Pass Request object to Controller constructor

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Expected Behavior

It would be useful to have the Request object in the controller constructor, not only on the handler method. It’s similar to what was asked on #7. The issue was solved in #25 for DI, but not for non-DI controllers. I don’t know if there is a reason for not doing it.

// In the generated routes.ts file
validatedArgs = getValidatedArgs(args, request, response);
const controller = new MyController(request)

const promise = controller.myHandlerMethod.apply(
  controller,
  validatedArgs as any
)
promiseHandler(controller, promise, response, undefined, next)

Current Behavior

The Controller constructor is called with no arguments.

Possible Solution

It seems to me that a simple change in the handlebars templates would do. For example, in the express.hb, this is the current code:

{{#if ../../iocModule}}
  const container: IocContainer = typeof iocContainer === 'function' ? (iocContainer as IocContainerFactory)(request) : iocContainer;

  const controller: any = await container.get<{{../name}}>({{../name}});
  if (typeof controller['setStatus'] === 'function') {
    controller.setStatus(undefined);
  }
{{else}}
  const controller = new {{../name}}();
{{/if}}

Changing the else part to:

{{else}}
  const controller = new {{../name}}(request);
{{/if}}

Seems to do the job. It’s the same request that is being passed to IoCContainerFactory.

Breaking change?

Currently the constructor is called without arguments, I’m not sure adding an argument is breaking. Maybe for people that are using default parameters in the controller constructor? Like:

class MyController {
  constructor(myArg = 'some default arg') {}
}

[Kampfmoehre]

A non breaking way could be to use a property of the controller. Maybe add a request property to the controller class and then inject that property from the route template after initialization. This way it is not interfering with other constructor arguments, independent if using DI or not and also spares to set a request like object in every unit test even if the method to test doesn’t need it (in contrary to constructor injection). If users want more control or do additional stuff on the request there could be an overridable setRequest or setContext method that the route template calls. For exmplae

export class Controller {
  public request?: Request;

  public setContext(request: Request) {
    this.request = request;
  }
}

and

  let controller: any;
{{#if ../../iocModule}}
  controller = await container.get<{{../name}}>({{../name}});
  if (typeof controller['setStatus'] === 'function') {
    controller.setStatus(undefined);
  }
{{else}}
  controller = new {{../name}}();
{{/if}}
  controller.setContext(request);

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