An Express / route serves my Backbone's app index.html.
I'm using pushstate in Backbone but the routes that Backbone should handled are being handled by express, giving 404 responses.
How can I setup Express to serve the index.html but to delegate other routes to Backbone?
In this situation you have multiple options:
You can have a server that handles the same routes as the client does and returns the same results. It is hard to implement but it gives a good url. Github did this.
Always return index.html and handle the route client side. (That is somewhat ugly and hard to maintain)
Don't use pushstate. Amen.
You can use /* approach. Just have it as the last route. That way the other routes such as any service API calls will be matched before the catch all route of /* is matched. This is also how Backbone handles its routes.
Related
Despite knowing JavaScript quite well, I'm confused what exactly these three projects in Node.js ecosystem do. Is it something like Rails' Rack? Can someone please explain?
[Update: As of its 4.0 release, Express no longer uses Connect. However, Express is still compatible with middleware written for Connect. My original answer is below.]
I'm glad you asked about this, because it's definitely a common point of confusion for folks looking at Node.js. Here's my best shot at explaining it:
Node.js itself offers an http module, whose createServer method returns an object that you can use to respond to HTTP requests. That object inherits the http.Server prototype.
Connect also offers a createServer method, which returns an object that inherits an extended version of http.Server. Connect's extensions are mainly there to make it easy to plug in middleware. That's why Connect describes itself as a "middleware framework," and is often analogized to Ruby's Rack.
Express does to Connect what Connect does to the http module: It offers a createServer method that extends Connect's Server prototype. So all of the functionality of Connect is there, plus view rendering and a handy DSL for describing routes. Ruby's Sinatra is a good analogy.
Then there are other frameworks that go even further and extend Express! Zappa, for instance, which integrates support for CoffeeScript, server-side jQuery, and testing.
Here's a concrete example of what's meant by "middleware": Out of the box, none of the above serves static files for you. But just throw in connect.static (a middleware that comes with Connect), configured to point to a directory, and your server will provide access to the files in that directory. Note that Express provides Connect's middlewares also; express.static is the same as connect.static. (Both were known as staticProvider until recently.)
My impression is that most "real" Node.js apps are being developed with Express these days; the features it adds are extremely useful, and all of the lower-level functionality is still there if you want it.
The accepted answer is really old (and now wrong). Here's the information (with source) based on the current version of Connect (3.0) / Express (4.0).
What Node.js comes with
http / https createServer which simply takes a callback(req,res) e.g.
var server = http.createServer(function (request, response) {
// respond
response.write('hello client!');
response.end();
});
server.listen(3000);
What connect adds
Middleware is basically any software that sits between your application code and some low level API. Connect extends the built-in HTTP server functionality and adds a plugin framework. The plugins act as middleware and hence connect is a middleware framework
The way it does that is pretty simple (and in fact the code is really short!). As soon as you call var connect = require('connect'); var app = connect(); you get a function app that can:
Can handle a request and return a response. This is because you basically get this function
Has a member function .use (source) to manage plugins (that comes from here because of this simple line of code).
Because of 1.) you can do the following :
var app = connect();
// Register with http
http.createServer(app)
.listen(3000);
Combine with 2.) and you get:
var connect = require('connect');
// Create a connect dispatcher
var app = connect()
// register a middleware
.use(function (req, res, next) { next(); });
// Register with http
http.createServer(app)
.listen(3000);
Connect provides a utility function to register itself with http so that you don't need to make the call to http.createServer(app). Its called listen and the code simply creates a new http server, register's connect as the callback and forwards the arguments to http.listen. From source
app.listen = function(){
var server = http.createServer(this);
return server.listen.apply(server, arguments);
};
So, you can do:
var connect = require('connect');
// Create a connect dispatcher and register with http
var app = connect()
.listen(3000);
console.log('server running on port 3000');
It's still your good old http.createServer with a plugin framework on top.
What ExpressJS adds
ExpressJS and connect are parallel projects. Connect is just a middleware framework, with a nice use function. Express does not depend on Connect (see package.json). However it does the everything that connect does i.e:
Can be registered with createServer like connect since it too is just a function that can take a req/res pair (source).
A use function to register middleware.
A utility listen function to register itself with http
In addition to what connect provides (which express duplicates), it has a bunch of more features. e.g.
Has view engine support.
Has top level verbs (get/post etc.) for its router.
Has application settings support.
The middleware is shared
The use function of ExpressJS and connect is compatible and therefore the middleware is shared. Both are middleware frameworks, express just has more than a simple middleware framework.
Which one should you use?
My opinion: you are informed enough ^based on above^ to make your own choice.
Use http.createServer if you are creating something like connect / expressjs from scratch.
Use connect if you are authoring middleware, testing protocols etc. since it is a nice abstraction on top of http.createServer
Use ExpressJS if you are authoring websites.
Most people should just use ExpressJS.
What's wrong about the accepted answer
These might have been true as some point in time, but wrong now:
that inherits an extended version of http.Server
Wrong. It doesn't extend it and as you have seen ... uses it
Express does to Connect what Connect does to the http module
Express 4.0 doesn't even depend on connect. see the current package.json dependencies section
node.js
Node.js is a javascript motor for the server side.
