What is the purpose of the morgan middleware in Express.js?

Morgan is a widely used middleware for logging HTTP requests. It simplifies the process of logging HTTP requests in your application by automatically capturing request information such as request method, URL, status code, response time, and more. Morgan logs this information to the console or a specified log file, making it useful for debugging, monitoring, and analyzing your application’s HTTP traffic.

Purpose of the morgan middleware in ExpressJS:

• HTTP Request Logging: The morgan middleware is used to log HTTP requests handled by your ExpressJS application.
• Request Details: It captures details about incoming requests, such as the HTTP method, URL, status code, response time, and more.
• Debugging Tool: Morgan serves as a valuable debugging tool, providing insights into how requests are processed and helping identify potential issues or performance bottlenecks.
• Development and Production: It can be configured to log requests differently based on the environment, allowing for more detailed logging during development and less verbose logging in production.
• Customizable Logging Format: Morgan offers customizable logging formats, allowing you to tailor the log output to meet your specific requirements and preferences.
• Integration: The middleware seamlessly integrates with ExpressJS applications, requiring minimal configuration to start logging requests.
• Middleware Chain: Morgan can be included in the middleware chain using the app.use() method, ensuring that request logging occurs for all incoming requests.

The morgan middleware in ExpressJS simplifies the process of logging HTTP requests, providing valuable insights into request processing and aiding in debugging and monitoring of your web application.

Syntax:

Install the following dependency in you application using the following command.

npm install express morgan

Below is the basic syntax:

const express = require("express");
const morgan = require("morgan");
const app = express();

// Use morgan middleware to log HTTP requests to the console
app.use(morgan('dev'));

//your applciation routes define here

app.listen(3000, () => {
  console.log('Server is running on port 3000');
});