routing-controllers

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Allows to create controller classes with methods as actions that handle requests. You can use routing-controllers with express.js or koa.js.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Example of usage
• More examples
  • Working with json
  • Return promises
  • Using Request and Response objects
  • Pre-configure express/koa
  • Load all controllers from the given directory
  • Prefix all controllers routes
  • Prefix controller with base route
  • Inject routing parameters
  • Inject query parameters
  • Inject request body
  • Inject request body parameters
  • Inject request header parameters
  • Inject cookie parameters
  • Inject session object
  • Inject state object
  • Inject uploaded file
  • Make parameter required
  • Convert parameters to objects
  • Set custom ContentType
  • Set Location
  • Set Redirect
  • Set custom HTTP code
  • Controlling empty responses
  • Set custom headers
  • Render templates
  • Throw HTTP errors
  • Enable CORS
  • Default settings
  • Selectively disabling request/response transform
• Using middlewares
  • Use exist middleware
  • Creating your own express middleware
  • Creating your own koa middleware
  • Global middlewares
  • Error handlers
  • Loading middlewares and controllers from directories
• Using interceptors
  • Interceptor function
  • Interceptor classes
  • Global interceptors
• Creating instances of classes from action params
• Controller inheritance
• Auto validating action params
• Using authorization features
  • @Authorized decorator
  • @CurrentUser decorator
• Using DI container
• Custom parameter decorators
• Decorators Reference
  • Controller Decorators
  • Controller Method Decorators
  • Method Parameter Decorators
  • Middleware And Interceptor Decorators
  • Other Decorators
• Samples
• Release notes

Installation

1. Install module:

   npm install routing-controllers

2. reflect-metadata shim is required:

   npm install reflect-metadata

   and make sure to import it before you use routing-controllers:

import 'reflect-metadata';

3. Install framework:

   a. If you want to use routing-controllers with express.js, then install it and all required dependencies:

   npm install express body-parser multer

   Optionally you can also install their typings:

   npm install -D @types/express @types/body-parser @types/multer

   b. If you want to use routing-controllers with koa 2, then install it and all required dependencies:

   npm install koa @koa/router koa-bodyparser @koa/multer

   Optionally you can also install their typings:

   npm install -D @types/koa @types/koa-bodyparser

4. Install peer dependencies:

npm install class-transformer class-validator

In prior versions, these were direct dependencies, but now they are peer dependencies so you can choose when to upgrade and accept breaking changes.

5. Its important to set these options in tsconfig.json file of your project:

   {
     "emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
     "experimentalDecorators": true
   }
   

Example of usage

1. Create a file UserController.ts

   import 'reflect-metadata';
   import { Controller, Param, Body, Get, Post, Put, Delete } from 'routing-controllers';
   
   @Controller()
   export class UserController {
     @Get('/users')
     getAll() {
       return 'This action returns all users';
     }
   
     @Get('/users/:id')
     getOne(@Param('id') id: number) {
       return 'This action returns user #' + id;
     }
   
     @Post('/users')
     post(@Body() user: any) {
       return 'Saving user...';
     }
   
     @Put('/users/:id')
     put(@Param('id') id: number, @Body() user: any) {
       return 'Updating a user...';
     }
   
     @Delete('/users/:id')
     remove(@Param('id') id: number) {
       return 'Removing user...';
     }
   }
   

   This class will register routes specified in method decorators in your server framework (express.js or koa).

2. Create a file app.ts

   // this shim is required
   import { createExpressServer } from 'routing-controllers';
   import { UserController } from './UserController';
   
   // creates express app, registers all controller routes and returns you express app instance
   const app = createExpressServer({
     controllers: [UserController], // we specify controllers we want to use
   });
   
   // run express application on port 3000
   app.listen(3000);
   

   if you are koa user you just need to use createKoaServer instead of createExpressServer

3. Open in browser http://localhost:3000/users. You will see This action returns all users in your browser. If you open http://localhost:3000/users/1 you will see This action returns user #1.