In addition to all the js capabilities, it includes networking capabilities (like HTTP), and access to the file system.
This is different from client-side js where the networking tasks are monopolized by the browser, and access to the file system is forbidden for security reasons.
node.js as a web server: express
Something that runs in the server, understands HTTP and can access files sounds like a web server. But it isn't one.
To make node.js behave like a web server one has to program it: handle the incoming HTTP requests and provide the appropriate responses.
This is what Express does: it's the implementation of a web server in js.
Thus, implementing a web site is like configuring Express routes, and programming the site's specific features.
Middleware and Connect
Serving pages involves a number of tasks. Many of those tasks are well known and very common, so node's Connect module (one of the many modules available to run under node) implements those tasks.
See the current impressing offering:
logger request logger with custom format support
csrf Cross-site request forgery protection
compress Gzip compression middleware
basicAuth basic http authentication
bodyParser extensible request body parser
json application/json parser
urlencoded application/x-www-form-urlencoded parser
multipart multipart/form-data parser
timeout request timeouts
cookieParser cookie parser
session session management support with bundled MemoryStore
cookieSession cookie-based session support
methodOverride faux HTTP method support
responseTime calculates response-time and exposes via X-Response-Time
staticCache memory cache layer for the static() middleware
static streaming static file server supporting Range and more
directory directory listing middleware
vhost virtual host sub-domain mapping middleware
favicon efficient favicon server (with default icon)
limit limit the bytesize of request bodies
query automatic querystring parser, populating req.query
errorHandler flexible error handler
Connect is the framework and through it you can pick the (sub)modules you need.
The Contrib Middleware page enumerates a long list of additional middlewares.
Express itself comes with the most common Connect middlewares.
What to do?
Install node.js.
Node comes with npm, the node package manager.
The command npm install -g express will download and install express globally (check the express guide).
Running express foo in a command line (not in node) will create a ready-to-run application named foo. Change to its (newly created) directory and run it with node with the command node <appname>, then open http://localhost:3000 and see.
Now you are in.
Connect offers a "higher level" APIs for common HTTP server functionality like session management, authentication, logging and more. Express is built on top of Connect with advanced (Sinatra like) functionality.
Node.js itself offers an HTTP module, whose createServer method returns an object that you can use to respond to HTTP requests. That object inherits the http.Server prototype.
Related information, especially if you are using NTVS for working with the Visual Studio IDE. The NTVS adds both NodeJS and Express tools, scaffolding, project templates to Visual Studio 2012, 2013.
Also, the verbiage that calls ExpressJS or Connect as a "WebServer" is incorrect. You can create a basic WebServer with or without them. A basic NodeJS program can also use the http module to handle http requests, Thus becoming a rudimentary web server.
middleware as the name suggests actually middleware is sit between middle.. middle of what? middle of request and response..how request,response,express server sit in express app
in this picture you can see requests are coming from client then the express server server serves those requests.. then lets dig deeper.. actually we can divide this whole express server's whole task in to small seperate tasks like in this way.
how middleware sit between request and response small chunk of server parts doing some particular task and passed request to next one.. finally doing all the tasks response has been made..
all middle ware can access request object,response object and next function of request response cycle..
this is good example for explaining middleware in express youtube video for middleware
The stupid simple answer
Connect and Express are web servers for nodejs. Unlike Apache and IIS, they can both use the same modules, referred to as "middleware".
Hi I need some help with how express handles routes.
In setting up my express app, I have something like this:
app.use(express.static('public'));
Next, I mount some api routes:
app.use('/api', myrouter);
app.get('*', function(req, res) {
res.sendFile(path.resolve('public/index.html'));
});
But, when the frontend requests data via an api route, e.g. at 'localhost:3000/api/things', I am seeing in the Express debug logs that at some point (unsure when) it actually tries to serve this request as a static file, like:
send stat "C:\myproject\public\api\things" +230ms
Even though this folder doesn't exist in 'public' and should be solely handled by my api. FYI, the handler for /api/things route is only implemented for the GET method, and does get invoked at some point.
How do I stop express server from also trying to serve api requests from the static folder?
Thanks very much.
Answering my own question... which appears to be a duplicate of this one:
`express.static()` keeps routing my files from the route
So the answer is this one: https://stackoverflow.com/a/28143812/8670745
In short, the app.use() declarations that mount your api routers should appear before the app.use() statements which tell express.static where to serve your static files from. This way, the latter acts as a catchall AFTER api route handling is done. Router engine order matters...
Your answer is misinformed, or rather you've misinterpreted the problem. Your original configuration:
app.use(express.static(__dirname + 'public'));
app.use('/api', myrouter);
Looks absolutely fine because there's no clash between the routes. The threads you've linked too aren't really the same, and I can see why moving the routes in those cases would have worked.
The only thing I'd say is your path to your static folder isn't reliable, you should really use path.join, or actually in your case you can just do express.static('public') - express will infer the folder your app is served from.
Been watching alot of tutorials and i see that there is express routing as well as react routing.
Is the react routing for client and the node js routing for server (api?).
