Distinguish between middleware and handlers which respond

[oliverbrooks]

Use case:

I have an app in which some routes are only relevant on the server. When I do a GET or POST to these routes I want the request to perform a full HTTP request rather than attempt an XHR and 404.

This is currently possible by using a fully qualified URL which isorouter treats as a full page refresh but it requires knowledge that route x needs this special treatment.

Would propose that the route matching return false if there is no handler which matches the given pathname. For example.

isomorphic_routes.js

isorouter.use(middleware1);
isorouter.use(middleware2);

isorouter.get("/fish", function () {});

server_routes.js

router.get("/face", function () {});

If you hit this app with GET /fish it will run middleware 1 and 2 and also the fish handler and do so on both client and server side.

If you hit this app with GET /face' with HTTP it will handle the request but fail from a loaded client app. If you tap a link to/face` it will run through the middleware and fail silently. Sad face.

Would be nice if isorouter could detect that there is no handler for a pathname matching the link <a href="/face"> and perform a HTTP request.

In the current code this would involve returning false to router.go() called from lib/dom_event_listener.js so the event isn't cancelled. This could be done by modifying the go method in browser.js to only return true if there was one or more route match (ignore middleware).

[orangemug]

I guess the other method would be to guard around the server side routes

app.get("/serverOnly", passThroughServer, function() {})

passThroughServer could then just redirect the page

Then the server / client code can live in the the same place in the codebase.

Not sure if thats a good idea but thought I'd put it out there