Node.js module-specific static resources

Question

Is there an elegant way to bundle static client-side file resources (scripts,images,etc) into an Express module and systematically avoid naming conflicts? It's easy enough to register a module-specific instance of the static object like so:

app.use(express.static(modulePath + '/public'));
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));

but if both directories contain a "styles.css" file, it would seem that the one from the module will eclipse the one for the application. A subdirectory within the module's public could be used to avoid this problem, but what I really want is a way to map the module's resources to an arbitrary path such that

http://localhost:3000/mymodule/styles.css => <modulePath>/public/styles.css
http://localhost:3000/styles.css => <appPath>/public/styles.css

Is there already a way to do this? I've already done it with coding tricks, so I'm really looking for the recommended way to get it done. Also, if I'm missing some key concept that makes this totally unnecessary, I would like to learn about that too.

Answer 1

You can create another instance of connect.static and use it within a route:

app = express.createServer()

app.configure(function(){
    app.use(express.static(__dirname+'/public'))
})

// new static middleware
var myModuleStatic = express.static(__dirname+'/mymodule')

// catch all sub-directory requests
app.get('/mymodule/*', function(req, res){
    // remove subdir from url (static serves from root)
    req.url = req.url.replace(/^\/mymodule/, '')
    // call the actual middleware, catch pass-through (not found)
    myModuleStatic(req, res, function(){
        res.send(404)
    })
})

app.listen(5555)

Answer 2

Something like this should also work:

app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));    
app.use('/mymodule', express.static(modulePath + '/public'));

See: http://groups.google.com/group/express-js/browse_thread/thread/c653fafc35fa85ed