Handle jade errors in res.render() - node.js

I have a working node.js / express based server and am using jade for templating. Usually there is no problem but a couple of times every day I get an error message when requsting any page. The error is 'failed to locate view'. I don't know why i get this error since it worked fine just minutes before.
The question however is how I can force a crash on this event, for example:
res.render('index.jade', {info: 'msg'}, function(error, ok) {
if (error)
throw new Error('');
// Proceed with response
};
How would I do this? And how would I proceed with the response?
thank you.

You can add an error handling middleware.
app.use(function handleJadeErrors(err, req, res, next) {
// identify the errors you care about
if (err.message === 'failed to locate view') {
// do something sensible, such as logging and then crashing
// or returning something more useful to the client
} else {
// just pass it on to other error middleware
next(err);
}
});

Try this:
app.use(function (req, res, next) {
fs.exists(__dirname + '/views/' + req.url.substring(1) + '.jade', function (exists) {
if(!exists) {
console.log(err);
return next();
}
res.render(req.url.substring(1), { title: "No Controller", user: req.session.user });
}
});

Related

express post 500 error without router/subsite

My setup is as follows:
posting to /register will take the arguments and register a user via passport and mongoose. If this returns an UserExistsError the server sends this info to the client (via http error handling).
However the server also displays a 500 server error which should not occur.
This is because of the next() which as far as I understand routes the client to /register. /register itself does not exists as a page (only as the postadress as stated in the code)
So my question is: How to handle the response to not be an error or supress it? Can I use something else instead of next() to stop the redirect to /register? I just want the server to stop doing anything/going out of that function at that point.
Code:
app.post('/register', function(req, res, next) {
console.log('server registering user');
User.register(new User({username: req.body.username}), req.body.password, function(err) {
let tempstring = ""+err;
if(tempstring.indexOf("UserExistsError") !== -1){
return next(err); //get out of the function and into normal operation under '/'
}
});
});
This topic is bugging me and I might just missunderstand something trivial.
Even if /register is a post only route you still need to send a response. If you don't send a response of some kind, the request will hang and eventually timeout in the browser. I would suggest sending a json response like so.
app.post('/register', function(req, res, next) {
console.log('server registering user');
User.register(new User({username: req.body.username}), req.body.password, function(err) {
let tempstring = ""+err;
if(tempstring.indexOf("UserExistsError") !== -1){
return next(err); //get out of the function and into normal operation under '/'
}
res.json({message: 'message here'});
});
});
This will send a 200 OK reponse with some json in the body.
If you just want to pass the request down the line you need to call next without an err object like so.
app.post('/register', function(req, res, next) {
console.log('server registering user');
User.register(new User({username: req.body.username}), req.body.password, function(err) {
let tempstring = ""+err;
if(tempstring.indexOf("UserExistsError") !== -1){
return next(err); //get out of the function and into normal operation under '/'
}
//call next without an error
next();
});
});
I am not sure if this is what you are trying to achieve, but if there is no route that matches it will just go to an error 500.

