how do we serve a static file located in the root of the directory (/) and not in a folder of it?
I am using Node.js with Express.js, I have tried the following JavaScript code in my index.js file which is located in / (the root of the directory).
Attempt 1
const path = require('path');
app.get('/', function(req, res) {
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, 'index.html'));
})
Attempt 2
const path = require('path');
app.get('/', function(req, res) {
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, '/'));
})
Same output as Attempt 1
Attempt 3
app.use(express.static('/'));
Didn't work, showed an error: "Cannot GET /".
Attempt 4
app.use(express.static(''));
Didn't work, showed an error: "Path cannot be empty".
Please assist, I have refered to many other possible questions similar to this, and one of the questions didn't have an answer, so I am re-asking.
The argument you pass to express.static needs to be the path to the directory where the file is.
It shouldn't be / which is the root of the entire file system (you might intend it to be the URL path / and not the file system path / but that isn't what it means).
The special variables __dirname will give you the directory the JS file you are currently running is in. You probably want that (assuming a directory structure like this):
.../
|-server.js
|-index.html
So
app.use(express.static(__dirname));
Note that it is generally better to separate out your server-side code and the files you sent to the client. It makes it much easier to maintain the project in the long run and prevents your server side code (which might contain secrets) being exposed over HTTP by the static module.
There isnt any difference if you use / and no / in the script
for express use
app.use(express.static(process.cwd() + '/'));
try this it might be helpful
app.use(express.static('/'));
you do not need the "/" before "js" because it is already included above:
<script src="test.js"></script>
I have a React app + Node server with the following architecture from the root :
/build
/src
server.js
package.json
etc.
In production, I want to get to the index.html inside the folder "build", so I have this code in the server, but I think I did it wrong :
server.js
if (process.env.NODE_ENV === "production") {
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, "build")));
app.get("*", function(req, res) {
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, "build", "index.html"));
});
}
Can somebody help me ? Thanks
There is nothing wrong with your code, though I don't think there is a need to define a route GET "*". When you serve public static files, they can be accessed directly through the browser.
For now, to debug your app:
Make sure that the "build" directory exists and actually contains an index.html
Log 'NODE_ENV' environment variable, just to make sure that it's set correctly to 'production'.
I've got a directory structure like so:
/scripts
server.js
/docs
node_modules
app.css
index.html
Originally I had some static routes to map files in the server.js:
app.get('/', function(request, response){
response.sendFile(path.resolve(basePath, './docs/index.html'));
});
app.get('/app.css', function(request, response){
response.sendFile(path.resolve(basePath, './docs/app.css'));
});
But now I need to globally include any search path under node_modules as well, something like:
app.get('/node_modules*', function(request, response){
response.sendFile(path.resolve(basePath, './docs/( - complete subtree - )'));
});
But that obviously doesn't work. It seems like a URL rewrite is more appropriate here, but I can't figure out how to do that with app.get or with app.configure + some express.static magic.
How can I route an entire directory to a different physical folder, retaining the subpaths?
You can use the express.static to static files.
var path = require('path');
app.use('/node_modules', express.static(path.join(__dirname+'/../docs/node_modules')));
Hope it helps you.
This seems to be a common error with file paths but my problem is a but more strange because code worked fine yesterday but not today (and I did not change any code). My folder directory is quite simple:
-node_modules
-public
-css
-js
control_panel.html
index.html
app.js
packages.json
and I am using an Express middleware inside app.js to help render files.
var express = require("express");
var app = express();
app.use(express.static("public"));
app.get('/', function get(req, res) {
res.sendFile('/index.html');
});
app.get('/control_panel', function get(req, res) {
res.sendFile('/control_panel.html');
});
When I try to open index.html in the browser, there is no problem, everything works as expected. When I try to open control_panel.html in the browser, however, I get Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, stat '/control_panel.html' at Error (native)
What is causing the problem?
A number of relevant points based on your situation:
All static assets (html files, images, CSS files, client-side script files, etc...) should be serviced automatically with an appropriate express.static(...) statement. You should not be creating individual routes for static resources.
To make express.static() work properly, you must locate all your static resources in a directory hierarchy that contains only files meant to be public.
Your private server-side files such as app.js should not be in that public directory hierarchy. They should be elsewhere.
Your path to express.static() is not correct.
