I am having trouble with local includes on the client side using Node.js and Socket.io. This may be to my PHP/Apache mindset I have had for file requests for most of my life.
On my server, I load the page likewise:
var express = require("express");
var app = express();
var path = require("path");
var server = require("http").createServer(app);
var io = require("socket.io")(server);
var mysql = require("mysql");
var port = process.env.PORT;
var ip = process.env.IP;
app.use(express.static(__dirname + "/client"));
//start opening socket connection handlers ...
And my files are organized likewise:
games
libraries
bigInt
threejs
etc...
version_1
client
index.html
index.js
index.css
server.js
database.sql
version_2
version_3
etc...
Depending which version I want to run, I open that version's directory and run its server.js file. The line redirects the client to /client/index.html with the line app.use(express.static(__dirname + "/client")). But now only files that are in the client folder are reachable by <script></script> or <link> tags but not those libraries in the libraries folder that I use across versions.
How do I change my code to be able to access files inside the libraries folder from /version_x/client/index.html while still directing the client to proper html file?
Note: Due to this issue, I have been forced to use only libraries with supported CDNs for the past couple weeks I have been learning Node.js.
Add the following line right after var ip = process.env.IP;:
app.use('/libraries', express.static(path.join(__dirname, '..', 'libraries'));
What this does is adding a new route to your application server. All your files inside your /games/libraries folder are now accessible via /libraries.
How does it work? Your express router uses different middlewares based on the provided paths. This line tells the router, to use the static middleware and serve files from ../libraries when a HTTP Request for anything under /libraries comes in.
You can serve more folders with express.static
//Serve Client Folder
app.use(express.static(__dirname + "/client"));
//Server External Libraries Folder
app.use('/libs', express.static(__dirname + "/../libraries"));
//Ex: <script src="libs/threejs/threejs.js">
//Will load libraries/threejs/threejs.js
Related
I am making an application with node.js and I basically want render a canvas with node.js so I can access a json file on the server since you can't change client storage on browsers. To add on when running my files I get this weird syntax error.
Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token '<'
Further examination shows that my javascript files that I am requiring (see internals folder) are being overwritten with html, thus causing the error. My question is why is it overwritting only the files I am requiring from the html I am rendering? To add on I am running on a dynamic port (65535) and on a localhost (client). My code is here
Your node server is not serving your static files, it only serves one html.
You might need to set up a static file server like or programm you server to lookup GET /internals/render.js and scaleCanvas.js
You can use express for that, it has all this out of the box.
https://expressjs.com/en/starter/static-files.html
var app, server,
express = require('express'),
path = require('path'),
host = process.env.HOST || '127.0.0.1',
port = process.env.PORT || 3000,
root = path.resolve(__dirname, '..');
app = express()
app.use(express.static(root + '/public'));
server = app.listen(port, host, serverStarted);
function serverStarted () {
console.log('Server started', host, port);
console.log('Root directory', root);
console.log('Press Ctrl+C to exit...\n');
}
This is because you are sending the index.html file for all requests in your app.js file, ignoring the request URL.
You need to properly serve the JS files. You can take a look here for more details: https://nodejs.org/en/knowledge/HTTP/servers/how-to-serve-static-files/
I made an html5 game (using GameMaker), which is constituted of an index.html and a folder "html5game" that contains the dependencies of the game - the javascript code and the resources. The problem is the resources are quite numerous and diverse (sounds, sprites, etc.) and The client needs them all to play.
I am looking for a way to send them all without naming them specifically.
I tried the glob module :
var glob = require( 'glob' );
var files = glob.sync( './html5game/**' ).forEach( function( file ) {
require( path.resolve( file ) );
});
but I can't figure a way to send the files using res.sendFile() once I did that.
I tried
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
[...]
app.get('/aeronavale/jeu', function(req, res){
res.sendFile(__dirname + '/aeronavale/index.html');
res.sendFile(files)
});
[...]
app.listen(3000, function(){
console.log('app started on port 3000, yeah !')
})
but it gives me the error :
TypeError: path argument is required to res.sendFile
If you have an other solution, I a also interested. Thanks for your answers !
