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.
Related
I want to serve index.html and /media subdirectory as static files. The index file should be served both at /index.html and / URLs.
I have
web_server.use("/media", express.static(__dirname + '/media'));
web_server.use("/", express.static(__dirname));
but the second line apparently serves the entire __dirname, including all files in it (not just index.html and media), which I don't want.
I also tried
web_server.use("/", express.static(__dirname + '/index.html'));
but accessing the base URL / then leads to a request to web_server/index.html/index.html (double index.html component), which of course fails.
Any ideas?
By the way, I could find absolutely no documentation in Express on this topic (static() + its params)... frustrating. A doc link is also welcome.
If you have this setup
/app
/public/index.html
/media
Then this should get what you wanted
var express = require('express');
//var server = express.createServer();
// express.createServer() is deprecated.
var server = express(); // better instead
server.configure(function(){
server.use('/media', express.static(__dirname + '/media'));
server.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
});
server.listen(3000);
The trick is leaving this line as last fallback
server.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
As for documentation, since Express uses connect middleware, I found it easier to just look at the connect source code directly.
For example this line shows that index.html is supported
https://github.com/senchalabs/connect/blob/2.3.3/lib/middleware/static.js#L140
In the newest version of express the "createServer" is deprecated. This example works for me:
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var path = require('path');
//app.use(express.static(__dirname)); // Current directory is root
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public'))); // "public" off of current is root
app.listen(80);
console.log('Listening on port 80');
express.static() expects the first parameter to be a path of a directory, not a filename. I would suggest creating another subdirectory to contain your index.html and use that.
Serving static files in Express documentation, or more detailed serve-static documentation, including the default behavior of serving index.html:
By default this module will send “index.html” files in response to a request on a directory. To disable this set false or to supply a new index pass a string or an array in preferred order.
res.sendFile & express.static both will work for this
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var path = require('path');
var public = path.join(__dirname, 'public');
// viewed at http://localhost:8080
app.get('/', function(req, res) {
res.sendFile(path.join(public, 'index.html'));
});
app.use('/', express.static(public));
app.listen(8080);
Where public is the folder in which the client side code is
As suggested by #ATOzTOA and clarified by #Vozzie, path.join takes the paths to join as arguments, the + passes a single argument to path.
const path = require('path');
const express = require('express');
const app = new express();
app.use(express.static('/media'));
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
res.sendFile(path.resolve(__dirname, 'media/page/', 'index.html'));
});
app.listen(4000, () => {
console.log('App listening on port 4000')
})
If you have a complicated folder structure, such as
- application
- assets
- images
- profile.jpg
- web
- server
- index.js
If you want to serve assets/images from index.js
app.use('/images', express.static(path.join(__dirname, '..', 'assets', 'images')))
To view from your browser
http://localhost:4000/images/profile.jpg
If you need more clarification comment, I'll elaborate.
use below inside your app.js
app.use(express.static('folderName'));
(folderName is folder which has files) - remember these assets are accessed direct through server path (i.e. http://localhost:3000/abc.png (where as abc.png is inside folderName folder)
npm install serve-index
var express = require('express')
var serveIndex = require('serve-index')
var path = require('path')
var serveStatic = require('serve-static')
var app = express()
var port = process.env.PORT || 3000;
/**for files */
app.use(serveStatic(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
/**for directory */
app.use('/', express.static('public'), serveIndex('public', {'icons': true}))
// Listen
app.listen(port, function () {
console.log('listening on port:',+ port );
})
I would add something that is on the express docs, and it's sometimes misread in tutorials or others.
app.use(mountpoint, middleware)
mountpoint is a virtual path, it is not in the filesystem (even if it actually exists). The mountpoint for the middleware is the app.js folder.
Now
app.use('/static', express.static('public')`
will send files with path /static/hell/meow/a.js to /public/hell/meow/a.js
This is the error in my case when I provide links to HTML files.
before:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/public/style.css">
After:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/style.css">
I just removed the static directory path from the link and the error is gone. This solves my error one thing more don't forget to put this line where you are creating the server.
var path = require('path');
app.use(serveStatic(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
You can achieve this by just passing the second parameter express.static() method to specify index files in the folder
const express = require('express');
const app = new express();
app.use(express.static('/media'), { index: 'whatever.html' })
I want to serve index.html and /media subdirectory as static files. The index file should be served both at /index.html and / URLs.
I have
web_server.use("/media", express.static(__dirname + '/media'));
web_server.use("/", express.static(__dirname));
but the second line apparently serves the entire __dirname, including all files in it (not just index.html and media), which I don't want.
I also tried
web_server.use("/", express.static(__dirname + '/index.html'));
but accessing the base URL / then leads to a request to web_server/index.html/index.html (double index.html component), which of course fails.
Any ideas?
By the way, I could find absolutely no documentation in Express on this topic (static() + its params)... frustrating. A doc link is also welcome.
