Express

Insanely fast (and small) server-side JavaScript web development framework built on node.js and the V8 JavaScript engine.

• Visit the Wiki for documentation
• Visit the Google Group for discussion

Features (so far)

• Sexy DSL with robust sinatra-like routing
• High performance
• Session support
• Cache API
• RESTful HTTP client
• Mime helpers
• Redirection helpers
• Multipart file upload support
• Test helpers (mock requests etc)
• Environment based configuration
• Light-weight JavaScript class implementation via class.js
• Persistent flash messages
• Route passing
• View support (ejs, haml, sass, etc)
• Full test coverage
• Logger plugin with several formats
• Extremely readable specs

Installation

Install the Kiwi package manager for nodejs and run:

  $ kiwi -v install express

or

Install via git clone:

  $ git clone git://github.com/visionmedia/express.git && cd express && git submodule update --init

Performance

Extensive performance enhancements have not yet been made, since we are focusing on the framework it-self at the moment.

However if you are interested view the premature benchmarks for Express framework.

Examples

Below is a tiny Express application. View the Wiki for detailed information.

require.paths.unshift('express/lib')
require('express')

get('/user', function(){
  this.redirect('/user/' + this.currentUser.id)
})

get('/user/:id', function(id){
  this.render('user.haml.html', {
    locals: {
      user: this.currentUser,
      usersOnline: Session.store.length()
    }
  })
})

run()

Running Tests

Express uses the JSpec BDD JavaScript testing framework to write and run elegant spec suites. JSpec is frozen to spec/lib and does not require separate installation.

$ make test

Run individual suites:

$ node spec/node.js core
$ node spec/node.js mime
$ node spec/node.js routing
...

Express is currently being developed with node --version: v0.1.32

More Information

• JavaScript Extensions & Utilities
• JavaScript Sass
• Featured in Advanced JavaScript e-book for only $4

Contributors

• TJ Holowaychuk (visionmedia) <tj@vision-media.ca>
• Aaron Heckmann (aheckmann) <aaron.heckmann+github@gmail.com>
• Ciaran Jessup (ciaranj) <ciaranj@gmail.com>
• Gareth Jones (csausdev) <gareth.jones@sensis.com.au>

License

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2009 TJ Holowaychuk <tj@vision-media.ca>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.