Proper way to set response status and JSON content in a REST API made with nodejs and express

Question

I am playing around with Nodejs and express by building a small rest API. My question is, what is the good practice/best way to set the code status, as well as the response

Answer 1

The best way of sending an error response would be return res.status(400).send({ message: 'An error has occurred' }).

Then, in your frontend you can catch it using something like this:

        url: your_url,
        method: 'POST',
        headers: headers,
        data: JSON.stringify(body),
    })
        .then((res) => {
            console.log('success', res);
        })
        .catch((err) => {
            err.response && err.response.data && this.setState({ apiResponse: err.response.data })
        })

Just logging err won't work, as your sent message object resides in err.response.data.

Hope that helps!