how to use serve static file with express and react? - javascript

I have a project made with create-react-app and i would like to use it within express ( as i need some back end functionnality).
basically, my server render a blank page when i run it....
here is the code of my server:
const express = require('express');
const path = require('path');
const app = express();
// Serve the static files from the React app
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
// An api endpoint that returns a short list of items
app.get('/api/getList', (req,res) => {
var list = ["item1", "item2", "item3"];
res.json(list);
console.log('Sent list of items');
});
// Handles any requests that don't match the ones above
app.get('*', (req,res) =>{
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname , 'public', 'index.html'));
});
const port = process.env.PORT || 5000;
app.listen(port);
console.log('App is listening on port ' + port);
if i enter the endpoint http://localhost:5000/api/getList, i can see the result, but when i want to display my react app for the other end point, the page is blank.
The react app use different Route and i also added a proxy in the package.json.
my server source file is at the root of the react app like the image.
Does someone has an idea why the react app doesnt show?
Thanks

You have two lines that are kind of doing the same thing:
// Serve the static files from the React app
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
Will serve your index.html file to http://localhost:5000/index.html
According to the Express documentation https://expressjs.com/en/starter/static-files.html
And then it seems like you have the second route:
app.get('*', is formatted incorrectly.
It would need to be app.get('/*'.
If you aren't directing the user to multiple routes then it might be better to just use the root, app.get('/', rather than trying to catch all routes.

Related

How to deploy Node JS app cPanel from localhost to a server

I have created a simple Express JS app. and it is working fine in localhost. when I visit localhost:8000 I see static files (index.html, style.css and frontend.js).
I have tried to deploy that app in a server using cPanel. and I have installed Node app and dependencies using package.json successfully. But when I visit the domain I just see a message (Node JS app is working, Node version is 10.24.1).
How to make my app to point and display the static folder (index.html) and run the app?
My app architecture:
server.js
package.json
public/index.html
public/style.css
public/frontend.js
And here is my server.js startup file:
// Setup empty JS object to act as endpoint for all routes
projectData = {};
// Require Express to run server and routes
const express = require('express');
// Start up an instance of app
const app = express();
/* Dependencies */
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
/* Middleware*/
//Here we are configuring express to use body-parser as middle-ware.
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }));
app.use(bodyParser.json());
// Cors for cross origin allowance
const cors = require('cors');
app.use(cors());
// Initialize the main project folder
app.use(express.static('public'));
// Setup Server
const port = 8000;
const server = app.listen(port, function(){
console.log(`server running on localhost: ${port}`);
});
//POST Route to store data in the app endpoint, projectData object
app.post('/addData', addData);
function addData (req, res){
let data = req.body;
projectData = data;
console.log(projectData);
}
app.get('/getData', getData);
function getData(req, res) {
res.send(projectData);
}
The problem here is that you are not pointing a route to send the HTML file. Otherwise the client would have to point it to the correct path of the file, Like localhost:3000/index.html.
you need to send it from the server using app.get
app.get("/", (req, res) => {
res.sendFile(__dirname + "path to the file");
});
The problem was that I have created the app in a subfolder of my domain.
But when I have created subdomain and reinstalled the app inside it, the app is pointing to static folder successfully.

How can I get my MERN app to refresh correctly on heroku?

