Linking css files to node.js server - javascript

So I have craeted a node.js server with two routes. I use the fs to get the html files from the views folder and then append them to the page. In those html files I have a normal link to the css file, which does not seem to work. Here is my node.js app:
var port = 1357;
var http = require('http'),
path = require('path'),
mime = require('mime'),
fs = require('fs');
var app = http.createServer( function(req, res) {
if (req.url === '/home') {
fs.readFile('views/index.html', function(err, page) {
res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/html'});
res.write(page);
res.end();
});
}
else if (req.url === '/about') {
fs.readFile('views/about.html', function(err, page) {
res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/html'});
res.write(page);
res.end();
});
}
else {
res.writeHead(301,
{Location: '/home'}
);
res.end();
}
});
app.listen(port);
console.log('Server running on port: ' + port)
In the html files I have:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./styles/styles.css">
It does not work. In chrome's console I get "Resource interpreted as Stylesheet but transferred with MIME type text/html. "

You defined 2 routes: /home and /about. You also defined that anything apart from these two routes should default to an HTTP redirect to the /home route, and this is what causes the problem.
When the browser encounters the link to the css file, it requests the following URL: /styles/styles.css. the server receives this URL and since it doesn't match the two defined routes it will go into the else statement which will send a redirect to /home, so your browser, asking for a css file, will only receive the html page located in /home.
To fix this, you might need to add a new rule for your css file:
else if (req.url === '/styles/styles.css') {
fs.readFile('styles/styles.css', function(err, page) {
res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/css'});
res.write(page);
res.end();
});
}
Of course, if you have more css files you need to manage a specific folder instead of files. I suppose you're doing this to learn Node, because if you don't you might want to use express which is a Node ready to use web server that will save you lot of time.

When the client (the browser) asks the server for /styles/styles.css the server responds with 301 Moved Permanently and Location: '/home'.
The browser then asks for /home and gets an HTML document, which is not a stylesheet.
You have to give the browser the stylesheet when it asks for it.

static assets (as in your stylesheets) wont be served automatically. So what happens is that it falls through and lands at the 301 redirect to /home, where you serve text/html.
If you want to serve css that way, add a rule req.url==="/styles/styles.css"
Generally, I would recommend using a routing lib like express or koa. Or as minimum, connect. They make it easy to hook in features called middleware and enable you to make everything in a directory (like /public) serve static content with one rule.

Related

Node JS/localhost server is not showing the image

I created localhost/server on node js, and my pictures/img tag doesn't work
<div class="text-center">
<img alt = "Bulb" src="pic_bulboff.gif" class="rounded" alt="bulboff">
</div>
but the problem is that they show up when I open them in a regular browser without the server
const http = require('http')
const fs = require('fs')
const port = 3000
const server = http.createServer(function(req, res){
res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/html'})
fs.readFile('index.html', function(error, data) {
if(error) {
res.writeHead(404)
res.write('Error: File not Found')
} else {
res.write(data)
}
res.end();
})
})
above is the node server.
is there a problem that I can't really see?
Thanks!!!
By default a nodejs http server does not serve ANY files at all. You've created an http server that serves index.html for ALL incoming requests. So, a browser makes a request from your web server and you send it the HTML content from index.html.
Then, the browser parses that HTML and sees an <img> tag with a src attribute of "pic_bulboff.gif" so the browser then sends a request to your web server asking it for the content for /pick_bulboff.gif. But, you web server just responds to that request by sending index.html. That obviously doesn't work. You need your web server to know the difference between different path requests so it will server index.html when the browser is requesting /, but will serve that image when the browser is requesting /pick_bulboff.gif.
While most people will use a simple web framework that has the serving of static files as a built-in feature (like the Express framework), you can do it manually if you want:
const http = require('http');
const fs = require('fs');
const port = 3000;
function sendFile(fname, contentType) {
res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': contentType});
fs.readFile(fname, function(error, data) {
if(error) {
res.writeHead(404);
res.write('Error: File not Found');
} else {
res.write(data);
}
res.end();
}
}
const server = http.createServer(function(req, res){
if (req.url === "/") {
sendFile('index.html', 'text/html');
} else if (req.url === '/pick_bulboff.gif') {
sendFile('pick_bulboff.gif', 'image/gif');
} else {
res.writeHead(404);
res.end('Error: Unsupported path');
}
});
server.listen(port);
In a more typical implementation, you would put all static files in one directory hierarchy that was separate from your code and you would use functionality similar to express.static() in the Express framework to serve any file in that static files directory that matches an incoming request so you don't have to create a custom route for every single static file you're using in your project.

HTTP/HTTPS Nodejs Serve Javascript with HTML

I have a very simple https Nodejs server that serves an index.html that includes a request for a Javascript file. I cannot seem to get the browser to recognize the Javascript file.
<html>
<head>
<script src="deviceMotion.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
For this example, the contents of deviceMotion.js are immaterial. When I load the page and check Crhome debug tools, I receive a syntax error in the first line of the Javascript file, saying
Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token '<'
I look at the "javascript" file's contents only to see that it is exactly the same as my index.html. This leads me to believe that there is an issue with the way my Node HTTPS server is serving the Javascript. Likely, it is just serving the html twice, even though my console logs show 3 separate requests being made, and only 2 when I remove the script tag from index.html. Obviously, it is trying to request the Javascript file, but there is something not right.
Here is the code for my server app.js
const http = require('http');
const fs = require('fs');
const hostname = '127.0.0.1';
const port = 3000;
const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
console.log("request received");
console.log(req.headers.referer);
fs.readFile('./src/index.html', function (error, data) {
res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/html'});
res.end(data);
});
});
server.listen(port, hostname, () => {
console.log(`Server running at http://${hostname}:${port}/`);
});
My files are structured such that I have app.js in the same directory as a folder called "src" and I have index.html and deviceMotion.js under src.
How can I control what files I serve and when depending on incoming requests? How can I differentiate requests made in order to serve the right file? I have tried parsing req.baseUrl and req.path and both are undefined.
Your Node.js server always returns a HTML file and sets the content type to HTML, so when your website requests the JavaScript file, it returns a HTML file, causing the Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token '<' error. To fix the error, don't set the content type and let the browser figure it out, and also modify the code to return the requested file.
I have written some possible code below. However, it will need to be modified to suit your file structure.
const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
console.log("request received");
console.log(req.headers.referer);
fs.readFile('./' + req.url, function (error, data) {
res.end(data);
});
});