More examples

Working with json

If you are designing a REST API where your endpoints always receive and return JSON then you can use @JsonController decorator instead of @Controller. This will guarantee you that data returned by your controller actions always be transformed to JSON and Content-Type header will be always set to application/json. It will also guarantee application/json header is understood from the requests and the body parsed as JSON:

import { JsonController, Param, Body, Get, Post, Put, Delete } from 'routing-controllers';

@JsonController()
export class UserController {
  @Get('/users')
  getAll() {
    return userRepository.findAll();
  }

  @Get('/users/:id')
  getOne(@Param('id') id: number) {
    return userRepository.findById(id);
  }

  @Post('/users')
  post(@Body() user: User) {
    return userRepository.insert(user);
  }
}

Return promises

You can return a promise in the controller, and it will wait until promise resolved and return promise result in a response body.

import { JsonController, Param, Body, Get, Post, Put, Delete } from 'routing-controllers';

@JsonController()
export class UserController {
  @Get('/users')
  getAll() {
    return userRepository.findAll();
  }

  @Get('/users/:id')
  getOne(@Param('id') id: number) {
    return userRepository.findById(id);
  }

  @Post('/users')
  post(@Body() user: User) {
    return userRepository.insert(user);
  }

  @Put('/users/:id')
  put(@Param('id') id: number, @Body() user: User) {
    return userRepository.updateById(id, user);
  }

  @Delete('/users/:id')
  remove(@Param('id') id: number) {
    return userRepository.removeById(id);
  }
}

Using Request and Response objects

You can use framework's request and response objects directly. If you want to handle the response by yourself, just make sure you return the response object itself from the action.

import { Controller, Req, Res, Get } from 'routing-controllers';

@Controller()
export class UserController {
  @Get('/users')
  getAllUsers(@Req() request: any, @Res() response: any) {
    return response.send('Hello response!');
  }

  @Get('/posts')
  getAllPosts(@Req() request: any, @Res() response: any) {
    // some response functions don't return the response object,
    // so it needs to be returned explicitly
    response.redirect('/users');

    return response;
  }
}

@Req() decorator injects you a Request object, and @Res() decorator injects you a Response object. If you have installed typings, you can use their types:

import { Request, Response } from 'express';
import { Controller, Req, Res, Get } from 'routing-controllers';

@Controller()
export class UserController {
  @Get('/users')
  getAll(@Req() request: Request, @Res() response: Response) {
    return response.send('Hello response!');
  }
}

note: koa users can also use @Ctx() context to inject koa's Context object.

Pre-configure express/koa

If you have, or if you want to create and configure express app separately, you can use useExpressServer instead of createExpressServer function:

import { useExpressServer } from 'routing-controllers';

let express = require('express'); // or you can import it if you have installed typings
let app = express(); // your created express server
// app.use() // you can configure it the way you want
useExpressServer(app, {
  // register created express server in routing-controllers
  controllers: [UserController], // and configure it the way you need (controllers, validation, etc.)
});
app.listen(3000); // run your express server

koa users must use useKoaServer instead of useExpressServer

Load all controllers from the given directory

You can load all controllers from directories, by specifying array of directories in options of createExpressServer or useExpressServer:

import { createExpressServer } from 'routing-controllers';
import path from 'path';

createExpressServer({
  controllers: [path.join(__dirname + '/controllers/*.js')],
}).listen(3000); // register controllers routes in our express application

koa users must use createKoaServer instead of createExpressServer

Prefix all controllers routes

If you want to prefix all your routes, e.g. /api you can use routePrefix option:

import { createExpressServer } from 'routing-controllers';
import { UserController } from './controller/UserController';

createExpressServer({
  routePrefix: '/api',
  controllers: [UserController],
}).listen(3000);

koa users must use createKoaServer instead of createExpressServer

Prefix controller with base route

You can prefix all specific controller's actions with base route:

@Controller('/users')
export class UserController {
  // ...
}

Inject routing parameters

You can use @Param decorator to inject parameters in your controller actions:

@Get("/users/:id")
getOne(@Param("id") id: number) { // id will be automatically casted to "number" because it has type number
}

If you want to inject all parameters use @Params() decorator.

Inject query parameters

To inject query parameters, use @QueryParam decorator:

@Get("/users")
getUsers(@QueryParam("limit") limit: number) {
}

You can use isArray option to get a query param array. This will cast the query param :

@Get("/users/by-multiple-ids")
getUsers(@QueryParam("ids", { isArray: true}) ids: string[]) {
}

GET /users/by-multiple-ids?ids=a → ids = ['a'] GET /users/by-multiple-ids?ids=a&ids=b → ids = ['a', 'b']

You can combine use isArray option with type option to get a query param array of one type. This will cast the query param :

@Get("/users/by-multiple-ids")
getUsers(@QueryParam("ids", { isArray: true, type: Number}) ids: number[]) {
}