Wanting to know if someone could please clarify this as new to React, Node, Express.
Thanks
It is possible (and even recommended) to use both of them in combination.
TL;DR
react-router is used to navigate between multiples pages/views of your front-end app/website. Usually in a single page app (SPA), where pages/views are loaded dynamically.
express router is a way to return static content (index.html, image.png...) AND to handle API calls that are often related to database logic. Those routes are handled server-side.
Example
myapp.com/my-portfolio is a view and should be handled and rendered by react router
// this router render pages components dynamically based on the url
<Route path="/my-portfolio" component={Portfolio} />
<Route path="/page2" component={Page2} />
myapp.com/user/create or myapp.com/api/getMyJson is an api call that should be handled server-side by express router:
// app.js
// api call that return json data
// this is where I will usually return database content
app.get('/api/getMyJson', (req, res) => {
res.send('{"my_var":"value"}');
});
// api call that return the content of folder app/public where
// the index.html and static resources are usually exposed
app.use(express.static('app/public'))
Single page application workflow
The front-end (client browser) request the back-end (your server) for the application static content (myLogo.png, index.html...) usually served by express router
While the first page is loaded and the user begin to interact with the app, the front-end continues to load other pages in the background (lazy loading)
When the user navigate to another page (with react-router), the page is already loaded and the user is taken there without any further server call nor page reloading
On another hand, express router need to handle API calls like myapp.com/user/userId/get/notifications to get data that is not "static" like json data.
I'll try explain the difference through an example. Say we have a single page application built with react at www.example.com
React Routing
We hit www.example.com and the index.html is loaded from the server. Note that it has all of your react pages in your bundle.js file. You now click the about button on the navbar, this sends you to www.example.com/about. This call does not hit the server, it is handled by your react router.
Express
Much like above we hit www.example.com and get the index. This time when we hit /about we get information from the server
Take a look at this blog post:https://medium.com/airbnb-engineering/isomorphic-javascript-the-future-of-web-apps-10882b7a2ebc
As the title suggests, I'm serving a Vue.js single page application from public/index.html in FeathersJS. Since I'm using vue-router's HTML5 history mode, I have to use a middleware like connect-history-api-fallback in order to rewrite the requested frontend location to /index.html.
Setting up this middleware in src/middleware just before app.use(notFound()); doesn't work since Feathers serves the static files before everything else, so by the time the request gets rewritten nothing picks up /index.html and notFound serves a 404 response.
Configuring it before .use('/', serveStatic(app.get('public'))) inside src/app.js is also problematic since it will rewrite every service request to /index.html, making API calls unreachable.
I ended up moving the serveStatic middleware after .configure(services) and placing connect-history-api-fallback right above like so:
app.use(compress())
.options('*', cors())
.use(cors())
// favicon and serveStatic used to be here
.use(bodyParser.json())
.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }))
.configure(hooks())
.configure(rest())
.configure(socketio())
.configure(services)
.use(require('connect-history-api-fallback')())
// now they are down here
.use(favicon(path.join(app.get('public'), 'favicon.ico')))
.use('/', serveStatic(app.get('public')))
.configure(middleware);
My question is the following: Are there any performance or security drawbacks to this approach?
With the configuration you posted, there aren't really any security concerns.
If you were to replace your serveStatic middleware with SSR middleware, you would want to delete the CORS headers before the SSR middleware to avoid leaking data through Cross Site Requests (CSRF "attacks" using cookies).
I am totally new to everything Nodejs/express/angular, and I just ran into a question that bothers me.
When you have a MEAN stack, it seems that routes can be handled by both Express.js and Angular.
Angular:
For instance, if I define a route in Angular, I can do it like this:
var app = angular.module("app", []).config(function($routeProvider) {
$routeProvider.when('/login', {
templateUrl: '/templates/login.html',
controller: 'LoginController'
});
$routeProvider.when('/front', {
templateUrl: '/templates/front.html',
controller: 'FrontController'
});
$routeProvider.otherwise({redirectTo: '/front'})
});
But with express.js I do:
app.get('/',function(req,res){
res.sendfile('templates/angular.html');
});
So my question is:
When do you use angular routing, and when do you use express routing?
(I might miss something very obvious here, but I hope you can point it out)
Those two serve different purposes on a single page app.
The app would do all the CRUD (endpoints where you create/read/update/delete your stuff, for example: projects, users, bills, etc). Also it would do all the authentication stuff (like /login and /register).
All of that needs routes, because you would want something like /api/users to grab all your users. All those routes, AKA CRUD routes and authentication routes goes into express.js router. Why there? Because those are routes of the backend.
On the other hand, you have your angular application, which contains the visual part of your application and there you want some routes. You want / to point to your home, you would want /users to have a page where you list your users or even /users/add to have a page with a form to add new users.
You could see it this way:
Backend routes (express ones): Those are the routes that an end user won't have to know about or even use them (your angular app will use them to communicate with the backend to work with its data but an end user wouldn't put them directly on the browser)).
Frontend routes (angular ones): Are the routes that maps to different pages of your application and because of that, end users can use them to access some parts of your application directly.