ExpressJS setting up SEO friendly route - node.js

Question

I am new to NodeJS and I am experiencing a problem while setting up my routes. I am using i18next, i18next-express-middleware and i18next-node-fs-backend in order to create a multilingual test website.
I would like my URL to look like the following depending on the selected language:
/fr/index, for french,
/en/index, for english,
/jp/index, for japanese.
I am currently facing at least one problem. The default route does not send me to the correct URL. I am always directed to /.
Here is my server.js file:
'use strict';
var debug = require('debug');
var express = require('express');
var path = require('path');
var favicon = require('serve-favicon');
var logger = require('morgan');
var cookieParser = require('cookie-parser');
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var i18next = require('i18next');
var i18nextMiddleware = require('i18next-express-middleware');
var backend = require('i18next-node-fs-backend');
var routes = require('./routes/index');
var users = require('./routes/users');
var app = express();
// view engine setup
app.set('views', path.join(__dirname, 'views'));
app.set('view engine', 'pug');
i18next
.use(backend)
.use(i18nextMiddleware.LanguageDetector)
.init({
backend: {
loadPath: __dirname + '/locales/{{lng}}/{{ns}}.json',
addPath: __dirname + '/locales/{{lng}}/{{ns}}.missing.json'
},
ns: ["ns.common"],
defaultNS: "ns.common",
fallbackNS: "ns.common",
fallbackLng: 'en',
preload: ['en', 'fr', 'jp'],
saveMissing: true,
removeLngFromUrl: false,
detection: {
order: ['path', 'session', 'querystring', 'cookie', 'header']
},
});
app.use(i18nextMiddleware.handle(i18next));
// uncomment after placing your favicon in /public
//app.use(favicon(__dirname + '/public/favicon.ico'));
app.use(logger('dev'));
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }));
app.use(cookieParser());
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, '/public')));
app.use('/', routes);
app.use('/users', users);
// catch 404 and forward to error handler
app.use(function (req, res, next) {
var err = new Error('Not Found');
err.status = 404;
next(err);
});
// error handlers
// development error handler
// will print stacktrace
if (app.get('env') === 'development') {
app.use(function (err, req, res, next) {
res.status(err.status || 500);
res.render('error', {
message: err.message,
error: err
});
});
}
// production error handler
// no stacktraces leaked to user
app.use(function (err, req, res, next) {
res.status(err.status || 500);
res.render('error', {
message: err.message,
error: {}
});
});
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3000);
var server = app.listen(app.get('port'), function () {
debug('Express server listening on port ' + server.address().port);
});
Here is my index.js file:
'use strict';
var express = require('express');
var router = express.Router();
/* GET home page. */
router.get('/:lng', function (req, res) {
res.header("Content-Type", "text/html; charset=utf-8");
res.render('index', {});
});
module.exports = router;
The project is articulated as follows:
locales
|_en
ns.common.json
|_fr
ns.common.json
|_jp
ns.common.json
public
|_fonts
|_images
|_javascripts
|_stylesheets
routes
index.js
user.js
views
server.js
Everything is working fine if I enter manually the URL.
Can someone help me detect what is wrong in my code?
Thanks in advance for your answers.
Edit
As pointed out by Kishan, I use the following code, in order to redirect users to the correct locale. Thus, I am using a cookie to store the locale of a user. I ddo not know if it is a safe nor the most optimized way of doing things, but it works.
Here is the index file:
'use strict';
var express = require('express');
var router = express.Router();
/* GET home page. */
router.get('/', function (req, res) {
res.redirect(req.cookies.locale + '/index');
});
router.get('/:lng/index', function (req, res) {
res.header("Content-Type", "text/html; charset=utf-8");
res.render('index', {});
});
/* Change locale */
router.post('/locale', function (req, res) {
res.cookie('locale', req.body.locale, { maxAge: 900000, httpOnly: true });
res.json({ status: 'success', redirect: '/' + req.body.locale + '/index'});
});
module.exports = router;

Answer 1

You need to add a route for / (root) in the index.js.
In the above code, the route gets into index.js but not find the path for /(root).
So add the route like...
router.get('/', function (req, res) {
// YOUR LOGIC
});
in your index.js.