You will not be able to send multiple file like that with res.sendFile. The most straightforward thing that you can do here would be this:
Put your index.html file and your html5game directory into some common directory, e.g. called html and put it where you have your Node.js program. An example directory layout would be:
/home/you/yourapp:
- app.js (your node program)
- package.json (your package.json etc)
- html (a new directory)
- index.html (your main html to serve)
- html5game (the directory with other files)
- (other files)
Now, in your Node program you can use something like this:
var path = require('path');
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var htmlPath = path.join(__dirname, 'html');
app.use(express.static(htmlPath));
var server = app.listen(3000, function () {
var host = 'localhost';
var port = server.address().port;
console.log('listening on http://'+host+':'+port+'/');
});
This will serve all of your files (including index.html) on addresses like:
http://localhost:3000/ (your index.html)
http://localhost:3000/html5game/xxx.js (your assets)
Of course you still need to make sure that you refer to your assets in your index.html file correctly, for example with:
<script src="/html5game/xxx.js"></script>
in the case of the example layout above.
The top level directory with your static assets (where you have your index.html) is usually called static, public or html but you can call it whatever you like, as long as you use the correct path in your call to express.static().
If you want to have your game available in some path other than the root path then you can specify it to app.use. For example if you change this:
app.use(express.static(htmlPath));
to this:
app.use('/game', express.static(htmlPath));
Then instead of those URLs:
http://localhost:3000/ (your index.html)
http://localhost:3000/html5game/xxx.js (your assets)
those URLs will be available instead:
http://localhost:3000/game/ (your index.html)
http://localhost:3000/game/html5game/xxx.js (your assets)
A lot of questions here are related to serving static files with Express so I made a working example and posted it on GitHub so that people could have a working starting point and go from there:
https://github.com/rsp/node-express-static-example
See also some other answers where I talk about it in more detail:
How to serve an image using nodejs
Failed to load resource from same directory when redirecting Javascript
onload js call not working with node
Loading partials fails on the server JS
Node JS not serving the static image
The workaround for this is to compress the directory using the archiver library and uncompress it on the front end.
I am starting to learn node.js, for now I am just trying to execute my old none node app with node. In this app, I have a html page with a body calling an onload js function. It's working just fine.
Now I have a a node app: app.js, simple as that:
var express = require ('express');
var app = express ();
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/images'));
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/CSS'));
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/font'));
app.use(express.static(__dirname ));
app.use(express.static(__dirname +'/ketcher'));
app.use(express.static(__dirname +'/ChemAlive_JS'));
app.get('/', function(req, res) {
res.sendFile('/home/laetitia/Project/ChemAlive_Interface_Node/ChemAlive_Interface.html');
});
app.listen(8080);
And in the .html I still have:
<body onload="ketcher.init();">
but the function I want to load is not load at all anymore.
Any clue?
Thanks
You have not provided a lot of info in the question but from what you provide I can have few suggestions:
Suggestions
Instead of adding a lot of express.static uses:
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/images'));
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/CSS'));
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/font'));
app.use(express.static(__dirname ));
app.use(express.static(__dirname +'/ketcher'));
app.use(express.static(__dirname +'/ChemAlive_JS'));
put those files (and directories) that you want to be served into one directory, e.g. called static, and use express.static once:
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/static'));
or better yet, using the path module:
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'static')));
you need to require the path module first with:
var path = require('path');
Now, instead of serving the single file for the '/' route with:
app.get('/', function(req, res) {
res.sendFile('/home/laetitia/Project/ChemAlive_Interface_Node/ChemAlive_Interface.html');
});
just put that file into the static directory as index.html so it will be served by the express.static middleware automatically.
Rationale
The way you have it configured currently, is that e.g. everyone can download your Node application - app.js with all of its configuration and even submodules etc.
Also, by using the express.static middleware many times I suspect that you are not sure how the files in those directories will be mapped to URLs.
Having a one place for static files makes it easy to verify whether any script tags have correct paths etc.
My guess
You don't provide enough info to be sure but my guess is that the JavaScript files for the main HTML file are not loaded correctly but you provide not enough info to be sure.
You can open the developer tools console in the browser and reload the page while the console is open and see for errors.
I suspect that the ketcher.init() method is being run but either the method, or the ketcher object is undefined, because some <script> tags failed to be loaded.
