# What's new in Express 5?

Source: https://tpiros.dev/blog/whats-new-in-express-5

Express 5.0 is still in alpha, but there are changes coming that you should know about. Let's walk through them.

Express 5 won't look radically different from Express 4. But it does carry breaking changes, meaning code written for Express 4 might not work with Express 5.

# Install Express 5

Install via npm: `npm i express@5.0.0-alpha.2`.

# Changes in Express 5

The changes fall into three buckets: removals, changed signatures, and improvements. Some methods and properties have been dropped, some behave differently, and some have gotten better.

## app.del()

Gone. If you need a route for the HTTP DELETE method, use `app.delete()`.

## app.param(fn)

Removed because it hasn't been supported since Express 4.11.0 anyway.

## Pluralised method names

Three functions now have pluralised names:

- `req.acceptsCharsets()`
- `req.acceptsEncodings()`
- `req.acceptsLanguages()`

## req.param(name)

You can no longer pull parameter data this way. Access it directly through `req.params`, `req.body` or `req.query`.

## res.json(obj, status) and res.jsonp(obj, status)

Previously, `res.json()` accepted a JSON object and an HTTP status code as a second parameter. From Express 5, you set the status separately and chain: `res.status(statusCode).json(obj)`.

Same applies to `res.jsonp`.

## res.send(body, status) and res.send(status)

Same story. `res.send()` can no longer carry status codes. Send data with a status using chained calls: `res.status(statusCode).send(body)`.

To set only the status, use `res.sendStatus(statusCode)`.

One thing to watch: if you want to send a number as the response body, quote it (or convert it to a string). Otherwise Express will try to interpret it as a status code using the old signature.

## res.sendfile()

Replaced with the camel-cased version: `res.sendFile()`.

## app.router

This was removed in Express 4 and is now back in Express 5 as a reference to the base Express router.

## req.host

In Express 5, `req.host` keeps the port number intact. Express 4 incorrectly stripped it.

## req.query

You can now pass `false` as an option to plug in your own query string parsing logic.

## res.render

The render method now enforces asynchronous behaviour for all view engines.