Proper way to set response status and JSON content in a REST API made with nodejs and express

Express API reference covers this case.

In short, you just have to call the status method before calling json or send:

res.status(500).send({ error: "boo:(" });

node.js rest http express

You could do it this way:

res.status(400).json(json_response);

This will set the HTTP status code to 400, it works even in express 4.

node.js rest http express

status of 200 will be the default when using res.send, res.json, etc.

You can set the status like res.status(500).json({ error: 'something is wrong' });

Often I'll do something like...

router.get('/something', function(req, res, next) {  // Some stuff here  if(err) {    res.status(500);    return next(err);  }  // More stuff here});

Then have my error middleware send the response, and do anything else I need to do when there is an error.

Additionally: res.sendStatus(status) has been added as of version 4.9.0http://expressjs.com/4x/api.html#res.sendStatus

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