Node.js 15+ starts recommending promise based versions by default - Express 5.0 and wrapAsync

[thernstig]

Hi!

As an example Node.js and https://nodejs.org/api/fs.html is starting to recommend promise-based versions foremost. (compare with earlier versions that has the promised based versions last: https://nodejs.org/docs/latest-v14.x/api/fs.html).

Express 5.0 has added automatic handling in routes of async/await routes that will automatically invoke the Express error handler if a an async function throws. There are current workarounds to create a wrapAsync() function around routes, but in bigger projects some users miss this and it's also not-so-nice-looking (and confusing for some).

I am merely wondering if Express 5.0 could be released, and current items on https://github.com/expressjs/express/milestone/11 could be moved to a 6.0 release? I am very respectful of the fact that you voluntarily work on this, and these kind of questions are frowned upon. #2237 was created 7 years ago now, so I at least think it should be ok to ask for this without in any way not being grateful of this project already and its release cadence.

I guess what I am saying is that there are some nice things already on the main branch for Express 5.0 that works good with latest versions of Node.js 15, so a release would be amazing.

[enyoghasim]

yeah thats a great idea bro

[thernstig]

@enyoghasim I am no maintainer of this repo and do not have the power to do releases, so I am unsure why I was added as asignee? Considering you are part of the express organization, is there any chance you could rally your peers to look into this?

[thernstig]

@dougwilson do you have anything to add to this? You are certainly doing a great job with maintenance of all the subdependencies etc of Express. But if Express 5.0 alpha 8 has not received any complaints of serious bugs, what are you feeling about this topic?

Also the answer by @enyoghasim concerns me a bit: I am not sure if it is sarcasm or what, but yeah.

[dougwilson]

Hi @thernstig I'm sorry for one of the comments in the thread; I went ahead a hid it for now.

As for your idea, that is pretty much what the TC decided, even though there is still a lot of flac from the community about deferring things like http/2 to express 6. Really, there is only one outstanding issues for express 5, and it is related to async/await in the router. There is an open PR to address this, but the author has kind of faded away. Ideally that's really all that needs to be fixed if the idea is for express 5's main goal to be async/await.

[thernstig]

@dougwilson thank you very much for answering, I know you have a very busy schedule.

Any chance you could champion taking over that PR to get it merged?

I agree with you and the TC. I think it is perfectly fine to release 5.0 and then later HTTP/2. There is always some "can you just add this as well?". I personally do not think there is anything stopping release 6 being a much smaller release with just having HTTP/2 as the main focus. That way it really should not matter much to users who want HTTP/2 get an "intermediate" 5.0 release.

Articles like https://dev.to/romainlanz/why-you-should-drop-expressjs-in-2021-711 make me sad because 1) much of the article is not true 2) Express is being actively worked on but some people do not explore enough to be aware it is.

[enyoghasim]

@dougwilson @thernstig i am sorry for the hidden comment

[filipecatraia]

tl;dr HTTP/2 is probably less important than potential instability in a codebase due to unhandled promises.

Completely anedoctal, but I tested a migration of our API to Koa and Fastify. They're both perfectly fine and have some nice advantages over Express. But you know, I'm back to Express anyway. I like the stability of the project.

That said, I find that working around UnhandledPromiseRejection has become a nuisance. It's just less reliable than knowing my framework of choice is battle tested to handle that for me.

Having Express 5 without HTTP/2 is, for us, a no-brainer 🤷

[euoia]

I feel the same way as @filipecatraia, having tried Koa but moved back to express for similar reasons. I would also prefer not to have to wrap all of my request handlers in asyncHandler.

@dougwilson you said:

Really, there is only one outstanding issues for express 5 and it is related to async/await in the router.

Would you mind linking to the issue in this thread for anybody else following along who might like to take a shot at it?

[thernstig]

@dougwilson, could you share the only issue holding off the release?

[aravindvnair99]

Leaving a few useful links here:

• Pending items for v5 release: Release 5.0 #2237
• Open PRs related to 5.x: https://github.com/expressjs/express/pulls?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Apr+label%3A5.x
• Open issues related to 5.x: https://github.com/expressjs/express/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A5.x

[thernstig]

@aravindvnair99 those links do not help much I am afraid. @dougwilson stated there was only one outstanding issue for 5.0. Meaning it seems the rest could be postponed.

It is clear @dougwilson is very active on Github, and seeing there is only one outstanding issue for the release, it feels natural to focus on that PR i.e. take over what the original author of that PR started. The focus seems to be on updating other things, which maybe could be held of till that one thing stopping Express 5.0?

The community has been waiting for many years quite patiently for the release, and has helped along the way with PRs and issues. It would be great to finally after these years make the community happy with a new release 😃

[aravindvnair99]

@thernstig I agree. My intention though was just to mention the links here for anyone else who stumbles upon this issue tracker.

I must admit I too am excited for a v5 release. Express has always been about stability in my opinion, but yes I look forward to v5. It's long been in the development stage.

And as for what @dougwilson was referring to, I'm not sure which issue that is exactly. My guess are on this one: #4321