Building RESTful Routes with Node.js and Restify

Step 1: Install Restify

Ensure that Restify is installed as a dependency on your project. You can do this by running the following command in the root directory of your project:

npm install restify

Step 2: Create a basic server file

Create a new file called `server.js` (or any preferred name) in the root directory of your project. Open the file and add the following code:

const restify = require('restify');

// Create a server
const server = restify.createServer();

In this step, we import the Restify module using `require(‘restify’)`. Then, we create a new Restify server instance using `restify.createServer()` and assign it to the `server` variable.

Step 3: Define routes

Next, we’ll define routes for different HTTP methods (such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE). Here’s an example with two GET routes:

server.get('/', (req, res, next) => {
  res.send('Hello, World!');
  next();
});

server.get('/about', (req, res, next) => {
  res.send('About page');
  next();
});

we use `server.get()` to define a GET route. The first argument is the path for the route (“/” and “/about” in the example, and the second argument is a route handler function.

The route handler function receives the `req` (request) and `res` (response) objects, which we can use to process the request and send a response.

Inside the route handler function, we use `res.send()` to send a response back to the client. In this example, we send a simple string response (“Hello, World!” and “About page” respectively).

The `next()` function is used to pass control to the next route handler. It is typically called at the end of each route handler function, allowing other routes to be processed if needed.

Step 4: Start the server

Now, let’s start the server and listen for incoming requests:

server.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server started on port 3000');
});

We use `server.listen()` to start the server and specify the port number to listen on (in this case, port 3000). Once the server starts successfully, the callback function is executed and we log a message to the console.

That’s it! You have now created routes in Node.js using the Restify server. You can add more routes for different HTTP methods and customize the route handlers as per your application’s requirements.