I have a node server, that serves static files in a PUBLIC folder like this:
var app = express();
app.listen(port);
app.use(compression());
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/PUBLIC'));
There is a json file, let's say important.json that is located in /PUBLIC folder. This is being served as a static file
Now, I want to intercept request for this /PUBLIC/important.json, so that I can programatically return a random json structure instead.
None of the followings works:
app.get('/PUBLIC/important.json', function(req, res) {
console.log("caught1!")
});
app.get(__dirname + '/PUBLIC/important.json', function(req, res) {
console.log("caught2!")
});
app.get('important.json', function(req, res) {
console.log("caught3!")
});
How can I intercept request for that partically static file?
As the express.static middleware does not call the next middleware using next(), the definition order is important. You have to define your own middleware before using express.static.
app.get('/PUBLIC/important.json', (req, res, next) => {
console.log('caught');
next();
});
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/PUBLIC'));
Could you tell us a bit more about your stack ?
Are you using nginx / apache to proxy_pass the traffic to your nodejs server ?
Are you just running your app with "node app.js"
Let's try to add this simple route in your application :
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
res.send('Hello World!');
});
And try to access it by removing URI parameters ? Does the "Hello world" show up ?
I just want to be sure the traffic is actually treated by your node app.
Your route definition is supposed to work for your actual request.
Related
I built a react app using "react-scripts". The application runs perfectly on my local development server but when I deploy to my actual server the applications seems to not find the main JS and CSS files being compiled. I get 404 on both.
Following is the information that might help.
The files on the server are located at
ads/build/static/js and ads/build/static/css || respectively
The 404s I am getting are on the following files:
https://www.example.com/ads/build/static/css/main.41938fe2.css
https://www.example.com/ads/build/static/js/main.74995495.js
Here is how my server is configured:
const express = require('express');
const path = require('path');
const app = express();
const favicon = require('serve-favicon');
//favicon
app.use(favicon(path.join(__dirname, 'public', 'favicon.ico')));
app.get('/ads', function (req, res) {
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build/static')));
console.log(path.join(__dirname, 'build'));
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, '/build/index.html'));
});
app.listen(9000);
In my package.json I have also included the homepage parameter as:
"homepage" : "https://www.example.com/ads
UPDATE
When I run the app on the server itself with the following path:
dedicated-server-host:9000/static/js/main.74995495.js that renders the JS file correctly
Is there some configuration that I am missing, the routing doesn't seem to be working. Please advise.
Use some indentation so you will see error like this:
app.get('/ads', function (req, res) {
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build/static')));
console.log(path.join(__dirname, 'build'));
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, '/build/index.html'));
});
You are setting the static route inside of the /ads handler, will add a new express.static route handler on every GET /ads request.
This will set the static route on server startup:
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build/static')));
app.get('/ads', function (req, res) {
console.log(path.join(__dirname, 'build'));
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, '/build/index.html'));
});
or:
app.get('/ads', function (req, res) {
console.log(path.join(__dirname, 'build'));
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, '/build/index.html'));
});
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build/static')));
But make sure that you get the path right - for example you may need:
app.use('/ads/build/static', express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build/static')));
if you want the URL in your question to work.
To make it much simpler, you could use just this single handler to make express.static handle both the css/js and index.html at the same time:
app.use('/ads', express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build')));
and change your index.html to use:
https://www.example.com/ads/static/css/main.41938fe2.css
https://www.example.com/ads/static/js/main.74995495.js
instead of:
https://www.example.com/ads/build/static/css/main.41938fe2.css
https://www.example.com/ads/build/static/js/main.74995495.js
Sometimes getting your paths structure right in the first place can make your route handlers much easier.
I have different software products for one single service, which needs to be deployed to a single server. The clients are built with react, with a build setup by create-react-app, while the server runs Node.js and Express.
When I serve a single application from the server it is done the following way:
// App.js
// ...
// Entry point for data routes (API)
app.use('/data', indexRoute);
if(process.env.NODE_ENV !== 'development') {
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build-client')));
app.get('/*', function(req, res) {
return res.sendFile(path.resolve( __dirname, 'build-client' , 'index.html'));
});
}
I want to be able to serve multiple apps from the server. How should I do that?
What I tried is to wire in different static paths for the assets and separate the clients with different names, although it did not work. Like this:
// App.js
// ...
// Entry point for data routes (API)
app.use('/data', indexRoute);
if(process.env.NODE_ENV !== 'development') {
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build-client')));
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build-admin')));
app.get('/client/*', function(req, res) {
return res.sendFile(path.resolve( __dirname, 'build-client' , 'index.html'));
});
app.get('/admin/*', function(req, res) {
return res.sendFile(path.resolve( __dirname, 'build-client' , 'index.html'));
});
}
I have also tried to do it this way, but Express throw Error: No default engine was specified and no extension was provided:
if(process.env.NODE_ENV !== 'development') {
// Admin paths
app.use('/admin', express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build-admin')));
app.get('/admin/*', function(req, res) {
return res.sendFile(path.resolve( __dirname, 'build-admin' , 'index.html'));
});
// Site paths
app.use('/', express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build-client')));
app.get('/*', function(req, res) {
return res.sendFile(path.resolve( __dirname, 'build-client' , 'index.html'));
});
}
How could I accomplish this or something similar?