GET /users/by-multiple-ids?ids=1 → ids = [1] GET /users/by-multiple-ids?ids=1&ids=3.5 → ids = [1, 3.5]

If you want to inject all query parameters use @QueryParams() decorator. The biggest benefit of this approach is that you can perform validation of the params.

enum Roles {
    Admin = "admin",
    User = "user",
    Guest = "guest",
}

class GetUsersQuery {

    @IsPositive()
    limit: number;

    @IsAlpha()
    city: string;

    @IsEnum(Roles)
    role: Roles;

    @IsBoolean()
    isActive: boolean;

    @IsArray()
    @IsNumber(undefined, { each: true })
    @Type(() => Number)
    ids: number[];
}

@Get("/users")
getUsers(@QueryParams() query: GetUsersQuery) {
    // here you can access query.role, query.limit
    // and others valid query parameters
    // query.ids will be an array, of numbers, even with one element
}

Inject request body

To inject request body, use @Body decorator:

@Post("/users")
saveUser(@Body() user: User) {
}

If you specify a class type to parameter that is decorated with @Body(), routing-controllers will use class-transformer to create instance of the given class type from the data received in request body. To disable this behaviour you need to specify a { classTransformer: false } in RoutingControllerOptions when creating a server.

Inject request body parameters

To inject request body parameter, use @BodyParam decorator:

@Post("/users")
saveUser(@BodyParam("name") userName: string) {
}

Inject request header parameters

To inject request header parameter, use @HeaderParam decorator:

@Post("/users")
saveUser(@HeaderParam("authorization") token: string) {
}

If you want to inject all header parameters use @HeaderParams() decorator.

Inject cookie parameters

To get a cookie parameter, use @CookieParam decorator:

@Get("/users")
getUsers(@CookieParam("username") username: string) {
}

If you want to inject all header parameters use @CookieParams() decorator.

Inject session object

To inject a session value, use @SessionParam decorator:

@Get("/login")
savePost(@SessionParam("user") user: User, @Body() post: Post) {}

If you want to inject the main session object, use @Session() without any parameters.

@Get("/login")
savePost(@Session() session: any, @Body() post: Post) {}

The parameter marked with @Session decorator is required by default. If your action param is optional, you have to mark it as not required:

action(@Session("user", { required: false }) user: User) {}

Express uses express-session / Koa uses koa-session or koa-generic-session to handle session, so firstly you have to install it manually to use @Session decorator.

Inject state object

To inject a state parameter use @State decorator:

@Get("/login")
savePost(@State("user") user: User, @Body() post: Post) {
}

If you want to inject the whole state object use @State() without any parameters. This feature is only supported by Koa.

Inject uploaded file

To inject uploaded file, use @UploadedFile decorator:

@Post("/files")
saveFile(@UploadedFile("fileName") file: any) {
}

You can also specify uploading options to multer this way:

// to keep code clean better to extract this function into separate file
export const fileUploadOptions = () => ({
    storage: multer.diskStorage({
        destination: (req: any, file: any, cb: any) => { ...
        },
        filename: (req: any, file: any, cb: any) => { ...
        }
    }),
    fileFilter: (req: any, file: any, cb: any) => { ...
    },
    limits: {
        fieldNameSize: 255,
        fileSize: 1024 * 1024 * 2
    }
});

// use options this way:
@Post("/files")
saveFile(@UploadedFile("fileName", { options: fileUploadOptions }) file: any) {
}

To inject all uploaded files use @UploadedFiles decorator instead. Routing-controllers uses multer to handle file uploads. You can install multer's file definitions via typings, and use files: File[] type instead of any[].

Make parameter required

To make any parameter required, simply pass a required: true flag in its options:

@Post("/users")
save(@Body({ required: true }) user: any) {
    // your method will not be executed if user is not sent in a request
}

Same you can do with all other parameters @QueryParam, @BodyParam and others. If user request does not contain required parameter routing-controllers will throw an error.

Convert parameters to objects

If you specify a class type to parameter that is decorated with parameter decorator, routing-controllers will use class-transformer to create instance of that class type. More info about this feature is available here.

