Hi I'm new to nodejs and I've just succeed to deploy a nodejs app online. Now I would like to know how to link CSS, JS or image files be cause when I try to do it like I used to, I get the error GET (not found).
The folder architecture is:
--public
--assets
--css
index.css
--js
--views
--index.ejs
--node modules
app.js
package.json
Assuming that I want to code the link index.css in index.ejs, what I need to write in my app.js file please.
app.js code:
var express = require('express');
var app = express.createServer();
app.set('view engine', 'ejs');
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
app.get('/', function(req,res){
res.render('index');
});
app.listen(8080,'IP_ADRESS');
index.ejs code:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/index.css">
The basic set up of serving static files in express :
var express = require("express");
var app = express();
...
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
...
app.listen(3000);
Now in your .ejs in order to load the css styles or js scripts :
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/index.css"/>
First, there's a thing called a static file. Basically, that's a file that's sent over the internet without any kind of modification. Image and CSS files are typically static files.
It looks like you've put your static files in a folder called public.
Express has a built-in feature for sending static files, called express.static. You can use it like this:
// Require the modules we need.
var express = require('express');
var path = require('path');
// Create an Express app.
var app = express();
// Get the path to the `public` folder.
// __dirname is the folder that `app.js` is in.
var publicPath = path.resolve(__dirname, 'public');
// Serve this path with the Express static file middleware.
app.use(express.static(publicPath));
// ...
You should now be able to see static files. If your site is normally accessible at http://localhost:3000, you'll be able to see index.css at http://localhost:3000/css/index.css.
If you want to know way too much about express.static, you can check out a blog post I wrote that goes into Express's static files in depth.
Stylus and CoffeeScript middleware automatically compile any Stylus and CoffeeScript code for you without having to restart your app, eg you can edit a .styl file and just refresh the page in your browser and your changes will be there. I find this to be very convenient while developing, but would that severely effect the end-user's page load time in production?
My Express setup is usually something like this (CoffeeScript):
app = express()
app.set 'views', __dirname + '/views'
app.set 'view engine', 'jade'
compile = (str, path) -> return stylus(str).set 'filename', path
app.use stylus.middleware {
src: __dirname + '/stylus',
dest: __dirname + '/assets/css',
compile: compile
}
app.use coffee {
src: __dirname + '/coffee',
dest: __dirname + '/assets/js',
encodeSrc: false
}
app.use express.static __dirname + '/assets'
It will definitely be slower than serving the pre-compiled files statically (if Stylus and CoffeeScript don't support caching which I don't know). The question is, whether this matters. And this depends on the intensity of the traffic your app receives.
In general, I would suggest to pre-compile your files and serve it statically. For the deployment, I would suggest to use something like Gulp.js and watch your files. With gulp your files can be automatically compiled on file changes which is most of the time better than compiling it when the files are requested.
New to node, and have it running pulling in an HTML page using Express and EJS
app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
app.engine('html', require('ejs').renderFile);
//load up index file
app.get('/', function(req, res){
res.render('index.html');
});
However the HTML includes some relative path JS scripts
<html>
....more...
<script src="js/libs/jquery.js"></script>
<script src="js/libs/underscore.js"></script>
<script src="js/libs/backbone.js"></script>
If i run my HTML page via my original "localhost/myProject" it all works fine. However if i launch my file via Node which is set to "localhost:8080"
app.server.listen(8080);
Then it no longer finds the "/js" directory. Is there some sort of configuration that I am missing, or should i go about this another way?
Update:
Just found this
app.use(express.static( __dirname + '/public' ));
might be what I am looking for, although i need to do some refactoring
you should configure express to server static files, for example, put all the static files under a directory called 'public'
app.configure(function () {
app.use(express.cookieParser());
app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.use('/public', express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
app.use(app.router);
});
then in your html:
<script src="/public/js/libs/jquery.js"></script>
i started using railway (a node.js mvc framework) and i want to use sass/less/stylus as a css render engin.
i couldn't find how to configure that in railway.
railway uses express.js so i guess i can install it via that.
i already installed stylus (and all the rest) via npm install stylus.
i also uses stylesheet_link_tag to link to my css files.
any advice will be appreciated.
use https://github.com/emberfeather/less.js-middleware.
its give u what u need
after some research and thanks to my friend #sivan here, i found the answer.
the steps to integrate css rendering engin are (i'll demonstrate with stylus, but the rest are similar):
install stylus
npm install stylus
npmfile.js
require('stylus');
environment.js
var stylus = require('stylus');
app.configure(function(){
var cwd = process.cwd(); //your root directory
app.use(stylus.middleware({
src: __dirname + '/public', //your *.styl files here
compress: true
}));
app.use(express.static(cwd + '/public', {maxAge: 86400000}));
...
