Static Files

Part of the Express Basics section of Coddy's Node.js journey. Lesson 11 of 23.

A stylesheet or an image never changes, and a route for each file would be busywork.

app.use(express.static('assets'));

express.static('assets') serves the files of the assets folder at their own names: assets/logo.png answers GET /logo.png. The folder name is not part of the URL. Express picks the content type from the extension: text/css for .css, image/png for .png. A path with no file goes on to your routes.

app.use adds a function that runs for every request; the next chapter is about those. Your project now has a public folder with a stylesheet.

Challenge

Easy

Recipe Box gets a stylesheet. The file is ready in the public folder; your server only has to hand it out.

In server.js, right after const app = express();, serve every file in the public folder with express.static. Then public/style.css is served at /style.css.
Make the home page load it: put <link rel="stylesheet" href="/style.css"> at the start of the HTML that the / route sends.

Try it: Press Run and send /. The page now uses the stylesheet. Send /style.css: status 200, the CSS text, and a Content-Type of text/css in the Headers tab. Send /missing.css: there is no such file, so the request goes on to your routes. None matches, and Express responds with 404.

Try it yourself

import {escapeHtml} from './html.js';
import express from 'express';
import { recipes } from './data.js';

const app = express();



app.get('/', (req, res) => {
    const items = recipes.map((r) => `<li><a href="/recipes/${r.id}">${escapeHtml(r.title)}</a></li>`);
    res.send(`<h1>Recipe Box</h1><ul>${items.join('')}</ul>`);
});

// type('text') sends plain text, so each title shows on its own line.
app.get('/recipes', (req, res) => {
    const { tag } = req.query;
    const list = tag ? recipes.filter((recipe) => recipe.tags.includes(tag)) : recipes;
    res.type('text').send(list.map((recipe) => recipe.title).join('\n'));
});

app.get('/recipes/:id', (req, res) => {
    const recipe = recipes.find((r) => r.id === Number(req.params.id));
    if (!recipe) {
        res.status(404).send('No such recipe');
        return;
    }
    res.send(recipe.title);
});

app.get('/api/recipes', (req, res) => {
    res.json(recipes);
});

app.get('/api/recipes/:id', (req, res) => {
    const recipe = recipes.find((r) => r.id === Number(req.params.id));
    if (!recipe) {
        res.status(404).json({ error: 'No such recipe' });
        return;
    }
    res.json(recipe);
});

app.get('/about', (req, res) => {
    res.send('Recipe Box collects family recipes.');
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
    console.log('Recipe Box is running on port 3000');
});