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Modify response body before res.send() executes in ExpressJS

In application which I currently develop, it's using Express. In my case I want to get response before it's been sent and modify it (for purpose of JWT). In this application, there is a dozen of endpoints and I don't want to create my own function like sendAndSign() and replace res.send() everywhere in code. I heard there is option to override/modify logic of res.send(...) method.
I found something like this example of modifying, but in my case this doesn't work. Is there any other option (maybe using some plugin) to manage this action?

You can intercept response body in Express by temporary override res.send:
function convertData(originalData) {
// ...
// return something new
}
function responseInterceptor(req, res, next) {
var originalSend = res.send;
res.send = function(){
arguments[0] = convertData(arguments[0]);
originalSend.apply(res, arguments);
};
next();
}
app.use(responseInterceptor);
I tested in Node.js v10.15.3 and it works well.

I have created an NPM package called experss-response-hooks that provides response hooks.
You can register a hook in a middleware before all your other routes, that will enable you to change the response body when send() will be called.
For example:
const responseHooks = require('express-response-hooks');
// response hooks initialization
app.use(responseHooks());
// register a middleware that modifies the response body before being sent to the client
app.use(function (req, res, next) {
// hook on "send()" function
res.hooks.on('send', (args) => {
args[0] = 'new-body'; // args[0] is the body passed to send()
});
});

Express routes and middleware

I'm using a role authorisation (connect-roles), and trying to add more than one role for each route. This is using express, and monogoose. Here is the code I currently have:
router.get('/admin/:slug', function (req, res) {
if (user.can('vip')) {
adminController.showVipView // <-- this is what I need to work
} else {
// call a different view
}
});
This is how it normally works without the if statement. This seems like super basic express, but I just cannot get it to work.
router.get('/admin/:slug', user.can('vip'), adminController.showVipView);

Just pass request and response into it:
adminController.showVipView(req, res);
It might also requires the next callback, then you should pass that into it too...
By the way, your if statement wont work either as it returns a middleware. Might do this:
user.can('vip')(req, res, function(){
adminController.showVipView(req, res);
});

ExpressJS + JWT. What's the proper way to get auth data?

Let's jump to an example. I'll skip some parts like imports, exports.
I have a controller called controllers/book.js with one route:
router.get('/my-books', function(req, res) {
if(Auth.authenticated(req,res)) {
Book.getMyBooks(function(rows) {
response.operationSucceed(req, res, rows);
});
}
});
Then, in a model called models/book.js I have that function:
function getMyBooks(successCallback) {
db.query('SELECT * FROM book b WHERE b.id_user=?', [Auth.getLoggedUID()], function(rows) {
successCallback(rows);
});
}
My question is about Auth.getLoggedUID function.
Assuming that I have a JWT authentication and assuming that I have an UID in payload (is that even acceptable?), what's the best option to retrieve it? Is there any, EXCEPT passing the req every time to every function where I need auth data?
I may have a function execution inside a function, do I need to pass the req through both of them to get the user ID? Like this?:
function getBooks(req) {
getMyBooks(req);
getCriminalBooks(req);
getEvenOtherBooksByAuthor(req, authorId);
}
Honestly I wouldn't like that.
Maybe my whole concept is wrong and I should be doing things differently?
Can someone point me the right direction in scenarios like this?

You can pass UID in header and retrieve it inside your controller as:
var uid =req.header('UID');
Then pass this UID where ever you want there is no need to carryforward whole req object everywhere.

You can use a middleware function. Let's say that every request that hits your endpoints, will have a token which you should check and possibly decode it. After that, you can set the decoded content to the req object. So something like this:
app.use(function(req, res, next) {
// get the token from the request headers most likely.
// verify and decode the token
// set the decoded content to the request
var payload = ..
req.payload = payload;
});
After this you can access the payload in every single endpoint you have. So for example in some controller you can do:
app.get('/hey', function(req, res) {
var payload = req.payload;
});

Dynamic routing in Node.js

I want to create dynamic stubs as webservices. My idea is to load at every request a definition file and return data for corresponding URL.
The definition file could look like this:
/api/users {users:["john", "jack", "jake"]}
/api/users/1 {user:"john"}
/api/some-data/1 {data:"some data"}
In an application I created on behalf of a tutorial I find:
router.post('/some-irl', function (req, res) {
//some code
return {some JSON}
});
But this definition looks static to me, which should be there before I start Node.js Is it possible to define /some-irl at the time then request occures?
EDIT
Actually, I was intending to do somehting like this: https://github.com/typicode/json-server but it is already there!

You can attach a use middleware, which can check the path and decide whether to handle it or pass it on:
router.use(function(req, res, next) {
// req.path
// decide what to do
// respond or next()
});

you can define variables in the routes, use : before the variable name to define it, and then you'll get the value in req.params:
route.get('/api/users/:user/', function (req, res) {
var username = req.params.user;
});

Using the PUT method with Express.js

I'm trying to implement update functionality to an Express.js app, and I'd like to use a PUT request to send the new data, but I keep getting errors using PUT. From everything I've read, it's just a matter of using app.put, but that isn't working. I've got the following in my routes file:
send = function(req, res) {
req.send(res.locals.content);
};
app.put('/api/:company', function(res,req) {
res.send('this is an update');
}, send);
When I use postman to make a PUT request, I get a "cannot PUT /api/petshop" as an error. I don't understand why I can't PUT, or what's going wrong.

You may be lacking the actual update function. You have the put path returning the result back to the client but missing the part when you tell the database to update the data.
If you're using MongoDB and ExpressJS, you could write something like this :
app.put('/api/:company', function (req, res) {
var company = req.company;
company = _.extend(company, req.body);
company.save(function(err) {
if (err) {
return res.send('/company', {
errors: err.errors,
company: company
});
} else {
res.jsonp(company);
}
})
});
This mean stack project may help you as it covers this CRUD functionality which I just used here swapping their articles for your companies. same same.

Your callback function has the arguments in the wrong order.
Change the order of callback to function(req, res).
Don't use function(res, req).

Also if you want to redirect in put or delete (to get adress), you can't use normal res.redirect('/path'), you should use res.redirect(303, '/path') instead. (source)
If not, you'll get Cannot PUT error.

Have you been checking out your headers information?
Because header should be header['content-type'] = 'application/json'; then only you will get the update object in server side (node-express), otherwise if you have content type plain 'text/htm' like that you will get empty req.body in your node app.