A nice technique i've started using with some of my apps on express is to create an object which merges the query, params, and body fields of express's request object.
//./express-data.js
const _ = require("lodash");
class ExpressData {
/*
* @param {Object} req - express request object
*/
constructor (req) {
//Merge all data passed by the client in the request
this.props = _.merge(req.body, req.params, req.query);
}
}
module.exports = ExpressData;
Then in your controller body, or anywhere else in scope of the express request chain, you can use something like below:
//./some-controller.js
const ExpressData = require("./express-data.js");
const router = require("express").Router();
router.get("/:some_id", (req, res) => {
let props = new ExpressData(req).props;
//Given the request "/592363122?foo=bar&hello=world"
//the below would log out
// {
// some_id: 592363122,
// foo: 'bar',
// hello: 'world'
// }
console.log(props);
return res.json(props);
});
This makes it nice and handy to just "delve" into all of the "custom data" a user may have sent up with their request.
Note
Why the 'props' field? Because that was a cut-down snippet, I use this technique in a number of my APIs, I also store authentication / authorisation data onto this object, example below.
/*
* @param {Object} req - Request response object
*/
class ExpressData {
/*
* @param {Object} req - express request object
*/
constructor (req) {
//Merge all data passed by the client in the request
this.props = _.merge(req.body, req.params, req.query);
//Store reference to the user
this.user = req.user || null;
//API connected devices (Mobile app..) will send x-client header with requests, web context is implied.
//This is used to determine how the user is connecting to the API
this.client = (req.headers) ? (req.headers["x-client"] || (req.client || "web")) : "web";
}
}