README

apache-connect

Apache Connect is an extensible HTTP server framework for apache-bridge using "plugins" known as configureware.

Based on Connect by Sencha Labs.

var connect = require('apache-connect');
var apache = require('apache-bridge');

var app = connect();

// configureware examples coming soon

//create Apache server and listen on port
apache.createServer(app).listen(3000);

Getting Started

Apache Connect is a simple framework to glue together various "configureware" to handle Apache configuration options.

Create an app

The main component is an Apache Connect "app". This will store all the configureware added and is, itself, a function.

var app = connect();

Use configureware

The core of Apache Connect is "using" configureware. Configureware are added as a "stack" where incoming configurations will execute each configureware one-by-one until a configureware does not call next() within it.

app.use(function configureware1(conf, next) {
  // configureware 1
  next();
});
app.use(function configureware2(conf, next) {
  // configureware 2
  next();
});

Mount configureware

The .use() method also takes an optional path string that is matched against the beginning of the incoming request URL. This allows for basic routing.

app.use('/foo', function fooConfigureware(conf, next) {
  // ${REQUEST_URI} starts with "/foo"
  next();
});
app.use('/bar', function barConfigureware(conf, next) {
  // ${REQUEST_URI} starts with "/bar"
  next();
});

Create a server from the app

The last step is to actually use the Apache Connect app in a server. The .listen() method is a convenience to start a HTTP server (and is identical to the apache.Server's listen method in apache-bridge).

var server = app.listen(port);

The app itself is really just a function with two arguments, so it can also be handed to .createServer() in apache-bridge.

var server = apache.createServer(app);

Configureware

Coming soon

API

The Apache Connect API is very minimalist, enough to create an app and add a chain of configureware.

When the apache-connect module is required, a function is returned that will construct a new app when called.

// require module
var connect = require('apache-connect')

// create app
var app = connect()

app(conf[, next])

The app itself is a function. This is just an alias to app.handle.

app.handle(conf[, out])

Calling the function will run the configureware stack against the given apache-bridge configuration (conf) object. An optional function out can be provided that will be called if the request (or error) was not handled by the configureware stack.

app.listen([...])

Start the app listening for requests. This method will internally create an apache-bridge server and call .listen() on it.

This is an alias to the apache.listen() method, so consult the apache-bridge documentation for more details.

app.use(fn)

Use a function on the app, where the function represents a configureware. The function will be invoked for every configure event in the order that app.use is called. The function is called with two arguments:

app.use(function (conf, next) {
  // conf is the apache-bridge configuration object
  // next is a function to call to invoke the next configureware
})

In addition to a plain function, the fn argument can also be an apache-bridge server instance or another Apache Connect app instance.

app.use(route, fn)

Use a function on the app, where the function represents a configureware. The function will be invoked for every request in which the URL starts with the given route string. The function is called with two arguments:

app.use('/foo', function (conf, next) {
  // conf is the apache-bridge configuration object
  // next is a function to call to invoke the next configureware
})

In addition to a plain function, the fn argument can also be a apache-bridge server instance or another Apache Connect app instance.

The route is applied using Apache's Location directive, which behaves somewhat differently than the original Connect module. The example above outputs the following directive:

<Location "/foo">
# ...
</Location>

See Apache documentation for more details about the Location directive.

License

MIT

Usage no npm install needed!