Your path for res.sendFile() is not correct.
What I would suggest you do to fix things is the following:
Move app.js out of the public directory. It needs to be in a private directory. I'd suggest the public directory be a sub-directory from where app.js is located.
Then, your express.static() in app.js will work property to serve your static HTML fiels.
Then, you can remove the two routes you have for index.html and control_panel.html because express.static() should be serving them.
Here's one hierarchy that would work:
server
app.js
public
index.html
control_panel.html
And, an app.js like this:
var express = require("express");
var app = express();
// serve static files found in the public sub-directory automatically
app.use(express.static("public"));
app.listen(80);
I've reduced my code to the simplest express-js app I could make:
var express = require("express"),
app = express.createServer();
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/styles'));
app.listen(3001);
My directory look like this:
static_file.js
/styles
default.css
Yet when I access http://localhost:3001/styles/default.css I get the following error:
Cannot GET / styles /
default.css
I'm using express 2.3.3 and node 0.4.7. What am I doing wrong?
Try http://localhost:3001/default.css.
To have /styles in your request URL, use:
app.use("/styles", express.static(__dirname + '/styles'));
Look at the examples on this page:
//Serve static content for the app from the "public" directory in the application directory.
// GET /style.css etc
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
// Mount the middleware at "/static" to serve static content only when their request path is prefixed with "/static".
// GET /static/style.css etc.
app.use('/static', express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
I have the same problem. I have resolved the problem with following code:
app.use('/img',express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public/images')));
app.use('/js',express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public/javascripts')));
app.use('/css',express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public/stylesheets')));
Static request example:
http://pruebaexpress.lite.c9.io/js/socket.io.js
I need a more simple solution. Does it exist?
This work for me:
app.use('*/css',express.static('public/css'));
app.use('*/js',express.static('public/js'));
app.use('*/images',express.static('public/images'));
default.css should be available at http://localhost:3001/default.css
The styles in app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/styles')); just tells express to look in the styles directory for a static file to serve. It doesn't (confusingly) then form part of the path it is available on.
In your server.js :
var express = require("express");
var app = express();
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
You have declared express and app separately, create a folder named 'public' or as you like, and yet you can access to these folder. In your template src, you have added the relative path from /public (or the name of your folder destiny to static files). Beware of the bars on the routes.
I am using Bootstrap CSS, JS and Fonts in my application. I created a folder called asset in root directory of the app and place all these folder inside it. Then in server file added following line:
app.use("/asset",express.static("asset"));
This line enables me to load the files that are in the asset directory from the /asset path prefix like: http://localhost:3000/asset/css/bootstrap.min.css.
Now in the views I can simply include CSS and JS like below:
<link href="/asset/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
What worked for me is:
Instead of writing app.use(express.static(__dirname + 'public/images')); in your app.js
Simply write
app.use(express.static('public/images'));
i.e remove the root directory name in the path. And then you can use the static path effectively in other js files, For example:
<img src="/images/misc/background.jpg">
Hope this helps :)
to serve static files (css,images,js files)just two steps:
pass the directory of css files to built in middleware express.static
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
/*public is folder in my project directory contains three folders
css,image,js
*/
//css =>folder contains css file
//image=>folder contains images
//js =>folder contains javascript files
app.use(express.static( 'public/css'));
to access css files or images just type in url http://localhost:port/filename.css ex:http://localhost:8081/bootstrap.css
note: to link css files to html just type<link href="file_name.css" rel="stylesheet">
if i write this code
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
app.use('/css',express.static( 'public/css'));
to access the static files just type in url:localhost:port/css/filename.css
ex:http://localhost:8081/css/bootstrap.css
note to link css files with html just add the following line
<link href="css/file_name.css" rel="stylesheet">
this one worked for me
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
app.use('/img',express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public/images')));
app.use('/shopping-cart/javascripts',express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public/javascripts')));
app.use('/shopping-cart/stylesheets',express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public/stylesheets')));
app.use('/user/stylesheets',express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public/stylesheets')));
app.use('/user/javascripts',express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public/javascripts')));
Webpack makes things awkward
As a supplement to all the other already existing solutions:
First things first: If you base the paths of your files and directories on the cwd (current working directory), things should work as usual, as the cwd is the folder where you were when you started node (or npm start, yarn run etc).
However...
