Check if HTML file exists before routing [Angular JS/Node JS]

Question

I'm working on a NodeJS project including some AngularJS for routing management and I can't find out how to solve my current problem : I'm trying to check if a chosen HTML file exists before routing it. I've tried lots of solutions but for the moment, nothing seems to work. Here is my code :

    var app = angular.module("domhanWebSite", ["ngRoute"]);

    app.config(function($routeProvider, $locationProvider) {
        $locationProvider.html5Mode(false).hashPrefix('!');

        //routing management
        $routeProvider
        .when("/", {
          templateUrl : "pages/home.html"
        })
        .when("/404_not_found", {
            templateUrl : "pages/404_not_found.html"
        })
        .when("/encyclopedie/personnages/:character_html", {
            //here verification is missing
            templateUrl : function (url_attr) {
                return "pages/encyclopedia/characters/"+url_attr.character_html;
            }
        })
        .otherwise( {
          redirectTo: "/404_not_found"
        });
    });

For the third "when", I would like to check whether or not the HTML exists, and if it doesn't (because sometimes, the URL attribute does not correspond to anything), finally route to 404 error page. Does anyone have a brilliant solution ? =)

Also look at how $templateCache works. No request is made for template if it is already in that cache — charlietfl, Nov 21 '17 at 20:08

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 01 '18 at 13:19

Finally, the solution was found thanks to this topic proposed in comments:

.when("/encyclopedie/personnages/:character_html", {
        templateUrl : function (url_attr) {
          var page = "pages/encyclopedia/characters/"+url_attr.character_html;
          if (UrlExists(page)) {return page;}
          else {return "pages/404_not_found.html";}
        }
})

With UrlExists function:

function UrlExists(url) {
    var http = new XMLHttpRequest();
    http.open('HEAD', url, false);
    http.send();
    return http.status!=404;
}

Check if HTML file exists before routing [Angular JS/Node JS]

1 Answers1