Hot CoffeeScript Express Boilerplate

Tired of extra syntax in your Express app.js, or want to switch to CoffeeScript for your server-side code? Try this pseudo-DSL on for size:

run.js

coffee = require('coffee-script');
http = require('http');
app = require('./app');

http.createServer(app).listen(app.get('port'), function(){
 console.log("Express server listening on port " + app.get('port'));
});

app.coffee

express = require 'express'
_ = require 'underscore'
path = require 'path'

routes = require './routes'
user = require './routes/user'

module.exports = app = express()

do _.bind ->
 @configure ->
 @set('port', process.env.PORT || 3000)
 @set('views', __dirname + '/views')
 @set('view engine', 'jade')
 @use(express.favicon())
 @use(express.logger('dev'))
 @use(express.bodyParser())
 @use(express.methodOverride())
 @use(@router)
 @use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')))

 @configure 'development', ->
 @use(express.errorHandler())

 @get('/', routes.index)
 @get('/users', user.list)
 , app

Watch out for the indentation. The second argument to bind – express() – is indented once, but the contents of the function are indented twice.