Redirects

After a form saves something, you send the user to a page, and ViewService gives you three ways to do that.

Inject ViewService

import { ViewService } from 'nestjs-mvc'

@Controller('users')
export class UsersController {
  constructor(private readonly view: ViewService) {}
}

To a page

@Post()
async store(@Body() dto: CreateUserDto) {
  const user = await this.users.create(dto)
  return this.view.redirect(`/users/${user.id}`)
}

Back to where the user came from

back() goes to the previous page, which is handy when the same form shows up in several places.

@Post(':id/like')
async like(@Param('id', ParseIntPipe) id: number) {
  await this.posts.like(id)
  return this.view.back()
}

back() always stays on your site. If the previous page was somewhere else, the user goes to /, or to a fallback you pass, like back('/posts').

To another website

A normal redirect stays inside your app. For an outside URL, like a payment page or a login provider, use location() and the browser does a full page load:

@Post('checkout')
async checkout() {
  const session = await this.payments.createCheckout()
  return this.view.location(session.url)
}

Why redirect at all?

You could return a page straight from a POST, but redirecting works better. Refreshing won't submit the form a second time, and the page you land on gets fresh data from its own controller.

Good to know

• These methods stop the handler by throwing a special exception, so code after them won't run. Writing return this.view.redirect(...) makes that clear when you read it.
• After a PUT, PATCH or DELETE, nestjs-mvc answers with status 303 so the browser follows up with a GET. That happens on its own.
• You can put a flash message in front, like this.view.flash('message', 'Saved.').back().