}
then create a file ending with .styl extension. for example: public/stylsheets/style1.styl
#div2
color blue //your css here
and simply link to this generated .css file from your html page
<%- stylesheet_link_tag('style1') %>
more about stylus middleware here.
hope it will save time to whoever will get into the same issue.
I've reduced my code to the simplest express-js app I could make:
var express = require("express"),
app = express.createServer();
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/styles'));
app.listen(3001);
My directory look like this:
static_file.js
/styles
default.css
Yet when I access http://localhost:3001/styles/default.css I get the following error:
Cannot GET / styles /
default.css
I'm using express 2.3.3 and node 0.4.7. What am I doing wrong?
Try http://localhost:3001/default.css.
To have /styles in your request URL, use:
app.use("/styles", express.static(__dirname + '/styles'));
Look at the examples on this page:
//Serve static content for the app from the "public" directory in the application directory.
// GET /style.css etc
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
// Mount the middleware at "/static" to serve static content only when their request path is prefixed with "/static".
// GET /static/style.css etc.
app.use('/static', express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
I have the same problem. I have resolved the problem with following code:
app.use('/img',express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public/images')));
app.use('/js',express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public/javascripts')));
app.use('/css',express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public/stylesheets')));
Static request example:
http://pruebaexpress.lite.c9.io/js/socket.io.js
I need a more simple solution. Does it exist?
This work for me:
app.use('*/css',express.static('public/css'));
app.use('*/js',express.static('public/js'));
app.use('*/images',express.static('public/images'));
default.css should be available at http://localhost:3001/default.css
The styles in app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/styles')); just tells express to look in the styles directory for a static file to serve. It doesn't (confusingly) then form part of the path it is available on.
In your server.js :
var express = require("express");
var app = express();
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
You have declared express and app separately, create a folder named 'public' or as you like, and yet you can access to these folder. In your template src, you have added the relative path from /public (or the name of your folder destiny to static files). Beware of the bars on the routes.
I am using Bootstrap CSS, JS and Fonts in my application. I created a folder called asset in root directory of the app and place all these folder inside it. Then in server file added following line:
app.use("/asset",express.static("asset"));
This line enables me to load the files that are in the asset directory from the /asset path prefix like: http://localhost:3000/asset/css/bootstrap.min.css.
Now in the views I can simply include CSS and JS like below:
<link href="/asset/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
What worked for me is:
Instead of writing app.use(express.static(__dirname + 'public/images')); in your app.js
Simply write
app.use(express.static('public/images'));
i.e remove the root directory name in the path. And then you can use the static path effectively in other js files, For example:
<img src="/images/misc/background.jpg">
Hope this helps :)
to serve static files (css,images,js files)just two steps:
pass the directory of css files to built in middleware express.static
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
/*public is folder in my project directory contains three folders
css,image,js
*/
//css =>folder contains css file
//image=>folder contains images
//js =>folder contains javascript files
app.use(express.static( 'public/css'));
to access css files or images just type in url http://localhost:port/filename.css ex:http://localhost:8081/bootstrap.css
note: to link css files to html just type<link href="file_name.css" rel="stylesheet">
if i write this code
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
app.use('/css',express.static( 'public/css'));
to access the static files just type in url:localhost:port/css/filename.css
ex:http://localhost:8081/css/bootstrap.css
note to link css files with html just add the following line
<link href="css/file_name.css" rel="stylesheet">
this one worked for me
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
app.use('/img',express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public/images')));
app.use('/shopping-cart/javascripts',express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public/javascripts')));
app.use('/shopping-cart/stylesheets',express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public/stylesheets')));
app.use('/user/stylesheets',express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public/stylesheets')));
app.use('/user/javascripts',express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public/javascripts')));
Webpack makes things awkward
As a supplement to all the other already existing solutions:
First things first: If you base the paths of your files and directories on the cwd (current working directory), things should work as usual, as the cwd is the folder where you were when you started node (or npm start, yarn run etc).
