Handle Express 5 typed route params as string or string[]

[znarf]

Summary

This PR addresses compatibility with Express 5's updated type definitions for route parameters. Express 5 types req.params values as string | string[] to account for wildcard route parameters that can capture multiple path segments. Since our codebase uses only named parameters (which are always strings), this change introduces a utility function to safely extract and normalize route parameters.

Key Changes

• Added getRouteParam() utility function in server/lib/request-utils.ts that safely extracts route parameters and handles the string | string[] union type by joining array values back into a path string
• Updated Express type definition in server/types/express.d.ts to reflect Express 5's params: Record<string, string | string[]> typing
• Replaced direct req.params access with getRouteParam() calls across multiple files:
  • server/paymentProviders/paypal/webhook.ts (3 occurrences)
  • server/middleware/authentication.ts (3 occurrences)
  • server/lib/permalink/handler.ts (1 occurrence)
  • server/controllers/files.ts (1 occurrence)
  • server/controllers/legal-documents.ts (1 occurrence)

Implementation Details

The getRouteParam() function provides a centralized, type-safe way to access route parameters that works with both Express 4 and Express 5. It checks if the parameter value is an array and joins it with / to reconstruct the original path, otherwise returns the string value as-is. This ensures all route parameter access is consistent and handles the type union properly throughout the codebase.

https://claude.ai/code/session_01B5F9TzYZn4kkvZpPgiQtWG

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