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Version: 0.13

Routing API

ChiselStrike allows you to write backend code that responds to HTTP requests. You can specify the HTTP method, endpoint URL path, and behavior using the TypeScript API described in this section.

Routes must be declared in TypeScript source files (JavaScript is not supported, though you may invoke JavaScript code from within routes).

Source files​

All TypeScript source files containing a route definition must exist in the routes directory by default. The file paths that ChiselStrike uses to find routes is specified in the project Chisel.toml. The system will use all source files in the project to assemble a final list of active routes.

The name of the file determines the base endpoint URL path. For example, if a route is defined in routes/hello.ts, the endpoint URL during development becomes [YOUR-HOST]/dev/hello.

The source file for a route must export default a single RouteMap object or Handler function that defines the behavior of all child paths under the base endpoint URL path for the route. The RouteMap defines which methods and relative paths ChiselStrike will respond to, and how it will respond.

Read more about how source file organization works for more advanced cases.

A simple route example​

RouteMap uses a builder-like API for defining which methods and relative paths ChiselStrike will respond to, and how it will respond. The required elements for building a route are:

  • An HTTP method
  • A relative path
  • A Handler function that performs any work and sends a response

The following is a simple route in a file routes/hello.ts:

routes/hello.ts
import { RouteMap } from "@chiselstrike/api";

export default new RouteMap()
    .get("/", function (): string {
        return "hello world";
    })

When chiseld runs during development with this file in place, it will create a route with the endpoint URL http://localhost:8080/dev/hello. When that URL is accessed with the HTTP GET method, it will return a plain text response containing the string "hello world".