NodeJS Express Root Path - node.js

In NodeJS Express module, specifying path "/" will catch multiple HTTP requests like "/", "lib/main.js", "images/icon.gif", etc
var app = require('express')
app.use('/', authenticate);
In above example, if authenticate is defined as followed
var authenticate = function(request, response, next) {
console.log("=> path = " + request.path);
next()
}
Then you would see
=> path = /
=> path = /lib/main.js
=> path = /images/icon.gif
Could anyone advise how to define path in Express "app.use" that only catch "/"?

If you are trying to expose static files, people usually place those in a folder called public/. express has built-in middleware called static to handle all requests to this folder.
var express = require('express')
var app = express();
app.use(express.static('./public'));
app.use('/', authenticate);
app.get('/home', function(req, res) {
res.send('Hello World');
});
Now if you place images/css/javascript files in public you can access them as if public/ is the root directory
<script src="http://localhost/lib/main.js"></script>

As far as I understand, what you need to do is if you have '/' & '/abc' you need to catch it separately.
This will do the trick:
app.use('/abc', abc);
app.use('/', authenticate);
Means, register the /abc middleware first, then do the / middleware.
There is an issue with this solution also. Here we declared /abc only. So when user calls an unregistered path, then it will hit here.
You can make use of originalUrl property in request object to determine its / only or there is something else. Here is the documentation for this : http://expressjs.com/en/api.html#req.originalUrl
if(req.originalUrl !== '/'){
res.status(404).send('Sorry, we cannot find that!');
}
else{
/*Do your stuff*/
}

Related

express.static() and sendFile() problem... creating a dynamic host with nodejs

After configure my web server with nginx, i redirected all *.example.com to my nodejs server.
But before, i handle the http request, i check the url and host to see if it is correct or not.
For example, if the user writes something like what.ever.example.com
I redirect him to the main website because that host is not valid.
otherwise if the user writes something like mydomain.example.com
The user should access to this website and receive the angular APP.
So i am doing something like this.
UPDATED CODE
const express = require('express');
const cors = require('cors');
const mongoose = require('./server/database');
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
const app = express();
var path = require('path');
// Settings
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 4000)
// Middlewares
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }));
app.use(express.json());
app.use(cors());
// Routes API
app.use('/api/users', require('./server/routes/usuarios.routes'));
app.use('/api/almacenes', require('./server/routes/almacen.routes'))
app.use('/api/updates', require('./server/routes/update.routes'))
app.use('/api/dominios', require('./server/routes/dominios.routes'))
app.get('/', checkHost);
app.get('/', express.static('../nginx/app'));
app.get('/*', checkPath);
function checkHost(req, res, next) { //With this function what i pretend is check the subdomain that the user send, and if it doesn't exist. redirect it.
var domain = req.headers.host
subDomain = domain.split('.')
if (subDomain.length == 3) {
subDomain = subDomain[0].split("-").join(" ");
let query = { dominio: subDomain }
var dominiosModel = mongoose.model('dominios');
dominiosModel.findOne(query).exec((err, response) => {
if (response != null) {
if (response.dominio == subDomain) {
next();
} else {
res.writeHead(303, {
location: 'http://www.example.com/index.html'
})
res.end()
}
} else {
res.writeHead(303, {
location: 'http://www.example.com/index.html'
})
res.end()
}
})
} else {
res.writeHead(303, {
location: 'http://www.example.com/index.html'
})
res.end()
}
}
function checkPath(req, res, next) { //With this function what i want to do is.. if the user send *.example.com/whatever, i redirect it to *.example.com
if (req.url !== '/') {
res.writeHead(303, {
location: `http://${req.headers.host}`
})
res.end()
} else {
next()
}
}
// Starting Server.
app.listen(app.get('port'), () => {
console.log('Server listening on port', app.get('port'));
});
All redirects are working well, but when in checkHost the subDomain matched, it doesnt send nothing to the front... so what can i do here?
Try removing the response.end(). Since .sendFile() accepts a callback, it is most likely an async function, which means that calling .end() right after .sendFile() will most probably result in a blank response.
The sendFile function requires absolute path of the file to be sent, if root is not provided. If root is provided, a relative path could be used, but the root itself should be absolute. Check documentation here: https://expressjs.com/en/api.html#res.sendFile
You should try to send your index.html in following manner:
app.get('*', checkPath, checkHost, function (req, response) {
response.sendFile('index.html', { root: path.join(__dirname, '../nginx/app') });
}
This should work provided that the path ../nginx/app/index.html is valid, relative to the file in which this code is written.
Additionally, based on the sample code (and the comments), you probably don't need the express.static(...) at all. Unless, you need to serve 'other' files statically.
If it is needed, then the app.use(express.static('../nginx/app')) should be outside the controller. It should probably be added before the bodyParser, but since you are concerned about someone being able to access 'index.html' via the static middleware, you can consider following order for your middlewares:
//existing body parser and cors middlewares
// existing /api/* api middlewares.
app.use(checkPath);
app.use(checkHost);
app.use(express.static('../nginx/app'));
If the checkPath middleware is modified slightly to redirect to /index.html, the middleware with '*' path might not be required at all with this setup.