If you have this setup
/app
/public/index.html
/media
Then this should get what you wanted
var express = require('express');
//var server = express.createServer();
// express.createServer() is deprecated.
var server = express(); // better instead
server.configure(function(){
server.use('/media', express.static(__dirname + '/media'));
server.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
});
server.listen(3000);
The trick is leaving this line as last fallback
server.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
As for documentation, since Express uses connect middleware, I found it easier to just look at the connect source code directly.
For example this line shows that index.html is supported
https://github.com/senchalabs/connect/blob/2.3.3/lib/middleware/static.js#L140
In the newest version of express the "createServer" is deprecated. This example works for me:
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var path = require('path');
//app.use(express.static(__dirname)); // Current directory is root
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public'))); // "public" off of current is root
app.listen(80);
console.log('Listening on port 80');
express.static() expects the first parameter to be a path of a directory, not a filename. I would suggest creating another subdirectory to contain your index.html and use that.
Serving static files in Express documentation, or more detailed serve-static documentation, including the default behavior of serving index.html:
By default this module will send “index.html” files in response to a request on a directory. To disable this set false or to supply a new index pass a string or an array in preferred order.
res.sendFile & express.static both will work for this
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var path = require('path');
var public = path.join(__dirname, 'public');
// viewed at http://localhost:8080
app.get('/', function(req, res) {
res.sendFile(path.join(public, 'index.html'));
});
app.use('/', express.static(public));
app.listen(8080);
Where public is the folder in which the client side code is
As suggested by #ATOzTOA and clarified by #Vozzie, path.join takes the paths to join as arguments, the + passes a single argument to path.
const path = require('path');
const express = require('express');
const app = new express();
app.use(express.static('/media'));
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
res.sendFile(path.resolve(__dirname, 'media/page/', 'index.html'));
});
app.listen(4000, () => {
console.log('App listening on port 4000')
})
If you have a complicated folder structure, such as
- application
- assets
- images
- profile.jpg
- web
- server
- index.js
If you want to serve assets/images from index.js
app.use('/images', express.static(path.join(__dirname, '..', 'assets', 'images')))
To view from your browser
http://localhost:4000/images/profile.jpg
If you need more clarification comment, I'll elaborate.
use below inside your app.js
app.use(express.static('folderName'));
(folderName is folder which has files) - remember these assets are accessed direct through server path (i.e. http://localhost:3000/abc.png (where as abc.png is inside folderName folder)
npm install serve-index
var express = require('express')
var serveIndex = require('serve-index')
var path = require('path')
var serveStatic = require('serve-static')
var app = express()
var port = process.env.PORT || 3000;
/**for files */
app.use(serveStatic(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
/**for directory */
app.use('/', express.static('public'), serveIndex('public', {'icons': true}))
// Listen
app.listen(port, function () {
console.log('listening on port:',+ port );
})
I would add something that is on the express docs, and it's sometimes misread in tutorials or others.
app.use(mountpoint, middleware)
mountpoint is a virtual path, it is not in the filesystem (even if it actually exists). The mountpoint for the middleware is the app.js folder.
Now
app.use('/static', express.static('public')`
will send files with path /static/hell/meow/a.js to /public/hell/meow/a.js
This is the error in my case when I provide links to HTML files.
before:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/public/style.css">
After:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/style.css">
I just removed the static directory path from the link and the error is gone. This solves my error one thing more don't forget to put this line where you are creating the server.
var path = require('path');
app.use(serveStatic(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
You can achieve this by just passing the second parameter express.static() method to specify index files in the folder
const express = require('express');
const app = new express();
app.use(express.static('/media'), { index: 'whatever.html' })
I'm using node.js as a server-side to store the API respond, the app is working without any issue but recently I have been trying to host it on Vercel so I ran into many issue, the project get stuck at the building process...
the building output :
Building output
My server.js code :
// 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();
/* Middleware*/
//Here we are configuring express to use body-parser as middle-ware.
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
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('website'));
// Setup Server
const port = 8000;
const Server = app.listen(port , run);
function run() {
console.log(`hello there :D`);
console.log(`here is ${port} ready to go`);
}
//GET method
app.get('/all', function(req,res){
res.send(projectData)
console.log(projectData);
})
//POST method
app.post("/addUserComment", function(req,res){
projectData = {
temp : req.body.temp,
date : req.body.date,
feeling : req.body.feeling,
}
console.log(projectData);
res.send(projectData);
})
My working directory and build settings :
Working directory
Build settings
note: server.js is my server-side file, and my website folder includes my app.js file and my HTML, CSS files, also i did try to add Vercel.json file but i couldn't understand how to use it, so if you gonna add this file in your answer please explain how and why
I think you need to remove the build command, because it's now trying to run the server.js file instead of making a build.
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.
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.