Express - Level 2

This course covers some of the more advanced topics with Express. In this path, you will learn how to implement route and query parameters. How to use two specialized route methods, route and all. How to implement environment variables using the DotEnv NPM package. You will learn about the potential issue when working with static files and how to manage them. How to implement custom middleware when needed. How to use Express Router to implement modular routes.

Learning Objectives

• Explain the query parameter
• Learn how to implement a query parameter
• Understand the req.query object
• Learn how to access the query parameter from the req.query object
• Learn the structure of a route to reject invalid query parameters
• Explain the route parameter
• Learn how to implement a route parameter
• Understand the req.params object
• Learn how to access the route parameter from the req.params object
• Learn the structure of a route to accept multiple route parameters
• Understand how the app.all() route handler works to handle all HTTP request methods
• Implement app.all()
• Understand how the app.route() method works to create chainable route methods
• Implement app.route()
• Install dotenv package
• Implement a .env file
• Learn what dotfiles are in general
• Import the dotenv package inside of an Express package
• Use environment variables inside of the Express package
• Implement a views route to serve a static HTML file
• Implement the response object’s sendFile method to send an HTML file
• View common errors when dealing with static files and learn how to handle them
• Implement the path.join method to create the absolute path to a file
• Understand the process variable __dirname
• Implement the express.static middleware to create a virtual path
• Learn what middleware is and how it fits in the request/response cycle
• Learn how to implement custom middleware
• Learn about the next function and how it facilitates custom middleware
• Learn to use custom middleware in different ways to work with your routes
• Learn what happens when you do not include the next function as part of your middleware
• Understand how the app.all() route handler works to handle all HTTP request methods
• Implement app.all()
• Understand how the app.route() method works to create chainable route methods
• Implement app.route()
• Understand how express.Router() is used to create a router instance
• Learn how to refactor and organize resource-specific route paths into router instances
• Learn how to configure a router instance as middleware 
• Learn how the route path is configured when using router instances as middleware