10 useful middleware for a basic Express webapp

There was a time prior to Express 4.0 that most of the middleware listed was part of Express with  Connect, however this is now a separate project.  The following are basic middlewares dependencies to help wtih a basic webapp scaffold.


1. Connect 
npm install --save connect 
const connect = (require(connect));

This provides: 

basicAuth - basic access authorization for HTTPS and for easy development.

app.use(connect.bascAuth)(); 

body-parser  - parses json and urlencoded, for handling forms and AJAX request. You may have to install this separate as not part of Connect 3.0^ 

npm install --save body-parser 

app.use(require(bbody-parser)() );

compress - uses gzip to compress data good for slower mobile connections.

app.use(connect.compress);

directory - directory support for static files 
directory (app.use(connect.directory());

2. Formidable
npm install --save formidable

const formidable = require('formidable');

helpful for file uploads.

//example

app.post('/profiles/myPic', function(req, res) {

let form = new formidable.IncomingForm();

form.parse(req, function, fields, files) {

//...do something

res.redirect(303, '/file-uploaded');

  });

});

3. Cookie-parser
npm install --save cookie-parser
app.use(require(cookie-parser)(your secret goes here);
Easy for cookie management.

4. Express-session

npm install --save express-session

app.use(require(express-session)() );
Good for session IDs development only.

5. csurf
npm install --save csurf
app.use(require(csurf)());
Protects against Cross-site request forgery attacks.  Link after express-session.

6. errorhandler

npm install --save errorhandler
app.use(require(errorhandler)());

Good for development error handling

7. morgan

npm install --save morgan 
app.use(require(morgan)());

Logs all requests.

8. method-override 

npm install --save method-override 
app.use(require(method-override)());
Good for writing and testing APIs.

9. response-time 

npm install --save response-time
app.use(require(response-time)());

Helps performance tuning, gives response header an X-Response. 

10. vhost 

npm install --save vhost 
const vhost = require(vhost);
Helpful to manage subdomains in Express.