Set custom ContentType

You can specify a custom ContentType header:

@Get("/users")
@ContentType("text/csv")
getUsers() {
    // ...
}

Set Location

You can set a Location header for any action:

@Get("/users")
@Location("http://github.com")
getUsers() {
    // ...
}

Set Redirect

You can set a Redirect header for any action:

@Get("/users")
@Redirect("http://github.com")
getUsers() {
    // ...
}

You can override the Redirect header by returning a string value:

@Get("/users")
@Redirect("http://github.com")
getUsers() {
    return "https://www.google.com";
}

You can use template to generate the Redirect header:

@Get("/users")
@Redirect("http://github.com/:owner/:repo")
getUsers() {
    return {
        owner: "typestack",
        repo: "routing-controllers"
    };
}

Set custom HTTP code

You can explicitly set a returned HTTP code for any action:

@HttpCode(201)
@Post("/users")
saveUser(@Body() user: User) {
    // ...
}

Controlling empty responses

If your controller returns void or Promise<void> or undefined it will throw you 404 error. To prevent this if you need to specify what status code you want to return using @OnUndefined decorator.

@Delete("/users/:id")
@OnUndefined(204)
async remove(@Param("id") id: number): Promise<void> {
    return userRepository.removeById(id);
}

@OnUndefined is also useful when you return some object which can or cannot be undefined. In this example findOneById returns undefined in the case if user with given id was not found. This action will return 404 in the case if user was not found, and regular 200 in the case if it was found.

@Get("/users/:id")
@OnUndefined(404)
getOne(@Param("id") id: number) {
    return userRepository.findOneById(id);
}

You can also specify error class you want to use if it returned undefined:

import { HttpError } from 'routing-controllers';

export class UserNotFoundError extends HttpError {
  constructor() {
    super(404, 'User not found!');
  }
}

@Get("/users/:id")
@OnUndefined(UserNotFoundError)
saveUser(@Param("id") id: number) {
    return userRepository.findOneById(id);
}

If controller action returns null you can use @OnNull decorator instead.

Set custom headers

You can set any custom header in a response:

@Get("/users/:id")
@Header("Cache-Control", "none")
getOne(@Param("id") id: number) {
    // ...
}

Render templates

If you are using server-side rendering you can render any template:

@Get("/users/:id")
@Render("index.html")
getOne() {
    return {
        param1: "these params are used",
        param2: "in templating engine"
    };
}

To use rendering ability make sure to configure express / koa properly. To use rendering ability with Koa you will need to use a rendering 3rd party such as koa-views, koa-views is the only render middleware that has been tested.

Throw HTTP errors

If you want to return errors with specific error codes, there is an easy way:

@Get("/users/:id")
getOne(@Param("id") id: number) {

    const user = this.userRepository.findOneById(id);
    if (!user)
        throw new NotFoundError(`User was not found.`); // message is optional

    return user;
}

Now, when user won't be found with requested id, response will be with http status code 404 and following content:

{
  "name": "NotFoundError",
  "message": "User was not found."
}

There are set of prepared errors you can use:

• HttpError
• BadRequestError
• ForbiddenError
• InternalServerError
• MethodNotAllowedError
• NotAcceptableError
• NotFoundError
• UnauthorizedError

You can also create and use your own errors by extending HttpError class. To define the data returned to the client, you could define a toJSON method in your error.

class DbError extends HttpError {
  public operationName: string;
  public args: any[];

  constructor(operationName: string, args: any[] = []) {
    super(500);
    Object.setPrototypeOf(this, DbError.prototype);
    this.operationName = operationName;
    this.args = args; // can be used for internal logging
  }

  toJSON() {
    return {
      status: this.httpCode,
      failedOperation: this.operationName,
    };
  }
}

Enable CORS

Since CORS is a feature that is used almost in any web-api application, you can enable it in routing-controllers options.

import { createExpressServer } from 'routing-controllers';
import { UserController } from './UserController';

const app = createExpressServer({
  cors: true,
  controllers: [UserController],
});

app.listen(3000);

To use cors you need to install its module. For express its npm i cors, for koa its npm i @koa/cors. You can pass cors options as well:

import { createExpressServer } from 'routing-controllers';
import { UserController } from './UserController';

const app = createExpressServer({
  cors: {
    // options from cors documentation
  },
  controllers: [UserController],
});

app.listen(3000);

Default settings

You can override default status code in routing-controllers options.

import { createExpressServer } from 'routing-controllers';
import { UserController } from './UserController';

const app = createExpressServer({
  defaults: {
    //with this option, null will return 404 by default
    nullResultCode: 404,

    //with this option, void or Promise<void> will return 204 by default
    undefinedResultCode: 204,

    paramOptions: {
      //with this option, argument will be required by default
      required: true,
    },
  },
});

app.listen(3000);

Selectively disable request/response transform

To disable class-transformer on a per-controller or per-route basis, use the transformRequest and transformResponse options on your controller and route decorators:

@Controller("/users", {transformRequest: false, transformResponse: false})
export class UserController {

    @Get("/", {transformResponse: true}) {
        // route option overrides controller option
    }
}

Using middlewares

You can use any existing express / koa middleware, or create your own. To create your middlewares there is a @Middleware decorator, and to use already exist middlewares there are @UseBefore and @UseAfter decorators.