how to log the file requested via express.static

here is my code
var express=require("express");
var app=express();
var port=8181;
app.use(express.static(__dirname));
app.listen(port);
it is serving static file properly
I want to log when a file with an extension .xls is being requested
how can i achieve it ?
The path core module gives you the tools to deal with this. So, just put this logic in a middleware before your static middleware, like:
var express = require("express");
var path = require("path");
var app = express();
var port = 8181;
app.use(function (req, res, next) {
var filename = path.basename(req.url);
var extension = path.extname(filename);
if (extension === '.css')
console.log("The file " + filename + " was requested.");
next();
});
app.use(express.static(__dirname));
app.listen(port);
You want to log what serve-static (express.static) gives in response. There're several ways to do this.
Method Ⅰ A middleware for manual checks.
You may put (app.use) a middleware that logs a request if it's for express.static, before express.static. Rodrigo Medeiros' answer does this. But this way, you have to rewrite the code for checks when the options for the serve-static middleware changes, which might be a maintaining issue.
Method Ⅱ Hooking into express.static; leaking info out of it.
Well, express.static knows what files it gives best. It just, unfortunately, does not let us know and log it. But there's a hack for this: the setHeaders option, which is a callback function supposedly used to set custom response headers. It's called when express.static makes a response and gets enough information to log what you want to.
const express = require("express");
const path = require("path");
const app = express();
const asset_dir_path = "assets/";
app.use(express.static(asset_dir_path, {
index: false,
setHeaders: (response, file_path, file_stats) => {
// This function is called when “serve-static” makes a response.
// Note that `file_path` is an absolute path.
// Logging work
const relative_path = path.join(asset_dir_path, path.relative(asset_dir_path, file_path));
console.info(`#${Date.now()}`, "GAVE\t\t", relative_path);
}
}));
Just do
var express=require("express");
var app=express();
var port=8181;
app.use(function(req, res, next) {
// check for .xls extension
console.log(req.originalUrl);
next();
}, express.static(__dirname));
app.listen(port);

How do I always serve the same file with express?

Is there any way I can always serve the same file?
So, if they go to website.com/ajsdflkasjd it still serves the same file as website.com/asdnw
I would like to do this using express with node.
The file I have is a static html file, not a jade file.
By the way, the reason I'm wanting to do this, in case you were wondering, is I have an angularjs app that handles all the routing for me. So, all I need to do is serve that one page, and it will take care of the rest.
Thanks in advance!
new answer
const app= require('express')()
// static file serve
app.use(express.static(__dirname))
// not found in static files, so default to index.html
app.use((req, res) => res.sendFile(`${__dirname}/index.html`))
app.listen(3000)
old answer
var express = require('express');
var bodyParser = require('body-parser')
var path = require('path')
var app = express();
// url encoding
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({extended:false}));
// gzip
// redirect all html requests to `index.html`
app.use(function (req, res, next) {
if (path.extname(req.path).length > 0) {
// normal static file request
next();
}
else {
// should force return `index.html` for angular.js
req.url = '/index.html';
next();
}
});
// static file serve
app.use(express.static(__dirname))
app.listen(3000)
Below is what I'm using express with angularjs in my project. It will always send index.html unless the browser requests resource files (images, css, js, etc.) which contains extname.
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
app.configure(function () {
// url encoding
app.use(express.urlencoded());
// gzip
app.use(express.compress());
// redirect all html requests to `index.html`
app.use(function (req, res, next) {
if (path.extname(req.path).length > 0) {
// normal static file request
next();
}
else {
// should force return `index.html` for angular.js
req.url = '/index.html';
next();
}
});
// static file serve
app.use(express.static(__dirname));
});
Basic configuration for Express 4 is:
var express = require('express');
express()
.get(/.*/, function(req, res) {
res.sendFile('index.html', {
root: __dirname
});
})
.listen(8080);
Working example
Those snippets with GZip, BodyParser etc. are pretty cool, but I think over-complicated if you want to just test your single page app. Of course you can add all this "production stuff" when it starts to be needed.
Read more:
sending files
routing
Here a simple implementation with ExpressJs to create a virtual host and whenever return the index.html
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var vhost = require('vhost');
// Function to create virtualhost
function createVhost(domain,rootDirectory){
var exp = express();
exp.use(express.static(rootDirectory));
exp.get(/.*/,function(req,res){
res.sendFile('index.html',{root:rootDirectory});
})
app.use(vhost(domain,exp));
}
// Virtual Host to create
createVhost('example.com','/home/[user]/[www]/[example.com]');
createVhost('othersite.com','/home/[user]/[www]/[othersite.com]');
// Start Server
app.listen(80,function(){
console.log('Node server on port 80');
});
Remember:
Add the domains in the "/etc/host" (in linux)
127.0.0.1 example.com
127.0.0.1 othersite.com
And run in the terminal the "app.js" with "sudo" for port 80
~/home/[server]$ sudo node app.js
You can do this in both angular as well as node side.
In Node side you can do something like this:
res.sendfile('<ur html file path');
In Angular if you using ui-router you can make use of
$urlRouterProvider.otherwise('/otherwise');
and this otherwise state needs to be defined as well
$stateProvider
.state("otherwise", { url : '/urPage'...})
If you using ngRoute, you can do
$routeProvider.otherwise({redirectTo: '/urPage'});
UPDATE
Since your routers are not configured to show a default urPage, in the server you can have something as:
var app = express.createServer();
app.get('/urPage',function(req,res){
res.sendfile('<ur html page>');
});

