Where do you place NPM's request code? - express

Question

I want to use the request module in my express app, but I am not sure where the actual requests code goes.
Usage:
When a user loads a page, make a GET request and populate the page with data.
When a users clicks on a item from a table, make a GET request.
When a user fills out a form, POST.
I tried searching for answers but it seems to be implied that the developer knows where to place the code.
Example of a code snippet using request that I am unsure where to place in the express app:
var request = require('request');
request('http://www.google.com', function (error, response, body) {
if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) {
console.log(body) // Show the HTML for the Google homepage.
}
})
I am guessing that I should not place the code in the server.js file especially if I am going to be making many different calls, but that's what it looks like others are doing on StackOverflow.
Does the request belong in a model?

Answer 1

If you are doing this in response to a user interaction, like clicking on something you can just do it from the route handler. Below, I just return the results to the client, or I pass an error to the next handler in the chain.
var request = require('request');
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
app.get('/click', function(req, res, next){
request('http://www.google.com', function (error, response, body) {
if (error || response.statusCode != 200)
return next(err);
response.send(body) // return the html to the client
})
});
app.listen(3000);
In bigger apps you might move routes into separate modules.