Use existing middleware

There are multiple ways to use middleware. For example, lets try to use compression middleware:

1. Install compression middleware: npm install compression

2. To use middleware per-action:

   import { Controller, Get, UseBefore } from "routing-controllers";
   let compression = require("compression");
   
   // ...
   
   @Get("/users/:id")
   @UseBefore(compression())
   getOne(@Param("id") id: number) {
       // ...
   }
   

   This way compression middleware will be applied only for getOne controller action, and will be executed before action execution. To execute middleware after action use @UseAfter decorator instead.

3. To use middleware per-controller:

   import { Controller, UseBefore } from 'routing-controllers';
   let compression = require('compression');
   
   @Controller()
   @UseBefore(compression())
   export class UserController {}
   

   This way compression middleware will be applied for all actions of the UserController controller, and will be executed before its action execution. Same way you can use @UseAfter decorator here.

4. If you want to use compression module globally for all controllers you can simply register it during bootstrap:

   import { createExpressServer } from 'routing-controllers';
   import { UserController } from './UserController'; // we need to "load" our controller before call createExpressServer. this is required
   let compression = require('compression');
   let app = createExpressServer({
     controllers: [UserController],
   }); // creates express app, registers all controller routes and returns you express app instance
   app.use(compression());
   app.listen(3000); // run express application
   

   Alternatively, you can create a custom global middleware and simply delegate its execution to the compression module.

Creating your own express middleware

Here is example of creating middleware for express.js:

1. There are two ways of creating middleware:

   First, you can create a simple middleware function:

   export function loggingMiddleware(request: any, response: any, next?: (err?: any) => any): any {
     console.log('do something...');
     next();
   }
   

   Second you can create a class:

   import { ExpressMiddlewareInterface } from 'routing-controllers';
   
   export class MyMiddleware implements ExpressMiddlewareInterface {
     // interface implementation is optional
   
     use(request: any, response: any, next?: (err?: any) => any): any {
       console.log('do something...');
       next();
     }
   }
   

2. Then you can use them this way:

   import { Controller, UseBefore } from 'routing-controllers';
   import { MyMiddleware } from './MyMiddleware';
   import { loggingMiddleware } from './loggingMiddleware';
   
   @Controller()
   @UseBefore(MyMiddleware)
   @UseAfter(loggingMiddleware)
   export class UserController {}
   

   or per-action:

   @Get("/users/:id")
   @UseBefore(MyMiddleware)
   @UseAfter(loggingMiddleware)
   getOne(@Param("id") id: number) {
       // ...
   }
   

   @UseBefore executes middleware before controller action. @UseAfter executes middleware after each controller action.

Creating your own koa middleware

Here is example of creating middleware for koa.js:

1. There are two ways of creating middleware:

   First, you can create a simple middleware function:

   export function use(context: any, next: (err?: any) => Promise<any>): Promise<any> {
     console.log('do something before execution...');
     return next()
       .then(() => {
         console.log('do something after execution');
       })
       .catch(error => {
         console.log('error handling is also here');
       });
   }
   

   Second you can create a class:

   import { KoaMiddlewareInterface } from 'routing-controllers';
   
   export class MyMiddleware implements KoaMiddlewareInterface {
     // interface implementation is optional
   
     use(context: any, next: (err?: any) => Promise<any>): Promise<any> {
       console.log('do something before execution...');
       return next()
         .then(() => {
           console.log('do something after execution');
         })
         .catch(error => {
           console.log('error handling is also here');
         });
     }
   }
   

2. Then you can them this way:

   import { Controller, UseBefore } from 'routing-controllers';
   import { MyMiddleware } from './MyMiddleware';
   import { loggingMiddleware } from './loggingMiddleware';
   
   @Controller()
   @UseBefore(MyMiddleware)
   @UseAfter(loggingMiddleware)
   export class UserController {}
   

   or per-action:

   @Get("/users/:id")
   @UseBefore(MyMiddleware)
   @UseAfter(loggingMiddleware)
   getOne(@Param("id") id: number) {
       // ...
   }
   

   @UseBefore executes middleware before controller action. @UseAfter executes middleware after each controller action.