Express.js Routing error: Can't set headers after they are sent

I'm not really sure why I'm getting this error. It's a simple API built on express.js to be able to add and remove posts. The error occurs when I trigger the delete router. I've read that the error typically happens when there are two callbacks, however, I don't seem to be able find any double callbacks.
_http_outgoing.js:344
throw new Error('Can\'t set headers after they are sent.');
Error: Can't set headers after they are sent.
at ServerResponse.OutgoingMessage.setHeader (_http_outgoing.js:344:11)
at ServerResponse.header (/Users/bounty/Projects/_learning/react-express/node_modules/express/lib/response.js:718:10)
at ServerResponse.send (/Users/bounty/Projects/_learning/react-express/node_modules/express/lib/response.js:163:12)
at ServerResponse.json (/Users/bounty/Projects/_learning/react-express/node_modules/express/lib/response.js:249:15)
at /Users/bounty/Projects/_learning/react-express/server/routes/posts.js:86:9
at nextTickCallbackWith0Args (node.js:452:9)
at process._tickCallback (node.js:381:13)
Here is my posts.js router:
module.exports = function(router) {
var Post = require('../models/post.js');
// middleware for the api requests
router.use(function(req, res, next) {
// do logging
console.log('something is happening.');
next(); // make sure we go to our next route and don't stop here
});
// test route to make sure everything is working (accessed at GET http://localhost:8080/api)
router.get('/', function(req, res) {
res.json({ message: 'hooray! welcome to our api!' });
});
// all routes here
// routes that end in /posts
router.route('/posts')
// create a Post (accessed at POST http://localhost:7777/api/posts)
.post(function(req, res) {
var post = new Post();
post.postTitle = req.body.postTitle; // set the post name (comes from request)
// save post and check for errors
post.save(function(err) {
if (err)
res.send();
res.json({ message: 'post created!' });
});
})
// get all Posts (accessed at GET http://localhost:7777/api/posts)
.get(function(req, res) {
Post.find(function(err, posts) {
if (err)
res.send();
res.json(posts);
});
});
// routes that end in /posts for specific id
router.route('/posts/:post_id')
// get the post with that id
.get(function(req, res) {
Post.findById(req.params.post_id, function(err, post) {
if (err)
res.send(err);
res.json(post);
});
})
// update the post with that id
.put(function(req, res) {
Post.findById(req.params.post_id, function(err, post) {
if (err)
res.send(err);
post.postTitle = req.body.postTitle;
// save the post
post.save(function(err) {
if (err)
res.send(err);
res.json({ message: 'post updated!' });
});
});
})
// deletes the post with that id
.delete(function(req, res) {
Post.remove({
_id: req.params.post_id
}, function(err, post) {
if (err) {
res.send(err);
}
res.json({ message: 'post deleted!' });
});
});
}
You need to add the 'return' so that you don't reply twice.
// save post and check for errors
post.save(function(err) {
if (err) {
return res.send();
}
res.json({ message: 'post created!' });
});
That particular error message is pretty much always caused because of a timing error in the handling of an async response that causes you to attempt to send data on a response after the response has already been sent.
It usually happens when people treat an async response inside an express route as a synchronous response and they end up sending data twice.
One place I see you would get this is in any of your error paths:
When you do this:
// save post and check for errors
post.save(function(err) {
if (err)
res.send();
res.json({ message: 'post created!' });
});
If post.save() generates an error, you will do res.send() and then you will do res.json(...) after it. Your code needs to have a return or an else so when there's an error you don't execute both code paths.
So, this can happen in Express when attempting to send res.end twice which res.send and res.json both do. In your if(err) block you'll want to return res.send() as res.send runs asynchronously and res.json is getting called as well. I'm wondering if you're getting an error in your delete route? Hope this helps.
Best!
You are using res.send() or res.json() twice in the same request
this send the headers first, followed by body of the response and then headers again.
req.next is usually not a function, next is rather passed as a third argument of the middleware. Use that if you want to drop to the next middleware. (assuming you are using Express framework)
Just for the sake of completeness I will also mention that:
Sometime problem may be in a the middleware you may be using by calling
app.use.
After checking for obvious errors as mentioned in previous answers:
You should remove all the app.use statement then reintroduce them one by one, to find problematic module.
If you are using res.send() inside any loop, then you need to break it after the use of res.send(). So that it won't allow resetting of the res headers again and again.
for e.g :
for(){
if(){
res.send();
break;
}
else(){
res.send();
break;
}
}
In my case this is the problem and I solved it like this.
Hope it may help someone in future.
Thanks
For a quick fix you can just check res.finished before calling res.send():
if (!res.finished)
res.send()

Catching stripe errors using middleware and logging

I'm curious if there's a good way to handle this with express 4.0.
There are times where there is a problem with either Stripe, or my connection to Stripe that needs to be addressed. However, I obviously do not want users to know about this. I want to display a message 'There was a problem completing your order, please contact support.' while safely logging the message with some information for me to handle it.
I suspect I can do this in middleware. However, I'm not sure how. I would like to catch these errors as they are happening and dump them to a logfile of some kind (suggestions would be great) so I can handle it.
Is there a standard way of doing this? How would I accomplish this?
Thank you!
You're thinking about this the wrong way. Instead of exposing 3rd party errors, explicitly define each possible failure case in your route.
// bad
app.use(function (err, req, res, next) {
res.status(err.status).json({ error: err.message })
})
Instead mark errors to be exposed:
app.use(function (err, req, res, next) {
if (err.expose) {
res.status(err.status).json({ code: err.code, error: err.message })
} else {
reportError(err, req)
res.status(500).json({ code: "unknown", error: "unknown error" })
}
})
You need to re-throw actual api errors.
function createError(status, message) {
var err = new Error(message)
err.expose = true
err.status = status
return err
}
function changeCard(user, data) {
return postStripeCards(user, data)
.catch({ type: "card_error" }, function (err) {
throw createError(400, "invalid card")
})
}
Uncaught errors are programmer mistakes which should be reported and fixed. Anything that makes it through is a bug.
function reportError (err, req) {
// log error
console.error(err.stack)
// send to rollbar
rollbar.handleError(err, req)
// maybe send an email
mailgun.send({
from: "bot#myapp.com",
to: "me#gmail.com",
subject: "My App: " + err.message,
text: err.stack + "\n\n" + JSON.stringify(req),
})
// pager duty, airbrake, etc
}
It takes work, but it means your API is well-defined.

