Not able to loading static files with express - node.js

Question

Tried all possible combinations I can think of but not able to load static files using express server.
Dir Structure
app
--todoApp.html
----server.js //node file
----jquery.js
----backbone.js
Node server
var http = require('http'),
express = require('express');
var app = express();
app.listen(3000);
app.set('views', __dirname);
app.use(express.static(__dirname));
app.engine('html', require('ejs').renderFile);
console.log(__dirname);
app.get('/', function(req, res){
//res.send('Whats up?');
res.render('../todoApp.html');
});
__dirname prints as app/js ehich is correct. But page loads with error the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found) http://localhost:3000/js/jquery.js.
HTML loads the script like this:
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/underscore-min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/backbone.js"></script>
I tried multiple things but it does not work.
Tried following:
app.use('/js',express.static(__dirname));
or
app.use('/',express.static(__dirname));
Please help.

Answer 1

Since the current directory is already the js directory, you don't need to specify it in the <script> tags when loading your JavaScript files:
<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="underscore-min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="backbone.js"></script>
When you set a static directory in express, that directory effectively becomes the root, so all of your static file paths should be relative to that directory.
Also, it is probably not a good idea to have your server-side code in a static directory, since this would allow anyone using your server access to your server side code. It would be better to put all of your static files in a different directory, and set that as the static directory in express.