Global middlewares

Global middlewares run before each request, always. To make your middleware global mark it with @Middleware decorator and specify if it runs after or before controllers actions.

import { Middleware, ExpressMiddlewareInterface } from 'routing-controllers';

@Middleware({ type: 'before' })
export class LoggingMiddleware implements ExpressMiddlewareInterface {
  use(request: any, response: any, next: (err: any) => any): void {
    console.log('do something...');
    next();
  }
}

To enable this middleware, specify it during routing-controllers initialization:

import { createExpressServer } from 'routing-controllers';
import { UserController } from './UserController';
import { LoggingMiddleware } from './LoggingMiddleware';

createExpressServer({
  controllers: [UserController],
  middlewares: [LoggingMiddleware],
}).listen(3000);

Error handlers

Error handlers are specific only to express. Error handlers work same way as middlewares, but implement ExpressErrorMiddlewareInterface:

1. Create a class that implements the ErrorMiddlewareInterface interface:

   import { Middleware, ExpressErrorMiddlewareInterface } from 'routing-controllers';
   
   @Middleware({ type: 'after' })
   export class CustomErrorHandler implements ExpressErrorMiddlewareInterface {
     error(error: any, request: any, response: any, next: (err: any) => any) {
       console.log('do something...');
       next();
     }
   }
   

Custom error handlers are invoked after the default error handler, so you won't be able to change response code or headers. To prevent this, you have to disable default error handler by specifying defaultErrorHandler option in createExpressServer or useExpressServer:

createExpressServer({
  defaultErrorHandler: false, // disable default error handler, only if you have your own error handler
}).listen(3000);

Loading middlewares, interceptors and controllers from directories

Also you can load middlewares from directories. Also you can use glob patterns:

import { createExpressServer } from 'routing-controllers';
import path from 'path';

createExpressServer({
  controllers: [path.join(__dirname, '/controllers/**/*.js')],
  middlewares: [path.join(__dirname, '/middlewares/**/*.js')],
  interceptors: [path.join(__dirname, '/interceptors/**/*.js')],
}).listen(3000);

Using interceptors

Interceptors are used to change or replace the data returned to the client. You can create your own interceptor class or function and use to all or specific controller or controller action. It works pretty much the same as middlewares.

Interceptor function

The easiest way is to use functions directly passed to @UseInterceptor of the action.

import { Get, Param, UseInterceptor } from "routing-controllers";

// ...

@Get("/users")
@UseInterceptor(function(action: Action, content: any) {
    // here you have content returned by this action. you can replace something
    // in it and return a replaced result. replaced result will be returned to the user
    return content.replace(/Mike/gi, "Michael");
})
getOne(@Param("id") id: number) {
    return "Hello, I am Mike!"; // client will get a "Hello, I am Michael!" response.
}

You can use @UseInterceptor per-action, or per-controller. If its used per-controller then interceptor will apply to all controller actions.

Interceptor classes

You can also create a class and use it with @UseInterceptor decorator:

import { Interceptor, InterceptorInterface, Action } from 'routing-controllers';

export class NameCorrectionInterceptor implements InterceptorInterface {
  intercept(action: Action, content: any) {
    return content.replace(/Mike/gi, 'Michael');
  }
}

And use it in your controllers this way:

import { Get, Param, UseInterceptor } from "routing-controllers";
import { NameCorrectionInterceptor } from "./NameCorrectionInterceptor";

// ...

@Get("/users")
@UseInterceptor(NameCorrectionInterceptor)
getOne(@Param("id") id: number) {
    return "Hello, I am Mike!"; // client will get a "Hello, I am Michael!" response.
}

Global interceptors

You can create interceptors that will affect all controllers in your project by creating interceptor class and mark it with @Interceptor decorator:

import { Interceptor, InterceptorInterface, Action } from 'routing-controllers';

@Interceptor()
export class NameCorrectionInterceptor implements InterceptorInterface {
  intercept(action: Action, content: any) {
    return content.replace(/Mike/gi, 'Michael');
  }
}

