Fix up express() return type

[blakeembrey]

Modifying the prototype is part of middleware in Express, that's how it accepts raw HTTP.

Closes #18.

@felixfbecker I tried to make the minimal amount of changes, the description of why is in the linked repo 😄 If this makes sense, feel free to merge and update the registry, hoping to use these changes soon because I've been messing around with refactoring the underlying HTTP layer.

[felixfbecker]

Are you sure that createApplication returns an interface that is different from Application? Can you point me to the source? I was under the impression that createApplication returns an Application, and the Application interface implements the HTTP server interface.

[blakeembrey]

Yes, definitely. Express is designed to accept the raw HTTP objects and alters them to add Express.js-specifics. See https://github.com/expressjs/express/blob/bd47aeb88d28c6cff6e2d8e5378ec73c262e039f/lib/express.js#L37-L39 for the handler code, then https://github.com/expressjs/express/blob/bd47aeb88d28c6cff6e2d8e5378ec73c262e039f/lib/application.js#L157-L174 which is the .handle function (notice callback defaults to finalhandler). You'll notice none of this changes the req and res objects yet from raw HTTP, so you'll find this._router (aka lazyrouter) does https://github.com/expressjs/express/blob/bd47aeb88d28c6cff6e2d8e5378ec73c262e039f/lib/application.js#L144 which uses https://github.com/expressjs/express/blob/bd47aeb88d28c6cff6e2d8e5378ec73c262e039f/lib/middleware/init.js#L28-L29 (aka change the HTTP request and response prototypes to Express.js' request and response prototypes which internally extend the raw HTTP request and response prototypes anyway (see https://github.com/expressjs/express/blob/bd47aeb88d28c6cff6e2d8e5378ec73c262e039f/lib/request.js#L31).

[winksaville]

Is this going to merged into master?

[felixfbecker]

Sorry, forgot about this. @blakeembrey I assume the node typings are outdated by now again, but LGTM otherwise.

[blakeembrey]

@felixfbecker Since it's a global and the types are used correctly, it won't be a problem.

[winksaville]

Txs for merging, I just installed it and then did:

$ typings info express
KEY         VALUE                   
name        express                 
source      npm                     
homepage                            
description                         
updated     2017-02-17T20:54:33.000Z
versions    1                       

And there is no homepage or description fields and the 'versions' is 1. I see in the package.json file there is a description and a version field but no homepage field:

{
  "name": "typed-express",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "private": true,
  "description": "Typings for express",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "typings bundle -o test/bundle.d.ts",
    "test": "tsc -p test",
    "lint": "tslint -c tslint.json index.d.ts lib/**/*.d.ts test/**/*.ts"
  },
  "author": "Felix Becker <felix.b@outlook.com>",
  "license": "ISC",
  "devDependencies": {
    "tslint": "^4.3.1",
    "typescript": "^2.1.5",
    "typings": "^2.1.0"
  }
}

So I'm a little confused, why is description empty?

Is info versions a count, it seems to be as typings info express --versions only show one:

$ typings info express --versions
TAG                   VERSION DESCRIPTION COMPILER LOCATION                                                          UPDATED                 
4.14.0+20170217205433 4.14.0                       github:types/npm-express#0b8501d546a03055e30749ac9d91fef351319af7 2017-02-17T20:54:33.000Z

But why is there only one version I would have expected there to be at least
two, is it because package.json version wasn't bumped, if so should the
package.json version field be bumped?

Should homepage be added to the package.json?

[blakeembrey]

Those fields are defined on the registry itself. Usually reserved for information about the definition vs a regular description of the interface, but I don't think anyone uses it (except once). The versions listed from Typings is also all the current definitions in the registry, the old ones continue working but they are hidden behind a deprecated flag - it'd be a bit annoying seeing every change ever merged so we just show the currently listed registry versions.

[winksaville]

As a user how do I know if I have the latest version of a particular module and which repo it came from?

[blakeembrey]

In the snippet you pasted above, see the location.

[winksaville]

Needing to use typings info express --version and then seeing a partial url for the location doesn't seem very friendly. It seems to me typings info express should be enough and then homepage, description and version should display information for the package which is what people would be interested in. If you wanted the "registry" maybe just typings info would display the registry information.

[blakeembrey]

What if different versions are from different repos? What about showing the commit, which might be different across versions? I don't see the issue with the current approach considering most people don't really care where it's from and Typings is in maintenance mode since TypeScript has @types now. If anything, it might be worth printing the version information on the same screen as the rest to make it easier.

[winksaville]

I didn't realize Typings is in maintenance mode. Do you use npm @types/express or something else?

I ask because npm install @types/express index.d.ts is totally different from what is returned by typings install express

$ wc node_modules/@types/express/index.d.ts
  74  280 2562 node_modules/@types/express/index.d.ts
$ wc typings/modules/express/index.d.ts 
 1716  8092 65509 typings/modules/express/index.d.ts

[felixfbecker]

@winksaville see microsoft/types-publisher#4

[winksaville]

@felixfbecker so it looks like someday, maybe sooner maybe later, this will be fixed :(

In the meantime which would you recommend I use, the versions of .d.ts files using typings install xxx or those from npm install @typs/xxx?

[blakeembrey]

I'm still going to maintain Typings while people are using it, but I'm not going to promote it over the official solution TypeScript has created. See #14 for information on that point - we still can't publish anything to NPM unfortunately (which is why I haven't officially deprecated Typings yet).