Failed to lookup view "index.ejs" in views directory

Question

I have the following code in my express app (app.js file):

const express = require("express");
const app = express();

app.set('view engine', 'ejs');

app.get('/', function(req, res) {
    res.render('index');
});

app.listen(8080);

And the following dependencies:

"ejs": "^2.6.1",
"express": "^4.16.3",
"request": "^2.87.0"

And this is my folder structure:

myapp
   app.js
   package.json
   views
      index.ejs
   node_modules
      [all node files]

But when I run the app, it shows this error:

Failed to lookup view "index.ejs" in views directory "mylocaldirectory/myapp/views"

If it would help here are the other error messages:

  at Function.render (/mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/application.js:580:17)
    at ServerResponse.render (/mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/response.js:1008:7)
    at //mylocaldirectory/myapp/app.js:11:9
    at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (/mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/router/layer.js:95:5)
    at next (/mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/router/route.js:137:13)
    at Route.dispatch (/mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/router/route.js:112:3)
    at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (/mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/router/layer.js:95:5)
    at /mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:281:22
    at Function.process_params (/mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:335:12)
    at next (/mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:275:10)

I get no error if I just use res.send("SOME TEXT") but when I try to render an ejs file, it doesn't. What's the issue?

Answer 1

I also got the same error. By doing below steps, I got the Result.

1. Create a views folder.
2. Move your home.ejs file into the views folder then Execute.

Answer 2

The express guide on template engines talks about setting up the 'views' and the 'view engine'. I also found it important / interesting to talk about redundancy. All detailed below.

Setting up 'views'

By default, it looks for the template files (be them .ejs, .pug, etc.) on a subfolder called "views". So you can either set up this subfolder called "views" with your .ejs files in it or set this 'views' folder to any that you wish. Using app.set('views', './'), for example, sets the 'views' folder to be the current folder (i.e. no subfolders needed).

Setting up 'view engine'

The guide also points out that you can either specify the engine (ejs, pug, etc.) or specify the file extension when using, for example, res.render(<filename>).

Redundancy

So, a very redundant way of doing things is (before any routing)

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

app.get("/", function(req,res) {
  res.render("index.ejs");
});

with a folder structure like

myapp
   app.js
   package.json
   views
      index.ejs
   node_modules
      [all node files]

Since you have a folder called "views" with your .ejs files in the same level of your app.js file, you can omit the app.set('views', './views') command.

Since you call res.render with the file extension, you can omit the app.set('view engine', 'ejs') command.

Answer 3

Make Sure you have corrected file name with ejs extension. Make Sure you have corrected folder name views. app.set('view engine', 'ejs')

It will work properly

Answer 4

In your case, 'app.set' function is unable to find 'views' folder.
So use following...

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

or you can do as following

const path = require('path')
//path is inbuilt module in nodejs, so don't need to install it.

app.set('views', path.join(__dirname, '/views'))
app.set('view engine', 'ejs')

both methods are same.
__dirname will concatenate absolute path to 'views' folder.

(note: Notice that . is should not be there while concatenating with absolute directory path. So don't use './views' after __dirname, use '/views' only)

Answer 5

app.set('views', './View'); //./View(You already created folder)
app.set('view engine', 'ejs');
res.render('index', { kindDay: day });

index is my EJS file. kindDay is EJS file-created key.

Answer 6

I used this:

const express = require("express");
const server = express();
const path = require("path");

server.set("views", path.join(__dirname, "views"));
server.set("view engine", "ejs");
server.use(express.static("public"));

server.get("/", (req, res) => {
  res.render("index");
});

server.listen(8080);

Answer 7

try this it worked for me.

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

Answer 8

This issue basically comes when your ejs views engine unable to find file or folder. So do following checks:

1.check directory name. it should be 'views' not 'view'.

2.check file under directory having correct file extension or not? it should be .ejs only not others like .html or .json etc.

3.tell express that i am going to use ejs view engine by using below code:

 app.set('view engine','ejs');

Answer 9

make sure you have only css files in public folder .other folders can be outside the public folder.

Answer 10

First you have to tell express what view engine to use by setting

javascript // set the view engine to ejs app.set('view engine', 'ejs');

And when referring to a view you should leave out the extension. So instead of res.render('index.ejs'); use res.render('index');.

Setting up the view folder is not required since you're using the default view folder views to store your view files.

Answer 11

Did you set up the views folder?

app.set('views', './views')

Answer 12

You need to set your view directory and your viewengine before requesting any of your view files.

Hence you need to add the below lines, before your app.get

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

And your res.render('index.ejs'); should be changed as,

res.render('index');

Hope this helps!