Getting the stack trace in a custom error handler in Express?

I'm using a custom error page in Express, as explained here.
But when I do that, I only see the error message. I'd like to get hold of the same information as displayed in the default Express error handler (the stacktrace, etc.), so that I can:
Log it to the console (if I could leave the default in place for this, I'd be happy).
Display it on the error page, but only for localhost.
How do I do this?
This is a modified version from #generalhenry's answer. You can access the stack trace
in err.stack so you can pass it on your '500' view and do some fancy css styles on it.
app.use(function(err, req, res, next) {
if (err instanceof NotFound) {
res.render('errors/404');
} else {
res.render('errors/500', {error: err, stack: err.stack});
}
});
function NotFound() {
this.name = "NotFound";
Error.call(this, msg);
Error.captureStackTrace(this, arguments.callee);
}
// below all route handlers
// If all fails, hit em with the 404
app.all('*', function(req, res){
throw new NotFound;
});
Just use the error provided to the middleware
// Handle 500
app.use(function(error, req, res, next) {
console.error(error);
if (ISLOCALHOST()) {
res.json(error, 500);
} else {
res.send('500: Internal Server Error', 500);
}
});

Express.js - display a custom 404 page when a record is not found in MongoDB

I am using node-mongodb-native driver. I tried
collection.findOne({email: 'a#mail.com'}, function(err, result) {
if (!result) throw new Error('Record not found!');
});
But the error is caught by mongodb driver and the express server is terminated.
What's the correct way for this case?
=== Edit===
I have the code below in app.js
app.configure('development', function() {
app.use(express.errorHandler({dumpExceptions: true, showStack: true}));
});
app.configure('production', function() {
app.use(express.errorHandler());
});
Related code in node_modules/mongodb/lib/mongodb/connection/server.js
connectionPool.on("message", function(message) {
try {
......
} catch (err) {
// Throw error in next tick
process.nextTick(function() {
throw err; // <-- here throws an uncaught error
})
}
});
The correct use is not to throw an error, but to pass it to next function. First you define the error handler:
app.error(function (err, req, res, next) {
res.render('error_page.jade');
})
(What's this talk about error being depracated? I don't know anything about that. But even if then you can just use use. The mechanism is still the same.).
Now in your route you pass the error to the handler like this:
function handler(req, res, next) {
collection.findOne({email: 'a#mail.com'}, function(err, result) {
if (!result) {
var myerr = new Error('Record not found!');
return next(myerr); // <---- pass it, not throw it
}
res.render('results.jade', { results: result });
});
};
Make sure that no other code (related to the response) is fired after next(myerr); (that's why I used return there).
Side note: Errors thrown in asynchronous operations are not handled well by Express (well, actually they somewhat are, but that's not what you need). This may crash your app. The only way to capture them is by using
process.on('uncaughtException', function(err) {
// handle it here, log or something
});
but this is a global exception handler, i.e. you cannot use it to send the response to the user.
I'm guessing that the error is not caught. Are you using an Express error handler? Something like:
app.error(function (err, req, res, next) {
res.render('error-page', {
status: 404
});
More on error handling in Express: http://expressjs.com/guide.html#error-handling
In terms of checking for errors off mongodb, use '!error' for success as opposed to '!result' for errors.
collection.findOne({email: 'a#mail.com'}, function(err, result) {
if (!error) {
// do good stuff;
} else {
throw new Error('Record not found!');
}
});
As for the custom 404, I've yet to do that in node and express, but I would imagine it would involve "app.router".

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