However...
If you are using webpack, __dirname behavior will be very different, depending on your node.__dirname settings, and your webpack version:
In Webpack v4, the default behavior for __dirname is just /, as documented here.
In this case, you usually want to add this to your config which makes it act like the default in v5, that is __filename and __dirname now behave as-is but for the output file:
module.exports = {
// ...
node: {
// generate actual output file information
// see: https://webpack.js.org/configuration/node/#node__filename
__dirname: false,
__filename: false,
}
};
This has also been discussed here.
In Webpack v5, per the documentation here, the default is already for __filename and __dirname to behave as-is but for the output file, thereby achieving the same result as the config change for v4.
Example
For example, let's say:
you want to add the static public folder
it is located next to your output (usually dist) folder, and you have no sub-folders in dist, it's probably going to look like this
const ServerRoot = path.resolve(__dirname /** dist */, '..');
// ...
app.use(express.static(path.join(ServerRoot, 'public'))
(important: again, this is independent of where your source file is, only looks at where your output files are!)
More advanced Webpack scenarios
Things get more complicated if you have multiple entry points in different output directories, as the __dirname for the same file might be different for output file (that is each file in entry), depending on the location of the output file that this source file was merged into, and what's worse, the same source file might be merged into multiple different output files.
You probably want to avoid this kind of scenario scenario, or, if you cannot avoid it, use Webpack to manage and infuse the correct paths for you, possibly via the DefinePlugin or the EnvironmentPlugin.
The problem with serving __dirname is that __dirname returns the path of the current file, not the project's file.
Also, if you use a dynamic header, each page will look for the static files in a different path and it won't work.
The best, for me, is to substitute __dirname for process.cwd() which ALWAYS donates the path to the project file.
app.use(express.static(process.cwd() + '/public'));
And in your project:
link rel="stylesheet" href="/styles/default.css"
See: What's the difference between process.cwd() vs __dirname?
I was using
app.use(express.static('public'))
When there was no file in the public folder with name index.html.
I was getting the following error in the browser:
"Cannot GET /"
When I renamed the file to 'index.html', it works fine.
Try accessing it with http://localhost:3001/default.css.
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/styles'));
You are actually giving it the name of folder i.e. styles not your suburl.
I find my css file and add a route to it:
app.get('/css/MyCSS.css', function(req, res){
res.sendFile(__dirname + '/public/css/MyCSS.css');
});
Then it seems to work.
if your setup
myApp
|
|__ public
| |
| |__ stylesheets
| | |
| | |__ style.css
| |
| |___ img
| |
| |__ logo.png
|
|__ app.js
then,
put in app.js
app.use('/static', express.static('public'));
and refer to your style.css: (in some .pug file):
link(rel='stylesheet', href='/static/stylesheets/style.css')
Try './public' instead of __dirname + '/public'.
Similarly, try process.cwd() + '/public'.
Sometimes we lose track of the directories we are working with, its good to avoid assuming that files are located where we are telling express where they are.
Similarly, avoid assuming that in the depths of dependencies the path is being interpreted the same way at every level.
app.use(express.static(__dirname+'/'));
This worked for me, I tried using a public directory but it didn't work.
But in this case, we give access to the whole static files in the directory, hope it helps!
In addition to above, make sure the static file path begins with / (ex... /assets/css)... to serve static files in any directory above the main directory (/main)
Create a folder with 'public' name in Nodejs project
folder.
Put index.html file into of Nodejs project folder.
Put all script and css file into public
folder.
Use app.use( express.static('public'));
and in index.html correct path of scripts to <script type="text/javascript" src="/javasrc/example.js"></script>
And Now all things work fine.
static directory
check the above image(static directory) for dir structure
const publicDirectoryPath = path.join(__dirname,'../public')
app.use(express.static(publicDirectoryPath))
// or
app.use("/", express.static(publicDirectoryPath))
app.use((req, res, next) => {
res.sendFile(path.join(publicDirectoryPath,'index.html'))
In your nodejs file
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
app.use('/static', express.static('path_to_static_folder'));
In your pug file
...
script(type="text/javascript", src="static/your_javascript_filename")
...
Note the "static" word. It must be same in nodejs file and pug file.
i just try this code and working
const exp = require('express');
const app = exp();
app.use(exp.static("public"));
and working,
before (not working) :
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
app.use(express.static("public"));
just try