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I am new with nodejs and much more new with express module. I have a app setup like this;

enter image description here

The chart.js is my nodejs file. I am trying to make my js files and css file static by using app.use(express.static(-I didn't understand what i need to write here-)) in order to render my index.html properly but I don't know how to use and I did not understand the documentation. In the documentation they say coder able to use static like app.use(express.static('public')) but they don't mention about what is public, where it is in the project, what does it contain. Can someone please help mi about this situation? How does this express.static works and how can I make my files static?

atarikaltun
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  • Does this answer your question? [Express-js can't GET my static files, why?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5924072/express-js-cant-get-my-static-files-why) – Sibi Kandathil Aug 17 '21 at 11:21
  • @SibiKandathil no unfortunately it is not. I want to learn the fundamentals of funciton – atarikaltun Aug 17 '21 at 12:02
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    'public' is the folder from where the static files are served in node.js express framework. https://expressjs.com/en/starter/static-files.html Read through this carefully its all written there. (root) defines from where the static files are served. – Bipin Aug 17 '21 at 12:42

1 Answers1

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NOTE: DO NOT PUT PRIVATE FILES INSIDE YOUR STATIC FOLDER.

app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));

here you see inside of express.static() function is the path of your static folder that will be going to access directly from the browser and you don't need to write their routes because that folder will give all the access to the public. like css,js files. and those files you will be able to access as its directory.

enter image description here

in the above picture, you have html, css and js files in public folder which is located on root folder of the application. you need to access those public static files which are not related to nodejs so it should be defined as static on your server node js code as : app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));. and it will get all the routes like:

http://localhost:3000/css/style.css
http://localhost:3000/javascript/script.js
http://localhost:3000/favicon.ico
http://localhost:3000/index.html
http://localhost:3000/robots.txt

you also can set prefix for those static routes. for that, you need to give prefix as: app.use('static_folder', express.static(__dirname + '/public')); then it will be looks like :

http://localhost:3000/static_folder/css/style.css
http://localhost:3000/static_folder/javascript/script.js
http://localhost:3000/static_folder/favicon.ico
http://localhost:3000/static_folder/index.html
http://localhost:3000/static_folder/robots.txt
Vrushabh Ranpariya
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