Node.js project naming conventions for files & folders

What are the naming conventions for files and folders in a large Node.js project?

Should I capitalize, camelCase, or under-score?

Ie. is this considered valid?

project-name
    app
        controllers
            someThings.js
            users.js
        models
                someThing.js
                user.js
        views
            some-things
                index.jade
            users
                logIn.jade
                signUp.jade
    ...

Answer

After some years with node, I can say that there are no conventions for the directory/file structure. However most (professional) express applications use a setup like:

/
  /bin - scripts, helpers, binaries
  /lib - your application
  /config - your configuration
  /public - your public files
  /test - your tests

An example which uses this setup is nodejs-starter.

I personally changed this setup to:

/
  /etc - contains configuration
  /app - front-end javascript files
    /config - loads config
    /models - loads models
  /bin - helper scripts
  /lib - back-end express files
    /config - loads config to app.settings
    /models - loads mongoose models
    /routes - sets up app.get('..')...
  /srv - contains public files
  /usr - contains templates
  /test - contains test files

In my opinion, the latter matches better with the Unix-style directory structure (whereas the former mixes this up a bit).

I also like this pattern to separate files:

lib/index.js

var http = require('http');
var express = require('express');

var app = express();

app.server = http.createServer(app);

require('./config')(app);

require('./models')(app);

require('./routes')(app);

app.server.listen(app.settings.port);

module.exports = app;

lib/static/index.js

var express = require('express');

module.exports = function(app) {

  app.use(express.static(app.settings.static.path));

};

This allows decoupling neatly all source code without having to bother dependencies. A really good solution for fighting nasty Javascript. A real-world example is nearby which uses this setup.

Update (filenames):

Regarding filenames most common are short, lowercase filenames. If your file can only be described with two words most JavaScript projects use an underscore as the delimiter.

Update (variables):

Regarding variables, the same “rules” apply as for filenames. Prototypes or classes, however, should use camelCase.

Update (styleguides):

• https://github.com/feross/standard
• https://github.com/airbnb/javascript