Example
The full example after following my suggestions would be much simpler:
var path = require('path');
var express = require ('express');
var app = express();
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'static')));
app.listen(8080);
Maybe I would add some output to see what's going on:
var path = require('path');
var express = require ('express');
console.log('starting app.js');
var app = express();
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'static')));
app.listen(8080, function () {
console.log('listening on http://localhost:8080/');
});
And now you will have all files that can be served to the browser in one place: in the static directory in this example.
Working app
You can see my example of a working Express application serving static files on GitHub:
https://github.com/rsp/node-express-static-example
In this example the directory for static files is called html but you can call it how you want, as long as it's consistent with how you use the express.static middleware.
You can start from this example project and just put your own files into the directory where express.static is told to look for files to serve.
You can also change the port number to match your needs.
More examples to do the same with and without Express, plus better explanation:
https://github.com/rsp/node-static-http-servers
More hints
The onload callback may not be fired if the page is waiting for some resources to load.
To see if your onload callback is firing you can change it to:
<body onload="alert('onload callback fired');">
Also the ketcher object may be not initialized or it may not have the init() method. After the page is loaded you can open the JavaScript Console and try running the method manually to see if it would work if it was fired:
ketcher.init();
You can also try commands like:
console.dir(ketcher.init);
console.dir(ketcher);
console.log(typeof ketcher.init);
console.log(typeof ketcher);
to see if the ketcher object contains what it should.
Even if the GET localhost:8080/ketcher.js gives a 200 OK status, it can still load some other resources that are not available or, as is very common with code that serve files with res.sendFile() (though unlikely in this case), it can serve HTML instead of JavaScript and result in a cryptic parse error on the < character - see this question for example:
Uncaught (in promise) SyntaxError: Unexpected token < in JSON at position 0 while acess static files in node server
Other related answers:
How to serve an image using nodejs
Failed to load resource from same directory when redirecting Javascript
Sending whole folder content to client with express
Loading partials fails on the server JS
Node JS not serving the static image
I have created a Socket.IO application and I even already got some interactivity working. But I still host static content on Apache HTTP server (localhost, XAMPP bundle). Actually when running Node.js, this is my working directory:
C:\xampp\htdocs\game>node nodeGame.js
I'd like to move it all somewhere else, probably convert it into npm package and use Node.js to serve HTML and JavaScript files to user. It would be best if I could just install some simple handler that could be passed into http. Something like:
var http = Http.Server(require("really-simple-http-server"));
var io = SocketIo(http);
// Sockets below
None of the servers I found on StackOverflow seemed that simple, so which is most suitable for this purpose and how to use it?
You can use socket.io with the Express framework (using Express as your web server) and then use express.static() to serve static files:
var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var server = app.listen(3000, function() {
console.log("server started on port 3000");
});
var io = require('socket.io').listen(server);
// set up static file serving from the public directory
app.use('/static', express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
Details on the options for serving static files with Express are here.
I have installed node inside a folder and am forwarding it through apache. I am doing this because I have several virtualhosts run through apache, and I do not want to take the time to set up everything through node.
Apache and Node.js on the Same Server
However, I am trying to create a chat engine. I try to include some js files, but they search for http://example.org/myscript.js instead of http://example.org/chat/myscript.js
I got around this by using
<base href="/chat/">
However, now I am trying to integrate socket.io. I included socket.io from https://cdn.socket.io/socket.io-1.3.5.js because I could not get the locally serverd /socket.io/socket.io.js to properly be located.
Now socket.io is trying to connect to http://example.org/socket.io
That dierectory does not exist. If anything, the proper path should be http://example.org/chat/socket.io
I have been looking all over the internet for a solution. There must be something fundamental or obvious about how nodejs/express operates that I am missing. Thanks a million!
Server.js - This is the file I start with node.
var express = require('express');
var path = require('path');
var app = express();
var http = require('http').createServer(app);
var io = require('socket.io').listen(http, { log: true, resource:'/socket.io/'});
app.use('/socket.io', express.static(path.join(__dirname,'/node_modules/socket.io/lib/')));
app.use('/bootstrap', express.static(path.join(__dirname,'/node_modules/bootstrap/dist/')));
app.use('/', express.static(__dirname));
var server = app.listen(8000);
io.sockets.on('connection', function(socket) {
console.log('A user connected!');
})