Angular JS and Express JS Routing Not Working Properly - javascript

I'm having problems getting my NodeJS app to work with both Express JS and Angular JS, in particular I'm struggling to get the routing to work between the two.
My goal is to have ExpressJS drive the API and have Angular control the user facing routes.
Currently I have just two templates I wish to serve, the index page and the create-poll page.
Here's what I have so far,
Angular Routing -
'use strict';
var app = angular.module('showOfHands', ['ngRoute']);
app.config(function ($routeProvider, $locationProvider) {
$routeProvider.when('/', {
templateUrl: 'partials/index'
}).when('/create-poll', {
templateUrl: 'partials/create-poll'
});
$locationProvider.html5Mode(true);
});
Express Routing -
'use strict';
app.get( '/partials/:name', function( req, res ) {
res.render( 'partials/' + req.params.name );
} );
app.get( '*', function( req, res ) {
res.render( 'partials/index' );
} );
When I try to click on my link to create a poll, I navigate to /create-poll but the template being used remains as the index page. If I navigate manually however to partials/create-poll in the browser I'm correctly served the create-poll template but this is then handled by Express JS as opposed to Angular.

Related

Angularjs routing doesnt work when reloading the page manually

I am trying to reload the page mannually from the browser but it doesn't work and says
Cannot GET /rate/4
My route:
angular.module('routing')
.config(function ($routeProvider, $locationProvider) {
$routeProvider
.when('/', {
templateUrl: 'app/views/index.html'
})
.when('/rate/:cid', {
templateUrl: 'app/views/rate.html'
})
.otherwise({
'redirectTo': '/'
});
$locationProvider.html5Mode(true);
});
My assumption is that when I am reloading the main (index.html) is not loaded which is my base html file.
You do not have an angular problem, you have a server problem.
You're essentially working with a single page application.
When the server receives a request for rate/4 it must return index.html (or whatever the name that your main page is).
How you solve this will depend upon what platform you've implemented your server in.
For example, if you were running a node express server, you would have this kind of routing code:
app.get(/^\/rate\/.*/, function(req, res) {
// This matches a known pattern for a client-side route
res.sendFile(__dirname + '\\public\index.html');
});