After some tinkering I was able to achieve this without using virtual hosts. I used the first idea you gave in the question, except I left the main app at the root (i.e. /).
// when going to `/app2`, serve the files at app2/build/* as static files
app.use('/app2', express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'app2/build')))
// when going to `/`, serve the files at mainApp/build/* as static files
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'mainApp/build')))
// These are necessary for routing within react
app.get('app2/*', (req, res) => {
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname + '/app2/build/index.html'))
})
app.get('*', (req, res) => {
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname + '/mainApp/build/index.html'));
});
After this, I went into mainApp/package.json and added
"proxy": "http://localhost:4141"
:4141 is the port that the express server is running on. This line will make calls to fetch('/some/route') go back to the server instead of into your react app itself.
Finally, we go to app2/package.json and add
"proxy": "http://localhost:4141/app2",
"homepage": "/app2"
I believe that the key here is the "homepage" key. The way I understand it, when react starts it searches for some static files at its homepage, and without the "homepage" piece I was only able to get either a blank white screen or the mainApp.
I hope this helps someone out there!
EDIT
I have since changed from serving my create-react-apps through my express server to serving them through netlify. Now I don't need to worry about this express setup, or the homepage key in package.json. The express server lives by itself, and the react apps can still both use the same api, and deployment is much easier. Setup with netlify is trivial.
After struggling for a while with this problem I've found a possible solution without compromising the original setup.
We used Express vhost package to setup handling of requests through virtual domains.
When you create your app instance, you should initialize as many apps with express as you want to expose separately (in our case its three separate apps plus the original app instance)
// Create an express instance
const app = express();
const appAdmin = express();
const appClient = express();
const appVendor = express();
After that you need to install vhost and import it. Then with specifying the static folder for each app you can handle serving the static files separately, while the remaining part deals with handling the request for the given subdomains respectively.
appAdmin.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build-admin')));
appClient.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build-client')));
appVendor.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'build-vendor')));
appAdmin.use((req, res, next) => {
return res.sendFile(path.resolve( __dirname, 'build-admin' , 'index.html'));
});
appClient.use((req, res, next) => {
return res.sendFile(path.resolve( __dirname, 'build-client' , 'index.html'));
});
appVendor.use((req, res, next) => {
return res.sendFile(path.resolve( __dirname, 'build-vendor' , 'index.html'));
});
app.use(vhost('domain.com', appClient));
app.use(vhost('www.domain.com', appClient));
app.use(vhost('a.domain.com', appAdmin));
app.use(vhost('b.domain.com', appVendor));
Don't forget to add the desired subdomains in your domain's DNS registry. Example:
...records
CNAME vendor #
CNAME admin #
I have the following server file, using express:
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var port = process.env.PORT || 8080;
app.listen(port);
console.log('Listening on port: ' + port);
// get an instance of router
var router = express.Router();
app.use('/', router);
app.use(express.static(__dirname + "/"));
// route middle-ware that will happen on every request
router.use(function(req, res, next) {
// log each request to the console
console.log(req.method, req.url + " logging all requests");
// continue doing what we were doing and go to the route
next();
});
// home page route for port 8080, gets executed when entering localhost:8080
// and redirects to index.html (correctly and as expected)
router.get('/', function(req, res) {
console.log("routing from route")
res.redirect('index.html');
});
// This gets executed when my url is: http://localhost:8080/test
// and redirects to index.html (the questions is why!? I thought
// all the requests to root route would be caught by the router instance
app.get('*', function(req, res){
console.log('redirecting to index.html');
res.redirect('/index.html');
});
Looking at the code above and my comments, I cannot understand why
app.get('*', function(){...})
does not get executed when URL is
localhost:8080/index.html but gets executed when URL is localhost:8080/test
Even though, this is the behavior that I was hoping for, I'm not sure why this works?
I don't have a "test.html" page in the root.
One other thing, the index.html does load other scripts, so I expected
app.get('*', function(){...})
to get executed for such get requests too, as it is supposed to be the catch all, but it does not.
Does app.use('/', router) mean that any route that has single character "/" should be handled by Router instance (as long as not a static file)? so "http:localhost:8080" gets interpreted as "http://localhost:8080/"?
I would appreciate any explanation.
This line-
app.use(express.static(__dirname + "/"));
will run first. It will see that index.html exists and serve that file statically.
