reading-notes

🗒️ Class 03: Express REST API

Readings

Review: ES6 Classes

• Classes are a template for creating __

  Object

• Can a class declaration be hoisted?

  No, class declarations are not hoisted and cannot be used before it is declared, similar to variables declared with let and const.

• How would you describe a constructor and contextual “this” to a non-technical friend?

  A constructor is a method used for creating objects within a class. The contextual ‘this’ refers to the object created by the constructor.

Using Express Routing

• Within Express, what does routing refer to?

  Routing refers to the application’s URI endpoint.

• What is the difference between a route path and a route method?

  A method refers to one of the HTTP methods (POST, PUT, DELETE, POST, etc) that is attached to the middleware and path is the endpoint association with a specific route method.

• When is it appropriate to add next as a parameter to a route handler and what must you do if next has been passed to your middleware as a parameter?

  We can add next as a parameter when we want to set pre-conditions on a specific route and then pass the control to the next route when there is no reason to use it in the current one. If we pass next as a parameter`, we must call on it within the function in order to pass control.

Express Routing

• What is an Express Router?

  Express Router is a mini-express application that only uses the routing API.

• By what mean do we initialize express.Router() in an express server?

  In order to initialize express.Router(), we need to include it into our package.json file and run npm install to make sure our dependencies are installed. Once that is done, we add express into our server.js file then add the router instance.

• What do we use route middleware for?

  We use the route middleware as a way to do something (like authentication, data logging, etc) before the request is processed.