Question

I’d like to augment the prototype of the request object in expressjs, but it isn’t clear where this request is defined? I think it is http.ServerRequest, but I can’t find that definition either.

What’s the right way to do the following…

http.ServerRequest.prototype.redirect = function(path) { }

Answer 1

Express itself adds it’s utility methods to http.IncomingMessage.prototype, using this pattern in 2.*:

var http = require('http'),
    req = http.IncomingMessage.prototype;

req.foo = function(bar) {
  // Do cool stuff
};

And this pattern in 3.*:

var http = require('http');

var req = exports = module.exports = {
  __proto__: http.IncomingMessage.prototype
};

It’s wise to be careful with monkey patching though, as Vadim Baryshev warns in his answer.