Routing-controllers: Catch all route

[alexproca]

Hi @pleerock !

I have a angular application consuming a nodejs API written with routing-controllers. I need a catch all route to send the angular app for all routes not mapped but I get headers are already sent error. In order to avoid this situation I check if headers are already sent before sending the actual html.

import './api/controllers/public.controller'
import './api/misc/util.controller'

let app = express();
app.use(cors());
app.use(cookieParser(COOKIE_SALT))
app.use(bodyParser.json())
app.use(bodyParser.text({ limit: '50mb' }))
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }))
app.use(compress({}))
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, '../public')));

let html = fs.readFileSync(path.join(__dirname, '../public/index.html'))
useExpressServer(app);

app.get('*', (req, res) => {
    if (!res.headersSent) {
        res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/html');
        res.end(html)
    }
});

app.listen(config.port);

Can this headerSent check be avoided ?

[NoNameProvided]

You can create a wildcard route for it in the last registered controller not?

[alexproca]

Yes I can but I would like to have it here in server initialisation since it is a special route (kind of 404). And if the controllers are loaded automatically I do not know which is the last registered controller.

I was thinking of a configuration option like this:

createExpressServer({
    catchAll: (req, res) => {
        res.send(`This route is not defined`)
    }
})

[NoNameProvided]

You can add them via class name that way you will know the order, e.g.: [UserCtr, ProductCtrl, WildcardCtrl]also you can disable the default error handler and write your own which will serve the data from your public directory if the specified path map to an existing file.

[alexproca]

Sure it can be done but is also a workaround. I will keep my workaround for now. I tried the error handling approach and it does not seem to work (I'm using version 0.6.12)

[pleerock]

You need to disable default exception handler (see readme how to do that) and create standard express error middleware. This should work for you.

[MichalLytek]

I am closing this issue as it looks like it's solved. If you have more question, @alexproca, feel free to reopen.

[leroy0211]

If anyone is still interesting in a solution. Just create a Middleware like this (typescript).

import {ExpressMiddlewareInterface, Middleware} from "routing-controllers";

@Middleware({ type: "after" })
export class CatchAllRoutes implements ExpressMiddlewareInterface {

    use(request: any, response: any, next: (err?: any) => any): any {
        if (!response.headersSent) {
            response.status(200).send("OK");  // change this to do your stuff.
        }
        next();
    }
}

[drdreo]

@leroy0211 i have exactly the same issue right now with my angular 7 app served via express in production. Although the routes get lazy loaded and my catch all route is always registered before them.
Is that middleware check with
if (!response.headersSent)
really a save way to serve the angular index.html file there?
Or should i really just add a route for @Get(*) in my last registered controller. That design smells.

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