Rendering view in Node/Express always causes error

Question

I've configured my nodejs/express application as follows;

app.set('views', __dirname + './views');
app.set('view engine', 'ejs');

Then I added a route like so

app.get('/page/MyPage', function(req, res) {

    // res.statusCode = 200; // Setting the status code here has no effect on the error.
    res.render('MyPage', { Data: "Stuff" });

});

However, whenever I request the page http://localhost:8000/page/MyPage node crashes out with TypeError: Cannot call method 'toString' of undefined, breaking in the http.js class.

The exact line:

 var statusLine = 'HTTP/1.1 ' + statusCode.toString() + ' ' +
               reasonPhrase + CRLF; // Aprox line 1180, in ServerResponse.prototype.writeHead = function(statusCode) function.

I've tried adding extensions to the 'MyPage' within render, and also tried other view engines. All of which yield the same result.

The view does exist in the /views directory.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

possible duplicate of [How to specify HTTP error code in express.js?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10563644/how-to-specify-http-error-code-in-express-js) — OrangeDog, Sep 17 '14 at 13:26
@OrangeDog, Not a duplicate, that is about attempting to set the http status code, this is about node/express crashing when attempting to render a view. — Ash, Sep 17 '14 at 13:51
Either you're setting it wrongly, your installation is broken, or there's something you've not told us. — OrangeDog, Sep 17 '14 at 13:53
I wish I knew what else to tell, the node/express installation seems fine because I am serving a whole restful api with it, just got a new requirement through for html pages to be rendered. — Ash, Sep 17 '14 at 14:03

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 17 '14 at 13:27

0

app.set('views', __dirname + './views'); should probably be app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');

answered Sep 17 '14 at 13:27

mscdex

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Unfortunately that causes the same result. – Ash Sep 17 '14 at 13:49

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 17 '14 at 14:19

Solution:

After stepping through an awful lot of javascript I have identified the issue. It appears that although the express documentation (http://expressjs.com/guide.html) suggests this is done automatically, I needed to set the view engine manually.

In this instance I also am using the vash view engine.

app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
app.set('view engine', 'vash');
app.engine('.vash', require('vash').renderFile);

This allows my views to be rendered as expected.

Rendering view in Node/Express always causes error

2 Answers2