BootExpress

BootExpress is a lightweight, Spring Boot-inspired Node.js framework that simplifies backend development with decorators, modular routing, and built-in support for dependency injection. It is designed to provide an intuitive structure for building scalable web applications using Express and Babel.

Features

• Spring Boot-style Routing: Use decorators like @RequestMapping, @ResponseBody, and @ResponseView to define routes efficiently.
• Class-based Controllers: Organize your endpoints with controller classes similar to Spring Boot.
• EJS Template Rendering: Built-in support for EJS views with automatic data binding.
• Scalable Project Structure: Inspired by enterprise-level backend frameworks.

Features TBD

• Dependency Injection: Easily inject services and middleware into controllers.
• Database-Driven Scripting: Execute scripts dynamically from a database while maintaining Babel decorator support.
• Built-in Middleware: Provides session management, authentication, and request validation out of the box.
• Custom Decorators: Extend functionality with your own method and class decorators.

Installation

npm install

Running the Server

Development Mode

npm run dev #with dev mode
#or
npm run babel #with babel
#or
npm run nodemon #with babel and nodemon
#or
npm run ngrok #with babel,nodemon, ngork (credentials required)

This runs the server with Babel for ES module support and live reload.

Production Mode

npm run build
npm run server

This compiles the source code and runs the optimized server.

Project Structure

boot-express/
├── @core/              # Core Libraries
├── @common/            # Common Libraries
├── app/
│   ├── controllers/    # Route handlers (decorator-based)
│   ├── middlewares/    # Middleware for requests
│   ├── services/       # Business logic services
│   ├── views/          # EJS templates
│   └── models/         # Database models
│   ├── workers/        # Workers/Jobs/EventListners. Queue Handlers
│   └── scripts/        # Bot Scripts
│   └── snippets/        # Bot Snippets
│   └── app.js         # Database models
├── dist/               # Compiled output (production build)
├── babel.config.js     # Babel configuration
├── package.json        # Dependencies and scripts
└── server.js           # Application entry point

Usage

Defining a Controller

Create a new controller inside app/controllers/.

import { Controller, RequestMapping, ResponseBody } from from "@bootloader/core/decorators";

@Controller("/users")
class UserController {
  @RequestMapping("/", "get")
  @ResponseBody
  getUsers({ request }) {
    return [{ id: 1, name: "John Doe" }];
  }
}

Rendering Views

import { Controller, RequestMapping, ResponseView } from "@bootloader/core/decorators";

@Controller("/dashboard")
class DashboardController {
  @RequestMapping("/", "get")
  @ResponseView
  renderDashboard({ model }) {
    model.title = "Dashboard";
    return "dashboard"; // Renders views/dashboard.ejs
  }
}

Multi-module Support

Default module is app, multiple modules can be added parellel to it and app.js can be replicated in each folder. server.js will need mappings to be added as below

new BootLoader()
  .map({
    name: "app", // folder for application, default : app
    context: "/", // context path for  application,default : ""
  })
  .map({
    name: "app-test", // folder for application, default : app
    context: "/test/", // context path for application,default : ""
  })
  .create(function ({ name, app }) {
    console.log(`APP[${name}]: Created`);
  })
  .launch(function ({ name, server }) {
    console.log(`APP[${name}]: Launched`);
  });

build/run

APP=test npm run dev
APP=test npm run build
APP=test npm run server

Contributing

Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request at GitHub Repository.

License

MIT License.