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Quick Start Guide

This guide will help you quickly set up and use file-express-router in your Node.js project.

Step 1: Install Dependencies​

First, install file-express-router along with Express.js:

# Using npm
npm install file-express-router express

# Using yarn
yarn add file-express-router express

Step 2: Set Up Your Project Structure​

Create a new project directory and initialize a Node.js project:

mkdir my-express-app
cd my-express-app
npm init -y

Create the following folder structure:

my-express-app/
├── routes/
│   ├── status.get.ts
│   └── users/
│       └── [id].get.ts
├── app.ts
└── package.json

Step 3: Configure file-express-router​

Add the following code to app.ts:

app.ts
import express from 'express';
import path from 'path';
import { Router } from 'file-express-router';

const startServer = async () => {
  const app = express();

  const routesDir = path.join(__dirname, 'routes');
  const router = await Router({ dir: routesDir });
  app.use('/api', router);

  app.listen(6969, () => {
    console.log('Server is running on http://localhost:6969');
  });
};

startServer();

Step 4: Create Routes​

routes/status.get.ts
import { RequestHandler } from 'express';

const handler: RequestHandler = (req, res) => {
  res.json({ message: 'Ping Pong!' });
};

export default handler;
routes/users/[id].get.ts
import { RequestHandler } from 'express';

const handler: RequestHandler = (req, res) => {
  res.json({ userId: req.params.id });
};

export default handler;

Step 5: Start Your Server​

Run the following command to start your Express server:

npx ts-node app.ts

Note: If you are using nodemon, you have to ignore the routes/index.ts and routes/index.js files to prevent nodemon from restarting the server on file changes in the routes directory.

Step 6: Test Your API​

Use a browser or API client to test the routes:

  • GET http://localhost:6969/api/status → { "message": "Ping Pong!" }
  • GET http://localhost:6969/api/users/123 → { "userId": "123" }

That's it! You have successfully set up file-express-router in your Node.js project.