Creating instances of classes from action params

When user sends a json object and you are parsing it, sometimes you want to parse it into object of some class, instead of parsing it into simple literal object. You have ability to do this using class-transformer. To use it simply specify a classTransformer: true option on application bootstrap:

import { createExpressServer } from 'routing-controllers';

createExpressServer({
  classTransformer: true,
}).listen(3000);

Now, when you parse your action params, if you have specified a class, routing-controllers will create you a class of that instance with the data sent by a user:

export class User {
  firstName: string;
  lastName: string;

  getName(): string {
    return this.lastName + ' ' + this.firstName;
  }
}

@Controller()
export class UserController {
  post(@Body() user: User) {
    console.log('saving user ' + user.getName());
  }
}

If User is an interface - then simple literal object will be created. If its a class - then instance of this class will be created.

This technique works with @Body, @Param, @QueryParam, @BodyParam, and other decorators. Learn more about class-transformer and how to handle more complex object constructions here. This behaviour is enabled by default. If you want to disable it simply pass classTransformer: false to createExpressServer method. Alternatively you can disable transforming for individual controllers or routes.

Controller Inheritance

Often your application may need to have an option to inherit controller from another to reuse code and avoid duplication. A good example of the use is the CRUD operations which can be hidden inside AbstractBaseController with the possibility to add new and overload methods, the template method pattern.

@Controller(`/product`)
class ProductController extends AbstractControllerTemplate {}
@Controller(`/category`)
class CategoryController extends AbstractControllerTemplate {}
abstract class AbstractControllerTemplate {
  @Post()
  public create() {}

  @Get()
  public read() {}

  @Put()
  public update() {}

  @Delete()
  public delete() {}
}

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template_method_pattern

Auto validating action params

Sometimes parsing a json object into instance of some class is not enough. E.g. class-transformer doesn't check whether the property's types are correct, so you can get runtime error if you rely on TypeScript type safe. Also you may want to validate the object to check e.g. whether the password string is long enough or entered e-mail is correct.

It can be done easily thanks to integration with class-validator. This behaviour is enabled by default. If you want to disable it, you need to do it explicitly e.g. by passing validation: false option on application bootstrap:

import { createExpressServer } from 'routing-controllers';

createExpressServer({
  validation: false,
}).listen(3000);

If you want to turn on the validation only for some params, not globally for every parameter, you can do this locally by setting validate: true option in parameter decorator options object:

@Post("/login")
login(@Body({ validate: true }) user: User) {}

Now you need to define the class which type will be used as type of controller's method param. Decorate the properties with appropriate validation decorators.

export class User {
  @IsEmail()
  email: string;

  @MinLength(6)
  password: string;
}

If you haven't used class-validator yet, you can learn how to use the decorators and handle more complex object validation here.

Now, if you have specified a class type, your action params will be not only an instance of that class (with the data sent by a user) but they will be validated too, so you don't have to worry about eg. incorrect e-mail or too short password and manual checks every property in controller method body.

@Controller()
export class UserController {
  @Post('/login')
  login(@Body() user: User) {
    console.log(`${user.email} is for 100% sure a valid e-mail address!`);
    console.log(`${user.password.length} is for 100% sure 6 chars or more!`);
  }
}

If the param doesn't satisfy the requirements defined by class-validator decorators, an error will be thrown and captured by routing-controller, so the client will receive 400 Bad Request and JSON with nice detailed Validation errors array.

If you need special options for validation (groups, skipping missing properties, etc.) or transforming (groups, excluding prefixes, versions, etc.), you can pass them as global config as validation in createExpressServer method or as a local validate setting for method parameter - @Body({ validate: localOptions }).

This technique works not only with @Body but also with @Param, @QueryParam, @BodyParam and other decorators.

Using authorization features

Routing-controllers comes with two decorators helping you to organize authorization in your application.