Node Express server deep linking not working with AngularJS html5Mode

(Update: I solved the problem. Just look at the end of the question)
I am running with this problem that seems trivial to me, but I am very frustrated because I am not able to figure it out:
I scaffolded an Angular application using yeoman generator-angular. I need to use the html5mode of Angular to get rid of the hashtag (please, see app.js below). I am using a node express server (see server.js) to run the app built with grunt build.
As required, I added the option in the server to redirect to index.html when accessing the app from any specific route. It works with one level of "routing", i.e., localhost:8080/research, but it does not work for two "levels" or more, i.e., localhost:8080/research/human. In this case, when refreshing the browser, I get this error:
The stylesheet http://localhost:8080/research/styles/vendor.8089f103.css was not loaded because its MIME type, "text/html", is not "text/css". human
The stylesheet http://localhost:8080/research/styles/main.e7eff4cf.css was not loaded because its MIME type, "text/html", is not "text/css". human
SyntaxError: expected expression, got '<' vendor.01f538ae.js:1:0
SyntaxError: expected expression, got '<'
I have searched everywhere, I have tried all sort of options, but I am not able to fix it. I would really appreciate some help, please!
app.js
angular
.module('testAngularApp', [
'ngRoute',
'ngTouch',
'ngAnimate',
'ngSanitize',
'angulartics'
])
.config(function ($routeProvider, $locationProvider) {
$locationProvider.html5Mode(true);
$routeProvider
.when('/', {
templateUrl: 'views/mainFrontpage.html',
controller: 'MainFrontpageController'
})
.when('/research', {
templateUrl: 'views/research.html',
controller: 'ResearchController'
})
.when('/research/human', {
templateUrl: 'views/research-human.html',
controller: 'ResearchController'
})
.when('/research/fly', {
templateUrl: 'views/research-fly.html',
controller: 'ResearchController'
})
.otherwise ({
templateUrl: 'views/notyetready.html',
});
});
server.js
'use strict';
var express = require('express');
var path = require('path');
var morgan = require('morgan');
var fs = require('fs');
var currentDir = process.cwd();
var app = express();
var staticStats = fs.statSync( currentDir + '/dist');
if (staticStats.isDirectory()) {
app.use('/', express.static(currentDir + '/dist'));
// Here I have tried many different combinations
app.use("/styles", express.static(__dirname + "dist/styles"));
app.use("/scripts", express.static(__dirname + "dist/scripts"));
app.use("/views", express.static(__dirname + "dist/views"));
app.use("/fonts", express.static(__dirname + "dist/fonts"));
app.use("/templates", express.static(__dirname + "dist/templates"));
app.use("/images", express.static(__dirname + "dist/images"));
app.all('/*', function(req, res, next) {
// Just send the index.html for other files to support HTML5Mode
res.sendFile('dist/index.html', { root: __dirname });
});
var server = app.listen(8080);
console.log('Node Express server listening on http://%s:%d', server.address().address,8080);
}
else {
console.log('No /dist folder, did not start the server');
}
Update: Solution
Thanks to the comments of the users, I asked the question in a different way and found the solution that make it works here. That is, the <base href="/"> tag must be located before the <link rel="stylsheet"..> tags (what a hard time I got for such a stupid thing!)
Why not use nested routing in angular routing like this ?
https://github.com/angular-ui/ui-router
I wanted this to be just a comment but I can't yet, Have you tried placing the html5 mode below your routes ?
Can remove the if statement if you do not need it.
.when('/research/fly', {
templateUrl: 'views/research-fly.html',
controller: 'ResearchController'
})
.otherwise ({
templateUrl: 'views/notyetready.html',
});
if(window.history && window.history.pushState){
$locationProvider.html5Mode(true);
}
});
Maybe try using a different pattern to match against that sounds like the cause of the problem
app.all('/**/*', function(req, res, next)
However I would ask why are you serving the static files with node + express? If all you want is a static file server for local development why not try grunt-serve
Then if you want to serve the static files on a server you can use nginx which works really well with angular in html5 mode

Angular Js RouteProvider

I am using $routeProvider service in my angular js but problem is on templateURl it provides me error
from server here is the error what i received
Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 500 (Internal Server Error)
angular.js:11594 Error: [$compile:tpload] Failed to load template: /Testing/TestCompleted
and here is my angular code for app.js
var app = angular.module('app', ['ngRoute']);
app.controller('CreateController', CreateController);
app.config(function ($routeProvider) {
$routeProvider
.when('/',
{
templateUrl: "/Testing/TestCompleted",
controller:"AppCtrl"
})
});
app.controller("AppCtrl",function ($scope) {
$scope.newmodel = {
}
});
I found the solution the view is only returned by server by using route we can only get html view not cshtml because that is provided when action is called.
The url is giving a ERROR 500. This is that there is something wrong in de code of the page. Please attach your debugger and go to the url "/Testing/TestCompleted" with a browser and check what is wrong.
Edit:
If the url is really the right one. Please try the following:
angular.module('app', ['ngRoute'])
.controller("AppCtrl",function ($scope) {
$scope.newmodel = {}
})
.config(function ($routeProvider) {
$routeProvider
.when('/',
{
templateUrl: "/Testing/TestCompleted",
controller:"AppCtrl"
})
});
So that the controller is registerd before you do your config as in the example from Angular (https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ngRoute/service/$route).
The address of the template is likely wrong. I never had to use a format such as '/....' .
You probably want 'Testing/TestCompleted' if the directory Testing is at the root of your project (or './Testing/TestCompleted' both should work).
EDIT:
In any case you are probably using an html file for the template, with an extension .html . So use 'Testing/TestCompleted.html' for instance.