I deployed my MERN app to heroku. It loads, and I can navigate between pages by clicking on the nav bar. But, if I refresh a page, it just comes up blank. There are no error messages on the screen or in the console. If I go back to a previous page that worked before, it also comes up blank. At this point, I don't know what to look for.
My problem stemmed from incorrectly defining the root react route in my server.js file. I got the home page to render and refresh, but then the app would not load any other pages. Here is the server.js file at that point:
const express = require("express");
const mongoose = require("mongoose");
const routes = require("./routes");
const app = express();
// set the port for mongo connection to 3001 in development mode
const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3001;
// Configure body parsing for AJAX requests
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }));
app.use(express.json());
// Serve up static assets
if (process.env.NODE_ENV === "production") {
app.use(express.static("client/build"));
app.get("*", function (req, res) {
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, "./client/build/index.html"));
});
}
app.use(routes);
mongoose.connect(
process.env.MONGODB_URI || "mongodb://localhost/portfolio_db",
{
useCreateIndex: true,
useNewUrlParser: true,
useUnifiedTopology: true,
useFindAndModify: false,
}
);
// Start the API server on port 3001
app.listen(PORT, () =>
console.log(`🌎 ==> API Server now listening on PORT ${PORT}!`)
);
This sort of fixed my problem, but the app still wasn't routing properly, so I posted this: new issue
Basically, there where 3 problems:
'path' wasn't required at the top of the file, so the path to index.html wasn't defined (had to look at heroku logs to see this error).
The default react route (app.get('*'....)) should not be in the if statement, and
The default react route statement needed to be below the 'app.use(routes)' statement.
I also deleted a statement defining the default react route in /routes/index.js. Now the app deploys and routes correctly.
I was also getting same error "cannot get /page" whenever I did refresh or window.location() So after 3 days of trials and deploys I found this solution. Add this in your server.js file before deploying.
if(process.env.NODE_ENV === "production") {
app.use(express.static("client/build"));
app.get("/*", function(req, res) {
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, "./client/build/index.html"));
}); }
You can add this code snippet before app.listen. Remember the path says ./client/build/index.html which references to your build file in the production build in remote heroku master.
cannot get /page happens because the server is not able to find the route which was created using react-router or anything else in frontend so we need to direct the app to index.html in production build so that it starts the whole frontend process again and identifies the route...

Returning a page through HTTP with express

I have a folder called "Public" which contains an index.html file a long with some JavaScript and library files. When someone tries to access the products path (mydomain.com/products) I want to display that index.html file, but the client also needs to receive all the JavaScript and libraries. Here is the code for how I initially handle the HTTP request.
const express = require('express')
const app = express()
const bodyParse = require('body-parser')
const productRoutes = require('./api/routes/products')
const orderRoutes = require('./api/routes/orders')
app.use(bodyParse.urlencoded({extended: false}))
app.use(bodyParse.json())
// Routes which handle requests
app.use('/products', productRoutes)
app.use('/orders', orderRoutes)
In the products.js file, I continue the routing like this:
const express = require('express')
const router = express.Router()
router.get('/', (req, res, next) => {
/*res.status(200).json({
message: 'Handling GET requests to /products'
})*/
res.status(200).render("../../public")
})
The code I've commented out works perfectly fine, but I'm struggling to respond with the "public" folder page. I can't remember everything I've tried, but using .render or .sendFile on the "public" directory has not worked for me.
When I try to access the /products route, I'm hit with an empty error message. As it fails to return anything in the /products route, in continues down the file to an error handler. The error message is empty.
Any ideas on how to display the page with all the folder contents would be great!
Try: app.use('/products', express.static('public'))
This makes your "public" directory viewable from the /products route.
express.static() docs
You must config path for express static by :
//app.js | server.js
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
Then, in example you have a file as : /public/you.html
In your app, you can use that file as path /you.html
And the same with all files type *.js, *.css,...
Fix error cannot view error
Run cmd npm install ejs
Att to app.js:
app.set('view engine', 'ejs');
After that, you create 1 file error.ejs at folder views :
//error.ejs
<%=error%>
Goodluck

Prerender Angular app on an already existing Node.js server

My goal is to have dynamic og: tags, that can be seen by the facebook crawler. By doing some research I figured the best (and probably the only) approach is to prerender my app on the server. However I'm having problems with doing that.
I already have an existing Node.js server which looks a little different from the servers in most online guides.
const express = require('express');
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
const path = require('path');
const http = require('http');
const app = express();
// Api for retrieving data from DB
const api = require('./server/api');
// Parsers
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }));
// Angular DIST folder
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'dist')));
// Api location
app.use('/api', api);
// Send all other requests to the Angular app
app.get('*', (req, res) => {
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, 'dist/index.html'))
})
// Set Port
const port = process.env.PORT || '3040';
app.set('port', port);
const server = http.createServer(app)
server.listen(port, () => console.log('Magic happens on localhost:' + port));
I've tried using prerender.io. I got an API key, installed prerender-node and put this right before redirecting the request to index.html:
app.use(require('prerender-node').set('prerenderToken', 'my-token'));
// Send all other requests to the Angular app
app.get('*', (req, res) => {
res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname, 'dist/index.html'))
})
I also added this to my index.html:
<meta name="fragment" content="!">
Nothing changed. Perhaps there's something else I need to do to get it working? Again, my goal is to have dynamic og: tags, that can be seen by the facebook crawler.
Additional info: For now, I'm setting the meta tags using the Meta serivce that comes with Angular 4, if it matters.
EDIT:
Demo link if someone wants to test: http://aramet.demo.cdots.bg/news-preview/1
Can you try moving the:
app.use(require('prerender-node').set('prerenderToken', 'my-token'));
above the static file line like:
app.use(require('prerender-node').set('prerenderToken', 'my-token'));
// Angular DIST folder
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'dist')));
Since your index.html file is in your dist folder and you're serving static files from the dist folder, I'm wondering if the static call is serving your index.html file somehow.