@Authorized decorator

To make @Authorized decorator to work you need to setup special routing-controllers options:

import { createExpressServer, Action } from 'routing-controllers';

createExpressServer({
  authorizationChecker: async (action: Action, roles: string[]) => {
    // here you can use request/response objects from action
    // also if decorator defines roles it needs to access the action
    // you can use them to provide granular access check
    // checker must return either boolean (true or false)
    // either promise that resolves a boolean value
    // demo code:
    const token = action.request.headers['authorization'];

    const user = await getEntityManager().findOneByToken(User, token);
    if (user && !roles.length) return true;
    if (user && roles.find(role => user.roles.indexOf(role) !== -1)) return true;

    return false;
  },
}).listen(3000);

You can use @Authorized on controller actions:

@JsonController()
export class SomeController {
  @Authorized()
  @Post('/questions')
  save(@Body() question: Question) {}

  @Authorized('POST_MODERATOR') // you can specify roles or array of roles
  @Post('/posts')
  save(@Body() post: Post) {}
}

@CurrentUser decorator

To make @CurrentUser decorator to work you need to setup special routing-controllers options:

import { createExpressServer, Action } from 'routing-controllers';

createExpressServer({
  currentUserChecker: async (action: Action) => {
    // here you can use request/response objects from action
    // you need to provide a user object that will be injected in controller actions
    // demo code:
    const token = action.request.headers['authorization'];
    return getEntityManager().findOneByToken(User, token);
  },
}).listen(3000);

You can use @CurrentUser on controller actions:

@JsonController()
export class QuestionController {
  @Get('/questions')
  all(@CurrentUser() user?: User, @Body() question: Question) {}

  @Post('/questions')
  save(@CurrentUser({ required: true }) user: User, @Body() post: Post) {}
}

If you mark @CurrentUser as required and currentUserChecker logic will return empty result, then routing-controllers will throw authorization required error.

Using DI container

routing-controllers supports a DI container out of the box. You can inject your services into your controllers, middlewares and error handlers. Container must be setup during application bootstrap. Here is example how to integrate routing-controllers with typedi:

import { createExpressServer, useContainer } from 'routing-controllers';
import { Container } from 'typedi';
import path from 'path';

// its important to set container before any operation you do with routing-controllers,
// including importing controllers
useContainer(Container);

// create and run server
createExpressServer({
  controllers: [path.join(__dirname, '/controllers/*.js')],
  middlewares: [path.join(__dirname, '/middlewares/*.js')],
  interceptors: [path.join(__dirname, '/interceptors/*.js')],
}).listen(3000);

That's it, now you can inject your services into your controllers:

@Controller()
@Service()
export class UsersController {
  constructor(private userRepository: UserRepository) {}

  // ... controller actions
}

Note: As TypeDI@0.9.0 won't create instances for unknown classes, you have to decorate your Controller as a Service() as well. See #642

For other IoC providers that don't expose a get(xxx) function, you can create an IoC adapter using IocAdapter like so:

// inversify-adapter.ts
import { IocAdapter } from 'routing-controllers';
import { Container } from 'inversify';

class InversifyAdapter implements IocAdapter {
  constructor(private readonly container: Container) {}

  get<T>(someClass: ClassConstructor<T>, action?: Action): T {
    const childContainer = this.container.createChild();
    childContainer.bind(API_SYMBOLS.ClientIp).toConstantValue(action.context.ip);
    return childContainer.resolve<T>(someClass);
  }
}

And then tell Routing Controllers to use it:

// Somewhere in your app startup
import { useContainer } from 'routing-controllers';
import { Container } from 'inversify';
import { InversifyAdapter } from './inversify-adapter.ts';

const container = new Container();
const inversifyAdapter = new InversifyAdapter(container);
useContainer(inversifyAdapter);

Custom parameter decorators

You can create your own parameter decorators. Here is simple example how "session user" can be implemented using custom decorators:

import { createParamDecorator } from 'routing-controllers';

export function UserFromSession(options?: { required?: boolean }) {
  return createParamDecorator({
    required: options && options.required ? true : false,
    value: action => {
      const token = action.request.headers['authorization'];
      return database.findUserByToken(token);
    },
  });
}

And use it in your controller:

@JsonController()
export class QuestionController {
  @Post()
  save(@Body() question: Question, @UserFromSession({ required: true }) user: User) {
    // here you'll have user authorized and you can safely save your question
    // in the case if user returned your undefined from the database and "required"
    // parameter was set, routing-controllers will throw you ParameterRequired error
  }
}

Decorators Reference

Controller Decorators

Controller Action Decorators

Method Parameter Decorators

Middleware and Interceptor Decorators

Other Decorators

Samples

• Take a look on routing-controllers with express which is using routing-controllers.
• Take a look on routing-controllers with koa which is using routing-controllers.
• Take a look on routing-controllers with angular 2 which is using routing-controllers.
• Take a look on node-microservice-demo which is using routing-controllers.
• Take a look on samples in ./sample for more examples of usage.

Release notes

See information about breaking changes and release notes here.