I'm using the tutorial found here: http://addyosmani.github.io/backbone-fundamentals/#create-a-simple-web-server and added the following code.
// Module dependencies.
var application_root = __dirname,
express = require( 'express' ), //Web framework
path = require( 'path' ), //Utilities for dealing with file paths
mongoose = require( 'mongoose' ); //MongoDB integration
//Create server
var app = express();
// Configure server
app.configure( function() {
//parses request body and populates request.body
app.use( express.bodyParser() );
//checks request.body for HTTP method overrides
app.use( express.methodOverride() );
//perform route lookup based on url and HTTP method
app.use( app.router );
//Where to serve static content
app.use( express.static( path.join( application_root, 'site') ) );
//Show all errors in development
app.use( express.errorHandler({ dumpExceptions: true, showStack: true }));
});
//Start server
var port = 5000;
app.listen( port, function() {
console.log( 'Express server listening on port %d in %s mode', port, app.settings.env );
});
After starting the server with node server.js
I'm getting an error stating Cannot GET /
when I access localhost:5000
and I just wondered if anyone knew much about this error as Express and Node are new to me?
I think you're missing your routes, you need to define at least one route for example '/' to index.
e.g.
app.get('/', function (req, res) {
res.render('index', {});
});
Have you checked your folder structure? It seems to me like Express can't find your root directory, which should be a a folder named "site" right under your default directory. Here is how it should look like, according to the tutorial:
node_modules/
.bin/
express/
mongoose/
path/
site/
css/
img/
js/
index.html
package.json
For example on my machine, I started getting the same error as you when I renamed my "site" folder as something else. So I would suggest you check that you have the index.html page inside a "site" folder that sits on the same path as your server.js file.
Hope that helps!
Much like leonardocsouza, I had the same problem. To clarify a bit, this is what my folder structure looked like when I ran node server.js
node_modules/
app/
index.html
server.js
After printing out the __dirname
path, I realized that the __dirname
path was where my server was running (app/
).
So, the answer to your question is this:
If your server.js
file is in the same folder as the files you are trying to render, then
app.use( express.static( path.join( application_root, 'site') ) );
should actually be
app.use(express.static(application_root));
The only time you would want to use the original syntax that you had would be if you had a folder tree like so:
app/
index.html
node_modules
server.js
where index.html
is in the app/
directory, whereas server.js
is in the root directory (i.e. the same level as the app/
directory).
Side note: Intead of calling the path
utility, you can use the syntax application_root + 'site'
to join a path.
Overall, your code could look like:
// Module dependencies.
var application_root = __dirname,
express = require( 'express' ), //Web framework
mongoose = require( 'mongoose' ); //MongoDB integration
//Create server
var app = express();
// Configure server
app.configure( function() {
//Don't change anything here...
//Where to serve static content
app.use( express.static( application_root ) );
//Nothing changes here either...
});
//Start server --- No changes made here
var port = 5000;
app.listen( port, function() {
console.log( 'Express server listening on port %d in %s mode', port, app.settings.env );
});