An example NodeJS / Mongoose / Express application based on their respective tutorials

api.js

/* The API controller
   Exports 3 methods:
   * post - Creates a new thread
   * list - Returns a list of threads
   * show - Displays a thread and its posts
*/


var Thread = require('../models/thread.js');
var Post = require('../models/post.js');

exports.post = function(req, res) {
    new Thread({title: req.body.title, author: req.body.author}).save();
}

exports.list = function(req, res) {
  Thread.find(function(err, threads) {
    res.send(threads);
  });
}

// first locates a thread by title, then locates the replies by thread ID.
exports.show = (function(req, res) {
    Thread.findOne({title: req.params.title}, function(error, thread) {
        var posts = Post.find({thread: thread._id}, function(error, posts) {
          res.send([{thread: thread, posts: posts}]);
        });
    })
});

app.js

// The main application script, ties everything together.

var express = require('express');
var mongoose = require('mongoose');
var app = module.exports = express.createServer();

// connect to Mongo when the app initializes
mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost/norum');

app.configure(function(){
  app.use(express.bodyParser());
  app.use(express.methodOverride());
  app.use(app.router);
});

// set up the RESTful API, handler methods are defined in api.js
var api = require('./controllers/api.js');
app.post('/thread', api.post);
app.get('/thread/:title.:format?', api.show);
app.get('/thread', api.list);

app.listen(3000);
console.log("Express server listening on port %d", app.address().port);

package.json

{
  "name": "express",
  "description": "Sinatra inspired web development framework",
  "version": "3.0.0",
  "author": "TJ Holowaychuk <tj@vision-media.ca>",
  "contributors": [ 
    { "name": "TJ Holowaychuk", "email": "tj@vision-media.ca" }, 
    { "name": "Aaron Heckmann", "email": "aaron.heckmann+github@gmail.com" },
    { "name": "Ciaran Jessup", "email": "ciaranj@gmail.com" },
    { "name": "Guillermo Rauch", "email": "rauchg@gmail.com" }
  ],
  "dependencies": {
    "connect": "2.6.0",
    "commander": "0.6.1",
    "range-parser": "0.0.4",
    "mkdirp": "0.3.3",
    "cookie": "0.0.4",
    "crc": "0.2.0",
    "fresh": "0.1.0",
    "methods": "0.0.1",
    "send": "0.1.0",
    "debug": "*"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "ejs": "*",
    "mocha": "*",
    "jade": "*",
    "hjs": "*",
    "stylus": "*",
    "should": "*",
    "connect-redis": "*",
    "github-flavored-markdown": "*",
    "supertest": "0.0.1"
  },
  "keywords": [
    "express",
    "framework",
    "sinatra",
    "web",
    "rest",
    "restful",
    "router",
    "app",
    "api"
  ],
  "repository": "git://github.com/visionmedia/express",
  "main": "index",
  "bin": { "express": "./bin/express" },
  "scripts": {
    "prepublish" : "npm prune",
    "test": "make test"
  },
  "engines": { "node": "*" }
}

post.js

// The Post model

var mongoose = require('mongoose')
   ,Schema = mongoose.Schema
   ,ObjectId = Schema.ObjectId;

var postSchema = new Schema({
    thread: ObjectId,
    date: {type: Date, default: Date.now},
    author: {type: String, default: 'Anon'},
    post: String
});

module.exports = mongoose.model('Post', postSchema);

thread.js

// The Thread model

var mongoose = require('mongoose')
  , Schema = mongoose.Schema;

var threadSchema = new Schema({
    title:  String,
    postdate: {type: Date, default: Date.now},
    author: {type: String, default: 'Anon'}
});

module.exports = mongoose.model('Thread', threadSchema);