Settings

Note: Library will sync database automatically.

Routes config

config/routes.js

A routes config file should be like this

module.exports = function(app, controllers) {
    //routes here
};

Example:

module.exports = function(app, controllers) {
    app.get(    '/'       , controllers.post.home);
    app.get(    '/post'   , controllers.post.get);
    app.post(   '/post'   , controllers.post.create);
};

Options

require(express-orm-mvc)({
    mode: 'development',           //default: production
    path: __dirname,               //default: auto detect
    express: require('express'),   //specify your express version
    orm: require('orm')            //specify your orm version
}, callback);

Example:

var express = require('express')    // Express 4
var orm = require('orm')            // ORM 2.1.0

require(express-orm-mvc)({
    mode: 'development',
    path: '/Code/Project',
    express: express,
    orm: orm
}, callback);

Return object

express

orm

server web server instance

database orm database instance

app express app instance

settings the current settings

mode the current mode

require(express-orm-mvc)(functiom(err, mvc) {
    mvc.express;
    mvc.orm;
    mvc.server;
    mvc.database;
    mvc.app;
    mvc.settings;
    mvc.mode;
});

Notes

For your convenience, you can get

• models: all the orm models
• settings: the running setings
• mode: the running mode

from express req

function (req, res, next) {
    req.models;
    req.settings;
    req.mode;
}

from express config file

//config/express.js
module.exports = function(app, express, mvc) {
    mvc.mode
    mvc.settings
};

from orm config file

//config/orm.js
module.exports = function(orm, db, mvc) {
    mvc.mode
    mvc.settings
};