Express Load Routes

I like to keep my index file as simple as possible. I thought I’d share a helper function to clean up your routes.

My /routes folder looks like this:

Shell

tree

routes
└── steam
    ├── achievments.route.js
    ├── ownedgames.route.js
    ├── recentlyplayedgames.route.js
    ├── stats.route.js
    └── totalplaytime.route.js

/helpers/loadRoutes.js

// helpers/loadRoutes.js
import fs from 'fs';

export const loadRoutes = (app, routesDirectoryURL) => {
    fs.readdirSync(routesDirectoryURL, { withFileTypes: true }).forEach(async (dirent) => {
        if (dirent.isDirectory()) {
            // If it's a directory, read the files inside it
            const nestedDirURL = new URL(`${dirent.name}/`, routesDirectoryURL);
            loadRoutes(app, nestedDirURL); // Recursively load routes from nested directories
        } else if (dirent.isFile() && dirent.name.endsWith('.route.js')) {
            // If it's a route file, import and use the route
            const route = await import(new URL(dirent.name, routesDirectoryURL));
            app.use(route.default); // Use the routes as defined in the file
        }
    });
};

Now in your index.js file:

/index.js

import express from 'express';
import cors from 'cors';
import 'dotenv/config';

import { loadRoutes } from './helpers/loadRoutes.js';

const app = express();
const port = process.env.PORT || 3000;

app.use(cors());
app.use(express.json());

// Load routes
loadRoutes(app, new URL('./routes/', import.meta.url));

app.listen(port, () => console.log(`Server is running on port ${port}`));

It’s that easy!