Error: No default engine was specified and no extension was provided in node server - node.js

Question

I am using nodejs as backend server while my frontend is in angular. I need to call the register router and for that i am sending the data from frontend in json fromat which is perfect but since i am trying to passport authentication here, i took passport authentication code from another github repository in which node was also using an engine so that's why res.render was used in it. But now i am finding it difficult to remove this particular line from the register router and if i try to delete it or just use res.sendStatus(500) it still does not work and i get 500 error. What could be the solution of this problem?
var express = require('express');
var mongoose = require('mongoose');
var bodyparser = require('body-parser');
var cors = require('cors');
var session = require('cookie-session');
var flash = require('connect-flash');
var passport = require('passport');
var bcrypt = require('bcryptjs');
require('./config/passport')(passport);
var User = require('./models/User');
var app = express();
app.use(bodyparser.json());
app.use(cors());
var expiryDate = new Date(Date.now() + 60 * 60 * 1000) // 1 hour
app.use(session({
name: 'session',
keys: ['key1', 'key2'],
cookie: {
secure: true,
httpOnly: true,
domain: 'example.com',
path: 'foo/bar',
expires: expiryDate
}
}))
app.set('port', process.env.port || 3000);
app.use(passport.initialize());
app.use(passport.session());
// Connect flash
app.use(flash());
// Global variables
app.use(function(req, res, next) {
res.locals.success_msg = req.flash('success_msg');
res.locals.error_msg = req.flash('error_msg');
res.locals.error = req.flash('error');
next();
});
var db = mongoose.connect("mongodb://localhost:27017/server", {
useNewUrlParser: true
}, function(err, response) {
if (err) {
console.log('There is error in connecting with mongodb');
}
console.log('Connection has been established.');
});
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
res.send("hello");
});
//Trying registering with passport
app.post('/register', (req, res) => {
console.log(req.body);
const { firstname, lastname, email, password } = req.body;
let errors = [];
if (errors.length > 0) {
res.render('register', {
errors,
name,
email,
password,
password2
});
} else {
User.findOne({ email: email }).then(user => {
if (user) {
errors.push({ msg: 'Email already exists' });
res.render('register', {
errors,
firstname,
lastname,
email,
password
});
} else {
const newUser = new User({
firstname,
lastname,
email,
password
});
bcrypt.genSalt(10, (err, salt) => {
bcrypt.hash(newUser.password, salt, (err, hash) => {
if (err) throw err;
newUser.password = hash;
newUser
.save()
.then(user => {
req.flash(
'success_msg',
'You are now registered and can log in'
);
res.redirect('/login');
})
.catch(err => console.log(err));
});
});
}
})
.catch(err => console.log(err))
}
});
//end
app.post('/login', (req, res, next) => {
console.log(req.body);
passport.authenticate('local', {
successRedirect: '/dashboard',
failureRedirect: '/login',
failureFlash: true
})(req, res, next);
});
app.listen(app.get('port'), function(err, response) {
console.log("Server is running");
});

Answer 1

You are using res.render() in the callback function in app.post('/register', callback). If res.render() is called it will look for a template (probably in a views directory). If you have not specified which engine to use you will get that error.