I have seen some code online and was wondering how the index.HTML was getting rendered when we are not using any app.get()
the public file structure follow like this:
css(folder),
js(folder),
chat.html,
index.html,
const path = require('path');
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Set static folder
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3000;
server.listen(PORT, () => console.log(`Server running on port ${PORT}`));
When an incoming request matches a directory name that express.static() is configured for, then express.static() will look for an index.html file in that directory and, if found, will serve it.
You can see this feature mentioned here in the doc, in the index option you can pass express.static() that allows you to specify the name of the index.html file to look for (default value is index.html) or you can set it to false to disable the feature.
So, in your code example, with this:
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
an incoming http request for / will look for public/index.html and, if found, will serve it automatically. Similarly a request for /foo will look first for /public/foo and if that is present and is a directory, then it will look for public/foo/index.html and, if found, will serve it.
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 am beginner with node. I am trying to serve a file. The hierarchy of my project looks like
app
modules
node_modules
public
css
index.css
html
index.html
javascript
routes
main.js
inside main.js
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var path = require('path')
var port = 8080;
app.use("/styles", express.static(path.join(__dirname + '../public/css')));
app.use("/scripts", express.static(__dirname + '../public/javascript'));
app.get('/' , function( req , res ){
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname,'../public/html/index.html'))
})
app.listen(port)
i want to serve a file on / route. It works fine , but css and javascripts are not loaded - it throws error in browswer console
http://localhost:8080/css/index.css Failed to load resource: the
server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found)
What is the right way to set path to css? I have trouble to find the righ solution.
Thanks!
The problem is with your path definition. When you use path.join you should pass strings to it and this method will join them with platform specific separator as a delimiter, then normalizes the resulting path.
so your styles path should be:
app.use("/styles", express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public', 'css')));
and your styles will serve from:
http://localhost:8080/styles/index.css
Because you are using a virtual path prefix (here: /styles).
If you dont mind platform specific separator, i. e. know that your server will be a unix like environment and dont need a virtual path prefix then just use:
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
and your styles will serve from css dir:
http://localhost:8080/css/index.css
Because you set another routes. Change your routes to static files. Use this:
app.use(express.static('../public'));
Using the following simple Node server
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var path = require('path');
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public'))); // "public" off of current is root
app.listen(3000);
console.log('Listening on port 3000');
I have of course put a 'public' directory in my root and also dropped a index.html file in it but when i point my browser to
http://localhost:3000/public/
I get
Cannot GET /public/
The problem is how you're mounting express.static middleware. In your example you're mounting it to the root of your application.
So, in your example you should be able to access content of /public directory from http://localhost:3000/.
So, all you need is to specify a mounting point for express.static middleware:
app.use('public', express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
You should also keep in mind that express.static don't have a default index page. So, if you have no index.html in your public directory you'll get 404 anyway (express.static won't list your files like apache do).
This one caught me out as well when starting with express.
http://localhost:3000/public/ won't be accessible.
For example lets say you have a css folder inside of the public directory with a file called styles.css
Your browser would be able to access that file at http://localhost:3000/css/styles.css.
The express documentation on express.static can be found here: app.use (under the two example tables)
edit 1: See this answer here.
edit 2: #Leonid Beschastny answer is correct, I didn't see that a path to a folder was missing in app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
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