Opening Page with Express - node.js

Question

I have read around about this a lot and it seems like its an issue that confuses a lot people. I am doing a project with express and I dont want to you any tempting engines, I am using backbone with underscore and thats enough for me. I want to write plain HTML and render them..
app.configure(function(){
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3000);
app.set("view options", {layout: false});
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/views'));
app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
app.use(express.favicon());
app.use(express.logger('dev'));
app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.use(express.methodOverride());
app.use( express.cookieParser() );
app.use(express.session({ secret: 'topsecret' } ));
app.use(passport.initialize());
app.use(passport.session());
app.use(app.router);
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
});
this is what I have so far.. I am having a hard time to understand how express knows to render the index.html file as my home page even though I have this:
app.get('/', function(req, res){
console.log("Heyyyyyy");
});
I would expect nothing to be rendered and "Heyyyy" to be printed but express renders the index.html and doesnt print "Heyyyy"

Answer 1

Express evaluates middleware in the order in which they are configured.
You have a static file handler before your app.router.
Take the index.html file out of the __dirname + '/views' directory.
You also have a static file handler at the bottom of your middleware stack. Static file handlers should be at the top of your middleware stack. When they're at the bottom of your middleware stack each request unnecessarily processes all of the stack. For example, you don't need to run express.bodyParser() when serving static files.