Essentially when I use a catch-all route and use res.redirect('/') regardless of the url I enter it will always render the index/home page (ie Angular does not seem to 'see' the full url) however if I place res.render('index') in the catch-all route everything works fine. I don't want repeat code and redirecting to '/' should work, I have probably made a stupid mistake somewhere here and any help would be much appreciated!
Angular routing:
app.config(function ($routeProvider, $locationProvider) {
$locationProvider.html5Mode(true);
$routeProvider
.when('/',
{
templateUrl: 'partials/home.jade'
})
.when('/about',
{
templateUrl: 'partials/about.jade'
})
.otherwise( {redirectTo: '/'});
});
This will correctly render the about page when entering site-address/about:
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
res.render('index');
});
app.get('/partials/:name', function (req, res) {
res.render('partials/' + req.params.name);
});
app.get('*', function (req, res) {
res.render('index');
});
This will always just show the index page:
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
res.render('index');
});
app.get('/partials/:name', function (req, res) {
res.render('partials/' + req.params.name);
});
app.get('*', function (req, res) {
res.redirect('/');
});
Configuration if it helps:
// Configuration
app.configure(function () {
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 1337);
app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
app.set('view engine', 'jade');
app.use(express.favicon());
app.use(express.logger('dev'));
app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.use(express.methodOverride());
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
app.use(app.router);
});
This is by design.
When you use res.redirect('/'), Node/Express is sending an HTTP redirect, which will change the URL in the browser, thus when your index template is rendered, and when the angular code is run, the URL is /, regardless of what the user entered (the whole point of the redirect).
When you omit the redirect and just send the template as a response, NodeJs responds with an HTTP 200 (success) along with HTML content. Since the URL didn't change, when your application runs, the angular routing properly routes.
EDIT TO ADD: Address Comment
Rather than have two routes render the same template, I would get rid of the / route all together, and just have the catch-all render the index template, which will then turn control over to the Angular router.
Otherwise, I would consider splitting your routes conceptually: All your application routes are specifically sent to angular router, and you render static routes via nodejs, and use your catch all to render a more appropriate page for a missing or unknown resource (more helpful for your users).
You can use regex-like languages to specify a single handler:
app.get('/()|(about)|(contact)/',function(req,res) {/* handle */});
For folder structure:
root
-web.js
-dist/index.html
-dist/rest of the page
Just paste the following snippet to your web.js
nodeApp.use('/', express.static(__dirname + '/dist'));
nodeApp.get('/[^\.]+$', function(req, res){
res.set('Content-Type', 'text/html')
.sendfile(__dirname + '/dist/index.html');
});
I have a problem where when I use the catch-all routing, all of my static assets (stylesheets, javascript files etc) don't load:
app.use(app.router);
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, frontend.app)));
// when this is removed, I can load static assets just fine
app.get('*', function(req, res){
res.render('main');
});
When the app.get('*', ...) part is removed, I can load the static assets just fine (i.e. I can type in 'examplejavascript.js' and see the javascript file. When it is there however, express catches the assets.
$locationProvider.html5Mode(true);
are you sure your requests are hitting the nodejs server. using this means, angularjs will try to search for urlmapping inside browser.
try by commenting
$locationProvider.html5Mode(true);
I want to serve static files as is commonly done with express.static(static_path) but on a dynamic
route as is commonly done with
app.get('/my/dynamic/:route', function(req, res){
// serve stuff here
});
A solution is hinted at in this comment by one of the developers but it isn't immediately clear to me what he means.
Okay. I found an example in the source code for Express' response object. This is a slightly modified version of that example.
app.get('/user/:uid/files/*', function(req, res){
var uid = req.params.uid,
path = req.params[0] ? req.params[0] : 'index.html';
res.sendFile(path, {root: './public'});
});
It uses the res.sendFile method.
NOTE: security changes to sendFile require the use of the root option.
I use below code to serve the same static files requested by different urls:
server.use(express.static(__dirname + '/client/www'));
server.use('/en', express.static(__dirname + '/client/www'));
server.use('/zh', express.static(__dirname + '/client/www'));
Although this is not your case, it may help others who got here.
You can use res.sendfile or you could still utilize express.static:
const path = require('path');
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Dynamic path, but only match asset at specific segment.
app.use('/website/:foo/:bar/:asset', (req, res, next) => {
req.url = req.params.asset; // <-- programmatically update url yourself
express.static(__dirname + '/static')(req, res, next);
});
// Or just the asset.
app.use('/website/*', (req, res, next) => {
req.url = path.basename(req.originalUrl);
express.static(__dirname + '/static')(req, res, next);
});
This should work:
app.use('/my/dynamic/:route', express.static('/static'));
app.get('/my/dynamic/:route', function(req, res){
// serve stuff here
});
Documentation states that dynamic routes with app.use() works.
See https://expressjs.com/en/guide/routing.html