If you are using webpack, __dirname behavior will be very different, depending on your node.__dirname settings, and your webpack version:
In Webpack v4, the default behavior for __dirname is just /, as documented here.
In this case, you usually want to add this to your config which makes it act like the default in v5, that is __filename and __dirname now behave as-is but for the output file:
module.exports = {
// ...
node: {
// generate actual output file information
// see: https://webpack.js.org/configuration/node/#node__filename
__dirname: false,
__filename: false,
}
};
This has also been discussed here.
In Webpack v5, per the documentation here, the default is already for __filename and __dirname to behave as-is but for the output file, thereby achieving the same result as the config change for v4.
Example
For example, let's say:
you want to add the static public folder
it is located next to your output (usually dist) folder, and you have no sub-folders in dist, it's probably going to look like this
const ServerRoot = path.resolve(__dirname /** dist */, '..');
// ...
app.use(express.static(path.join(ServerRoot, 'public'))
(important: again, this is independent of where your source file is, only looks at where your output files are!)
More advanced Webpack scenarios
Things get more complicated if you have multiple entry points in different output directories, as the __dirname for the same file might be different for output file (that is each file in entry), depending on the location of the output file that this source file was merged into, and what's worse, the same source file might be merged into multiple different output files.
You probably want to avoid this kind of scenario scenario, or, if you cannot avoid it, use Webpack to manage and infuse the correct paths for you, possibly via the DefinePlugin or the EnvironmentPlugin.
The problem with serving __dirname is that __dirname returns the path of the current file, not the project's file.
Also, if you use a dynamic header, each page will look for the static files in a different path and it won't work.
The best, for me, is to substitute __dirname for process.cwd() which ALWAYS donates the path to the project file.
app.use(express.static(process.cwd() + '/public'));
And in your project:
link rel="stylesheet" href="/styles/default.css"
See: What's the difference between process.cwd() vs __dirname?
I was using
app.use(express.static('public'))
When there was no file in the public folder with name index.html.
I was getting the following error in the browser:
"Cannot GET /"
When I renamed the file to 'index.html', it works fine.
Try accessing it with http://localhost:3001/default.css.
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/styles'));
You are actually giving it the name of folder i.e. styles not your suburl.
I find my css file and add a route to it:
app.get('/css/MyCSS.css', function(req, res){
res.sendFile(__dirname + '/public/css/MyCSS.css');
});
Then it seems to work.
if your setup
myApp
|
|__ public
| |
| |__ stylesheets
| | |
| | |__ style.css
| |
| |___ img
| |
| |__ logo.png
|
|__ app.js
then,
put in app.js
app.use('/static', express.static('public'));
and refer to your style.css: (in some .pug file):
link(rel='stylesheet', href='/static/stylesheets/style.css')
Try './public' instead of __dirname + '/public'.
Similarly, try process.cwd() + '/public'.
Sometimes we lose track of the directories we are working with, its good to avoid assuming that files are located where we are telling express where they are.
Similarly, avoid assuming that in the depths of dependencies the path is being interpreted the same way at every level.
app.use(express.static(__dirname+'/'));
This worked for me, I tried using a public directory but it didn't work.
But in this case, we give access to the whole static files in the directory, hope it helps!
In addition to above, make sure the static file path begins with / (ex... /assets/css)... to serve static files in any directory above the main directory (/main)
Create a folder with 'public' name in Nodejs project
folder.
Put index.html file into of Nodejs project folder.
Put all script and css file into public
folder.
Use app.use( express.static('public'));
and in index.html correct path of scripts to <script type="text/javascript" src="/javasrc/example.js"></script>
And Now all things work fine.
static directory
check the above image(static directory) for dir structure
const publicDirectoryPath = path.join(__dirname,'../public')
app.use(express.static(publicDirectoryPath))
// or
app.use("/", express.static(publicDirectoryPath))
app.use((req, res, next) => {
res.sendFile(path.join(publicDirectoryPath,'index.html'))
In your nodejs file
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
app.use('/static', express.static('path_to_static_folder'));
In your pug file
...
script(type="text/javascript", src="static/your_javascript_filename")
...
Note the "static" word. It must be same in nodejs file and pug file.
i just try this code and working
const exp = require('express');
const app = exp();
app.use(exp.static("public"));
and working,
before (not working) :
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
app.use(express.static("public"));
just try