NodeJS / Express / Mean Stack

I am new to Express and semi-new to nodejs and I am trying to run a simple app / webserver as a proof of concept. I have been stuck for hours because my server serves every file as index.html (with the content of index.html).
In my index.html I am making calls to JS files and CSS files and they are all coming back but with a 200 in the console but they are all coming back with index.html content instead of the actual content contained in them. I believe the problem is in my server.js file which is below:
// server.js
// modules =================================================
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var mongoose= require('mongoose');
var path = require('path');
// configuration ===========================================
// config files
var db = require('../config/db');
var port = process.env.PORT || 9999; // set our port
//mongoose.connect(db.url); // connect to our mongoDB database (uncomment after you enter in your own credentials in config/db.js)
app.configure(function() {
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public')); // set the static files location /public/img will be /img for users
app.use(express.logger('dev')); // log every request to the console
app.use(express.bodyParser()); // have the ability to pull information from html in POST
app.use(express.methodOverride()); // have the ability to simulate DELETE and PUT
});
// routes ==================================================
require('../../app/routes')(app); // configure our routes
// start app ===============================================
app.listen(port); // startup our app at http://localhost:9999
console.log('Magic happens on port ' + port); // shoutout to the user
exports = module.exports = app; // expose app
// app/routes.js
module.exports = function(app) {
// server routes ===========================================================
// handle things like api calls
// authentication routes
// sample api route
app.get('/api/nerds', function(req, res) {
// use mongoose to get all nerds in the database
Nerd.find(function(err, nerds) {
// if there is an error retrieving, send the error. nothing after res.send(err) will execute
if (err)
res.send(err);
res.json(nerds); // return all nerds in JSON format
});
});
// route to handle creating (app.post)
// route to handle delete (app.delete)
// frontend routes =========================================================
// route to handle all angular requests
app.get('*', function(req, res) {
res.sendfile('/Users/...../app/public/index.html'); // load our public/index.html file
//res.sendfile(path, {'root': '../'});
});
};
I have been following this tutorial verbatum: http://scotch.io/bar-talk/setting-up-a-mean-stack-single-page-application but haven't had much success.
I cannot confirm without looking at your computer but I get the feeling the paths in your application are wrong.
The crucial parts in the express setup are:
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
and
app.get('*', function(req, res) {
res.sendfile('/Users/...../app/public/index.html');
The first rule catches and returns any static file in __dirname + '/public'.
The second returns index.html for anything else.
The problem is that your server.js is not in the apps directory (I can see this since you use ../../app/routes.js to get to routes.js) this means __dirname + '/public' is not pointing to the public directory. Which is why your static files are being served by the global rule in routes.js.
In order to fix this change __dirname + '/public' to ../../app/public, or better yet place your server.js file where it should be and update your paths.
I can also see you are using an absolute full path to index.html in routes.js instead of a relative one so it seems as if your applications needs to tidied out.
The tutorial that you are following contains this route
app.get('*', function(req, res) {
res.sendfile('./public/index.html'); // load our public/index.html file
});
which explicitly defines the behaviour you described.
In this tutorial it makes sense because it explains how to build a single page application. This type of the application typically returns the same content for all the request while the actual presentation work happens on the client by the client-side library (angular in this example).
So if you what to serve more pages with different content you need to add more routes for them, just like route for /api/nerds in the example.
Update:
After clarifying that the issue is incorrectly served CSS and JS files, the proposed solution is to check the location of the server.js - it should be in the folder together with the folder "public".

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