Any way to serve static html files from express without the extension?

I would like to serve an html file without specifying it's extension. Is there any way I can do this without defining a route? For instance instead of
/helloworld.html
I would like to do just
/helloworld
you can just use extension option in express.static method .
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public'),{index:false,extensions:['html']}));
A quick'n'dirty solution is to attach .html to requests that don't have a period in them and for which an HTML-file exists in the public directory:
var fs = require('fs');
var publicdir = __dirname + '/public';
app.use(function(req, res, next) {
if (req.path.indexOf('.') === -1) {
var file = publicdir + req.path + '.html';
fs.exists(file, function(exists) {
if (exists)
req.url += '.html';
next();
});
}
else
next();
});
app.use(express.static(publicdir));
While Robert's answer is more elegant there is another way to do this. I am adding this answer just for the sake of completeness. To serve static files without extension you can create a folder with the name of the route you want to serve against and then create an index.html file in it.
Taking my own example if I wanted to serve hello.html at /hello. I would create a directory called hello and put an index.html file in it. Now when '/hello' is called express will automatically serve this file without the extension.
Kind of obvious as this is supported by all web frameworks but I missed it back then.
This single line can route all the html file extension in the public folder.
app.use(express.static('public',{extensions:['html']}));
If you want to go the reverse way like I did(serving an html file called "helloworld" as html) this is the middleware I used.
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
app.use(function(req, res, next) {
if (req.path.indexOf('.') === -1) {
res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/html');
}
next();
});
app.use('/', express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
app.listen(8080, function () {
console.log('App listening on port 8080!');
})

Is it possible to set a base URL for NodeJS app?

