Calling an endpoint inside the node project itself?

I am creating a MERN app that adds meta tags to React pages without SSR. So, I need to read the query inside the main file of the server and pass the appropriate metadata content to each page.
I am using this in the server.js file:

const indexPath  = path.resolve(__dirname, 'build', 'index.html');

// static resources should just be served as they are
app.use(express.static(
    path.resolve(__dirname, 'build'),
    { maxAge: '30d' },
));
// here we serve the index.html page
app.get('/*', (req, res, next) => {
    fs.readFile(indexPath, 'utf8', (err, htmlData) => {
        if (err) {
            console.error('Error during file reading', err);
            return res.status(404).end()
        }
        // get post info
        const postId = req.query.id;
        const post = getPostById(postId);
        if(!post) return res.status(404).send("Post not found");

        // inject meta tags
        htmlData = htmlData.replace(
            "<title>React App</title>",
            `<title>${post.title}</title>`
        )
        .replace('__META_OG_TITLE__', post.title)
        .replace('__META_OG_DESCRIPTION__', post.description)
        .replace('__META_DESCRIPTION__', post.description)
        .replace('__META_OG_IMAGE__', post.thumbnail)
        return res.send(htmlData);
    });
});

Here the getPostById is statically defined in a file. But I want to fetch it from my db.
My file structure is:

server.js
controllers

 - posts.js
routes
 - posts.js

I’ve separated the logic from route. So my routes/posts.js file looks like:

import { getPost, createPost } from '../controllers/posts.js';


const router = express.Router();

router.get('/', getPost);
router.post('/', createPost);


export default router;

So, in order to dynamically pass the meta content, I need to read the API endpoint for each request and pass the appropriate data. For this, I need to call the endpoints directly inside my node project. How to do that?

I’d appreciate any help. Thank you.

Answers:

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Method 1

If you really want to call your own http endpoints, you would use http.get() or some higher level http library (that is a little easier to use) such as got(). And, then you can make an http request to your own server and get the results back.

But … usually, you do not make http requests to your own server. Instead, you encapsulate the functionality that gets you the data you want in a function and you use that function both in the route and in your own code that wants the same data as the route. This is a ton more efficient than packaging up an http request, sending that request to the TCP stack, having that request come back to your server, parsing that request, getting the data, forming it as an http response, sending that response back to the requester, parsing that response, then using the data.

Instead, if you have a common, shared function, you just call the function, get the result from it (probably via a promise) and you’re done. You don’t need all that intermediate packaging into the http request/response, parsing, loopback network, etc…

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