Question

I’m writing Express.js modules in CoffeeScript, and I’m not sure of the best way to structure them.

The way I want to utilize the module is something like

app.coffee

Mailer = require('./lib/mailer')
amazon_mailer = new Mailer
  key: "somekey"
  secret: "somesecret"
  type: "SES"
...
amazon_mailer.send(...)

So, in Coffeescript, I’m thinking about doing it this way:

/lib/mailer.coffee

class Mailer
  constructor: (options) ->
    @options = options

  send: (...) ->
    ...

module.exports = Mailer

In my testing, this works, but is it the proper way to do it? I’ve been unable to find any good examples about how to structure express modules in CoffeeScript. Is there a better way to do it?

Answer 1

Yes, your approach is fine. It’s common to export a constructor from a Node library.

The only thing you have to worry about is exporting the Mailer class in such a way that it can be required directly. You can do that by adding the line

module.exports = Mailer

after defining the class.