I want to be able to host multiple NodeJS apps under the same domain, without using sub-domains (like google.com/reader instead of images.google.com). The problem is that I'm always typing the first part of the url e.g. "/reader" in Express/NodeJS.
How can I set up an Express app so that the base URL is something.com/myapp?
So instead of:
app.get("/myapp", function (req, res) {
// can be accessed from something.com/myapp
});
I can do:
// Some set-up
app.base = "/myapp"
app.get("/", function (req, res) {
// can still be accessed from something.com/myapp
});
I'd also like to configure Connect's staticProvider to behave the same way (right now it defaults to serving static files to something.com/js or something.com/css instead of something.com/myapp/js)
The express router can handle this since 4.0
http://expressjs.com/en/api.html#router
http://bulkan-evcimen.com/using_express_router_instead_of_express_namespace.html
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var router = express.Router();
// simple logger for this router's requests
// all requests to this router will first hit this middleware
router.use(function(req, res, next) {
console.log('%s %s %s', req.method, req.url, req.path);
next();
});
// this will only be invoked if the path ends in /bar
router.use('/bar', function(req, res, next) {
// ... maybe some additional /bar logging ...
next();
});
// always invoked
router.use(function(req, res, next) {
res.send('Hello World');
});
app.use('/foo', router);
app.listen(3000);
Previous answer (before express 4.0) :
The express-namespace module (dead now) used to do the trick :
https://github.com/visionmedia/express-namespace
require('express-namespace');
app.namespace('/myapp', function() {
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
// can be accessed from something.com/myapp
});
});
At the moment this is not supported, and it's not easy to add it on your own.
The whole routing stuff is buried deep inside the server code, and as a bonus there's no exposure of the routes them selfs.
I dug through the source and also checked out the latest version of Express and the Connect middleware, but there's still no support for such functionality, you should open a issue either on Connect or Express itself.
Meanwhile...
Patch the thing yourself, here's a quick and easy way with only one line of code changed.
In ~/.local/lib/node/.npm/express/1.0.0/package/lib/express/servers.js, search for:
// Generate the route
this.routes[method](path, fn);
This should be around line 357, replace that with:
// Generate the route
this.routes[method](((self.settings.base || '') + path), fn);
Now just add the setting:
app.set('base', '/myapp');
This works fine with paths that are plain strings, for RegEx support you will have to hack around in the router middleware yourself, better file an issue in that case.
As far as the static provider goes, just add in /mypapp when setting it up.
Update
Made it work with RegExp too:
// replace
this.routes[method](baseRoute(self.settings.base || '', path), fn);
// helper
function baseRoute(base, path) {
if (path instanceof RegExp) {
var exp = RegExp(path).toString().slice(1, -1);
return new RegExp(exp[0] === '^' ? '^' + base + exp.substring(1) : base + exp);
} else {
return (base || '') + path;
}
}
I only tested this with a handful of expressions, so this isn't 100% tested but in theory it should work.
Update 2
Filed an issue with the patch:
https://github.com/visionmedia/express/issues/issue/478
Just to update the thread, now with Express.js v4 you can do it without using express-namespace:
var express = require('express'),
forumRouter = express.Router(),
threadRouter = express.Router(),
app = express();
forumRouter.get('/:id)', function(req, res){
res.send('GET forum ' + req.params.id);
});
forumRouter.get('/:id/edit', function(req, res){
res.send('GET forum ' + req.params.id + ' edit page');
});
forumRouter.delete('/:id', function(req, res){
res.send('DELETE forum ' + req.params.id);
});
app.use('/forum', forumRouter);
threadRouter.get('/:id/thread/:tid', function(req, res){
res.send('GET forum ' + req.params.id + ' thread ' + req.params.tid);
});
forumRouter.use('/', threadRouter);
app.listen(app.get("port") || 3000);
Cheers!
I was able to achieve this using a combination of express-namespace for the routes and a fix from the below google group discussion for the static assets. This snippet will treat a request to /foo/javascripts/jquery.js like a request to /javascripts/jquery.js:
app.use('/foo', express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
Source:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/express-js/xlP6_DX6he0/6OTY4hwfV-0J
I know this is a very old question but Express has changed a lot since most these answers were posted so I thought I'd share my approach.
You can, of course, use Routers with Express 4 to group together related functionality behind a particular path. This is well documented and has already been covered by other answers.
However, it is also possible to mount an entire application at a particular path. As an example, let's assume our application (the one we want to host at /myapp) looks like this, in a file called myapp.js:
var express = require('express'),
path = require('path'),
app = express();
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
app.get('/hello', function(req, res) {
res.send('Hello');
});
// Lots of other stuff here
exports.app = app;
In our main js file we could then mount this whole application at the path /myapp:
var express = require('express'),
app = express(),
myApp = require('./myapp').app;
app.use('/myapp', myApp);
app.listen(3000);
Note that we've created two applications here, one mounted on the other. The main application could have further sub-apps mounted at different paths as required.
The code in myapp.js is completely independent of where it was mounted. It's similar to the structure used by the express-generator in that regard.
Some documentation about sub-apps can be found here:
https://expressjs.com/en/4x/api.html#app.mountpath
https://expressjs.com/en/4x/api.html#app.onmount
There are also reliability issues. If reliability is important, a common solution is to use a front-end reverse HTTP proxy such as nginx or HAProxy. They both use single-thread evented architecture and are thus very scalable.
Then you can have different node processes for different subsites, and if one site fails (uncaught exception, memory leak, programmer error, whatever) the rest of sub-sites continue to work.
I was looking for this feature but for API routes, not for static files. What I did was that when I initialized the router, I added the mount path. So my configuration looks like this
//Default configuration
app.configure(function(){
app.use(express.compress());
app.use(express.logger('dev'));
app.set('json spaces',0);
app.use(express.limit('2mb'));
app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.use('/api', app.router); // <---
app.use(function(err, req, res, callback){
res.json(err.code, {});
});
});
Notice the '/api' when calling the router

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