Angular Universal Server Side Rendering (SSR) res.render not loading - node.js

Question

I am trying to add SSR to my web site but the content is not loaded. I am using Angular Universal, I followed this guide for the initial configuration. http://localhost:4200/ it is not finishing loading and no errors been shown. http://localhost:4200/index.html is returning a empty view.
The build process successfully.
server.ts
import 'zone.js/dist/zone-node';
import { ngExpressEngine } from '#nguniversal/express-engine';
import * as express from 'express';
import { join } from 'path';
const path = require('path');
const fs = require('fs');
const domino = require('domino');
const templateA = fs.readFileSync(path.join('dist/web/browser', 'index.html')).toString();
const win = domino.createWindow(templateA);
global['window'] = win;
global['document'] = win.document;
// Express server
import { AppServerModule } from './src/main.server';
import { APP_BASE_HREF } from '#angular/common';
import { existsSync } from 'fs';
// The Express app is exported so that it can be used by serverless Functions.
export function app(): express.Express {
const server = express();
const distFolder = join(process.cwd(), 'dist/web/browser');
const indexHtml = existsSync(join(distFolder, 'index.original.html')) ? 'index.original.html' : 'index.html';
// Our Universal express-engine (found # https://github.com/angular/universal/tree/master/modules/express-engine)
server.engine('html', ngExpressEngine({
bootstrap: AppServerModule,
}));
server.set('view engine', 'html');
server.set('views', distFolder);
// Example Express Rest API endpoints
// server.get('/api/**', (req, res) => { });
// Serve static files from /browser
server.get('*.*', express.static(distFolder, {
maxAge: '1y'
}));
// All regular routes use the Universal engine
server.get('*', (req, res) => {
res.render(indexHtml, { req, providers: [{ provide: APP_BASE_HREF, useValue: req.baseUrl }] });
});
return server;
}
function run(): void {
const port = process.env.PORT || 4000;
// Start up the Node server
const server = app();
server.listen(port, () => {
console.log(`Node Express server listening on http://localhost:${port}`);
});
}
// Webpack will replace 'require' with '__webpack_require__'
// '__non_webpack_require__' is a proxy to Node 'require'
// The below code is to ensure that the server is run only when not requiring the bundle.
declare const __non_webpack_require__: NodeRequire;
const mainModule = __non_webpack_require__.main;
const moduleFilename = mainModule && mainModule.filename || '';
if (moduleFilename === __filename || moduleFilename.includes('iisnode')) {
run();
}
export * from './src/main.server';
tsconfig.server.json
/* To learn more about this file see: https://angular.io/config/tsconfig. */
{
"extends": "./tsconfig.app.json",
"compilerOptions": {
"outDir": "./out-tsc/server",
"target": "es2016",
"types": [
"node"
],
"module": "commonjs"
},
"files": [
"src/main.server.ts",
"server.ts"
],
"angularCompilerOptions": {
"entryModule": "./src/app/app.server.module#AppServerModule"
}
}

Answer 1

I found a solución.
I followed this steps to realize what was wrong:
Comment all imports and routings from app.module.ts, I just leve the app.component.html with a simple tag just to show something. In this step the view start loading.
Add module per module and see where stops loading.
Where stops I comment line per line to see where is the mistake.
The main mistakes that I found was the order of the routing imports on app.module.ts and sub-modules,
#NgModule({
declarations: [
AppComponent
],
imports: [
BrowserModule.withServerTransition({ appId: 'serverApp' }),
FormsModule,
ReactiveFormsModule,
BrowserAnimationsModule,
HttpClientModule,
AppRoutingModule, // <-- here
],
providers: [{ provide: HTTP_INTERCEPTORS, useClass: RequestInterceptorService, multi: true }],
bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})
export class AppModule {}
another was that in some constructor components I was doing an api call but fails because the authentication. So I need to add a validation for only do it if is a platform browser:
constructor(#Inject(PLATFORM_ID) private platformId: Object) {
if (isPlatformBrowser(this.platformId)) {
// api call
}
}
Fortunately my project it isn't very big yet.