Create A Href Link That Uses Http DELETE Verb In Express.js

I just started playing with express.js using handlebars.js as my template I wanted to create a delete link, which should be restful and use http verb DELETE instead of GET. I fina

Solution 1:

Thanks @tikider I did more research based on your suggestion and came across a middleware called method-override (https://github.com/expressjs/method-override) Since I wanted to handle DELETE your suggestion was quite complete since forms can't send DELETE

This is how I solved it, first I npm installed method-override:

sudo npm install method-override --save

Attached it to my app middleware handler:

// override with POST having ?_method=DELETE
app.use(methodOverride('_method'));

Then my view I set my delete buttons as

<form method="POST" action="/destroy/{{_id}}?_method=DELETE">
  <button type="submit">Delete</button>
</form>

Now every time I click delete it is changed by method-override to DELETE and caught using a middleware like so within my app:

app.delete('/destroy/:id', function(req, res) {
   //...
}

As I am using handlebars template I can then add it as a helper method.

Solution 2:

In your case Rails creates a form and sets its method to the one you provided:

method: symbol of HTTP verb - This modifier will dynamically create an HTML form and immediately submit the form for processing using the HTTP verb specified. link_to in Rails Doc

your can implement your own in javascript:

var link_to = function (text, href, method) {
    return '<form action="' + href + '" method="' + method + '" ><button>'+ text + '</button></form>'
}

you can use css to style this button as a normal link.