Node.js serving HTML file doesn't find referenced files

I'm trying to make a simple game using Node.js and HTML. I want to be able to run the game locally (so localhost). But when I start my Node server, only the HTML content is rendered - my images don't show up and the JS is not loaded. I reference JavaScript files, CSS files and images in the HTML code. Not sure why the server cannot reference these from within the HTML.
Here is my server code:
const path = require('path')
const http = require('http')
var fs = require('fs')
//Set port number:
const port = 3000
const requestHandler = (request, response) => {
console.log(request.url)
response.writeHead(200, {"Content-Type": "text/html"});
response.end(fs.readFileSync('game.html'));
}
const server = http.createServer(requestHandler)
server.listen(port, (err) => {
if (err) {
return console.log('Error: ', err);
}
console.log(`Game started\nGo to http://localhost:3000 to play\n`);
console.log(`Server is listening on ${port}...`);
})
Can anyone tell me how I can get my images/JS loaded?
TIA
You are not serving the static content correctly (i.e. images, CSS). Consider what happens when one navigates to http://localhost:3000/some_image.png - they will be served game.html!
You need to account for users requesting that content in your requestHandler by for example reading the file they want with fs.readFileSync(request.url). Remember to check that they can only request files you want them to be able to read!
You need static handlers to return static content. Check this
https://www.pabbly.com/tutorials/node-js-http-module-serving-static-files-html-css-images/.
Also, if your application is going to be huge then use some middle-ware like Express. (https://expressjs.com/)
If you use express framework, you can use static rendering:
app.use(express.static('public'));
where 'public' is the folder name

Can't load scripts because of node.js

I can't use <script src="node_modules/jquery/dist/jquery.min.js"></script>
in my index.html file because of:
Failed to load resource: the server responded with a status of 404 (Not Found)
http://localhost:8080/node_modules/jquery/dist/jquery.min.js
This happens because of my else statement in server file code:
var http = require('http')
var url = require('url')
var fs = require('fs')
var server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
let parsedUrl = url.parse(req.url, true)
if (parsedUrl.pathname === '/') {
console.log('home page')
fs.readFile('./index.html', (err, data) => {
res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/html' })
res.end(data)
})
} else if (parsedUrl.pathname === '/readJson') {
console.log('read json')
fs.readFile('./data.json', (err, data) => {
res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' })
res.end(data)
})
} else {
console.log('We can\'nt load any resources because of this statement')
res.writeHead(404)
res.end()
}
})
server.listen(8080)
I've read about how to fix this problem when using express module. Is there any way to solve the problem without using that module?
The easiest way would be to simply load jQuery from a CDN instead of serving it from your own server. This is a widely accepted best practice.
Example:
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.2.1.min.js" integrity="sha256-hwg4gsxgFZhOsEEamdOYGBf13FyQuiTwlAQgxVSNgt4=" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
You can find various options for loading jQuery from a CDN here: https://code.jquery.com
If you create an HTTP server like in your code example and want it to serve jQuery, then you'd have to read the jquery.min.js using fs.readFile and serve its contents, just like you're doing with your data.json file.
I recommend the use a CDN instead. If you install the jQuery module you can use it for your back-end JavasSript. However you want to use it on the front-end. You are using NodeJS as web server to serve a HTML page. The http module doesn't know anything about other files because it only read the index.html.
So you might wanna search for a solution to read/serve a complete folder. Withing this folder, lets call it public, you can store you HTML, CSS and JS files that are public available. Since the HTTP module knows about the entire folder all files can be used on the front-end. This is also a good solution to separate your back-end en front-end JavaScript.

Running Node.js Server using User Level Root

Basic question but not sure where to turn to start figuring this out.
I've setup a very simple node server on port 3000 that just responds with an index.html file. When I call http://localhost:3000 in the browser, I get the proper page served up with dependencies. I don't want to authenticate every time though so I'd like to run it from the user-level.
I tried typing http://localhost~myusername:3000 in the browser but I keep getting:
The requested URL /~myusername:3000 was not found on this server.
(I have setup user-level root to be accessed through ~/Sites and have gotten access to files through here, even php, it's just when I start using a node server this problem occurs.)
How can I get node.js to respond to user-level requests? And it serve up the proper index.html from the relative path of the user-level root instead of /library/WebServer/Documents?
Update
Code of server.js:
var http = require('http');
var fs = require('fs');
function send404(response) {
response.writeHead(404, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
response.write('Error 404: Resource not found.');
response.end();
}
var server = http.createServer(function (req, res) {
if (req.method == 'GET' && req.url == '/') {
res.writeHead(200, { 'content-type': 'text/html' });
fs.createReadStream('./index.html').pipe(res);
}
else {
send404(res);
}
}).listen(3000);
console.log('server running on port 3000');

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