Angularjs routing on an express 4.0 backend API

I have started an application where I use Express 4.0 server. I have set up the routes based heavily on a tutorial on scotch.io (http://scotch.io/tutorials/javascript/build-a-restful-api-using-node-and-express-4), builiding a backend api to serve the front end SPA (angularjs). Here is an extract of the backend router:
router.route('/users')
.get(function (req, res) {
User.find(function(err, users) {
if (err) {
res.send(err);
}
else {
res.json(users);
}
});
})
Further down
// home page route (http://localhost:8080)
router.get('/', function(req, res) {
res.send('API ROOT');
});
app.use('/api', router);
From the frontend i use just a get to get the users from the api:
$http.get('/api/users')
.success(function(data) {
$scope.users = data;
});
and the angular routes are set up like this:
.when('/', {
templateUrl: 'views/home.html',
controller: 'MainController'
})
.when('/users', {
templateUrl: 'views/user.html',
controller: 'UserController'
})
The index.html has a link to /users.
When starting the server and goint into localhost:8080 it loads fine, and clicking the users loads the user.html view and lists the users.
However, if i click refresh when browser is in localhost:8080/users
I get:
Cannot get /users
Is it a controller issue?
Or is it a problem with backend routing?
Any feedback/suggestions would be very welcome!
Searching some more, I see that there are several sollutions that might fix this:
Either on the frontend (angular routes part) adding this to the end:
// >>> redirect other routes to
otherwise({
redirectTo: '/'
});
Or on the backend (after all your routes):
app.get('*', function(req, res){
res.render('index.html');
});
Which sollution is better (or is it reccomended to use both...?)
You should use both.
You need to provide a catch-all / wildcard route to your express application such that any routes that are not explicitly matched will return the index page which will load Angular and allow your Angular routes to then take over. Note that this should always be your last route (they are parsed in order).
app.get('*', function(req, res){
res.render('index.html');
});
Then in your Angular app you should have a default route to catch any un-matched routes on the client side. This route will come into effect if the application is already loaded but an unknown route is encountered whereas the server side solution above will handle any direct requests.
function($routeProvider) {
$routeProvider.
when('/', {
templateUrl: 'home.html',
controller: 'homeCtrl'
}).
otherwise({
redirectTo: '/'
});
}]);

Angular routing doesn't work when URL is directly visited in browser but works when clicked to?

I have an angular app with a directory structure
app
..views
....partials
......main.jade
......foo.jade
....index.jade
and routes defined like:
'use strict';
angular.module('myApp', [
'ngCookies',
'ngResource',
'ngSanitize',
'ngRoute',
'firebase',
'myApp.config'
])
.config(function ($routeProvider, $locationProvider) {
$locationProvider.html5Mode(true);
$routeProvider
.when('/', {
templateUrl: '/partials/main',
controller: 'MainCtrl'
})
.when('/foo/:fooName', {
templateUrl: '/partials/foo',
controller: 'FooCtrl'
})
.otherwise({
redirectTo: '/'
});
});
I'm using express on the server side and the relevant code is:
// server.js
app.configure('development', function(){
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, '.tmp')));
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'app')));
app.use(express.errorHandler());
});
app.configure('production', function(){
app.use(express.favicon(path.join(__dirname, 'public/favicon.ico')));
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
});
app.get('/', routes.index);
app.get('/partials/:name', routes.partials);
//routes.js
exports.index = function(req, res){
res.render('index');
};
exports.partials = function(req, res){
var name = req.params.name;
res.render('partials/' + name);
};
The main route "/" loads fine and when i click to "/foo/bar" the partial view foo.jade loads as expected. However, when I try visiting "/foo/bar" directly in the URL i get a 404 response from Express "cannot GET /foo/bar" which makes sense since there's no route like this defined in express. However, I thought this was the whole point of defining the angular router..i.e. it's supposed to intercept this request and actually ask for "/partials/foo".
I tried adding
//redirect all others to the index (HTML5 history)
app.get('*', routes.index);
but it didnt solve the issue and seemed to be catching even the requests for static js assets and responding with the contents of index.html which is pretty bad.
I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. How can I fix things so that I can directly visit the URLs?
The reason routing is behaving like this is html5mode turned on.
Notice the line: $locationProvider.html5Mode(true);
You need to understand that when you try to access "/foo/bar" directly your browser sends HTTP GET request to this URL. When you try to access this url via link clicking, like you said, Angular is intercepting this action and calls History.pushState that only updates browser's link.
What you need to do in order to make html5mode routing work is implementing url rewrite. Every request has to be redirected to your index file that bootstraps AngularJS application, but this needs to be done on your server. Angular will render the desired page by itself.
Check out connect mod rewrite grunt task that does exacly that.
You can also you this middleware directly.

Categories