API method `route`

The route method dispatch command into handler functions. An handler is a function or the name of a module exporting a function. Learn more about routing in the usage documentation.

• context: [string] | object The arguments to parse into data, accept the Node.js process instance, an argument list provided as an array of strings or the context object; optional, default to process.
• ...users_parameters: any Additionnal parameters that will be passed to the handler function associated with a route.
• Returns: any Whatever the handler function returns.

Basic usage

Considering a "server" application containing a "start" and a "stop" commands, each commands define a handler which point to a module exporting a function:

const shell = require("shell")
const app = shell({
  name: "server",
  commands: {
    "start": {
      options: {
        "host": {
          shortcut: "h",
          description: "Web server listen host"
        },
        "port": {
          shortcut: "p", type: "integer",
          description: "Web server listen port"
        }
      },
      handler: "./routes/start.js"
    }
  }
})
app.route()

The file "./routes/start.js" could look like:

module.exports = ({argv, params, config}) => {
  process.stderr.write(`Listen address is ${params.host}:${params.port}`)
}

Passing arguments

By default, the arguments are extracted from the process.argv array. The first two elements of the array are striped out. They corresponds to the Node.js command and the module being executed that is your application main entry point.

You can however pass your own arguments such as:

app.route(['start', '--port', 3000])

In which case, argv will equals to:

['start', '--port', 3000]

Passing additionnal parameters

Any additionnal arguments will be passed to the handler function, for example, calling app.route with:

app.route(['start', '--port', 3000], myArg, myCallback, anythingYouWant)

Yields to a handler like:

module.exports = (context, myArg, myCallback, anythingYouWant) => {
  // write your code here
  // probably calling the myCallback argument when done
}

Return value

Anything returned by the handler is also returned by the route function. Imaging a handler returning a promise:

module.exports = ({params}) => {
  return new Promise( (accept, reject) => {
    setTimeout(function(){
      params.port === 3000 ? accept() : reject()
    }, 1000)
  })
}

The application calling the route wait for the promise to be resolved with:

await app.route(['start', '--port', 3000]