CODEWITHSUNDEEP
node.jsexpress
Bablu Ahmed
Bablu Ahmed

Reputation: 5020

What is express.static in Express?

I am new in Node/Express. I am trying to build a static website using Express. I have an assets directory and some pages on the root directory of the project. By googling, got some resources there I got a statement like this:

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

I know about __dirname is a current working directory and app.use() acts as a middleware function, unlike app.get() and so on. By searching about express.static got documentation link Serving static files in Express

But I am unclear and confused. I hope someone will be able to help me and thanks in advance.

Upvotes: 8

Views: 8874

Answers (2)

Gavaskar K
Gavaskar K

Reputation: 21

The app.use(express.static('assets')) code is used to serve static files such as images, CSS files, and JavaScript files in an Express app. The express.static middleware function is used to expose a directory or a file to a particular URL so its contents can be publicly accessed. In this case, the assets directory is exposed to the /assets URL.

For example, if you have an image file named image.jpg in the assets directory, you can access it via the URL

http://localhost:3000/assets/image.jpg.

Upvotes: 2

nicholaswmin
nicholaswmin

Reputation: 22949

express.static exposes a directory or a file to a particular URL so it's contents can be publicly accessed.

From your example:

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

Assuming the /assets directory contains 2 images, foo.jpg and bar.jpg then you can simply access them at:

There's nothing more to it.

Upvotes: 19

Related Questions