Angular Universal SSR: dev and build work, serve doesn't

Question

When I run npm run dev:ssr my Angular App works perfect including SSR.

When I run npm run build:ssr it finishes without errors and creates my dist/PROJECT_NAME folder.

Then when I try to run npm run serve:ssr the server starts to listen (also no errors).

The app works fine when I visit http://localhost:4000 but there is no SSR happening. I don't get any errors.

Anyone has any idea why that is or how I could debug this?

I'm using Angular v9.

** Update March 25: I upgraded angular to version 11. But still the same behavior. dev:ssr works. Production SSR doesn't.

** Update March 26: I tested the sample application from https://angular.io/guide/universal The sample application works exactly in the same way. Also no SSR happening while in production mode with npm run serve:ssr

** Update March 31: As requested, here are the contents of package.json

{
  "name": "angular.io-example",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "description": "Example project from an angular.io guide.",
  "license": "MIT",
  "scripts": {
    "ng": "ng",
    "start": "ng serve",
    "build": "ng build",
    "test": "ng test",
    "lint": "ng lint",
    "e2e": "ng e2e",
    "dev:ssr": "ng run angular.io-example:serve-ssr",
    "serve:ssr": "node dist/server/main.js",
    "build:ssr": "ng build --prod && ng run angular.io-example:server:production",
    "prerender": "ng run angular.io-example:prerender"
  },
  "private": true,
  "dependencies": {
    "@angular/animations": "~11.0.1",
    "@angular/common": "~11.0.1",
    "@angular/compiler": "~11.0.1",
    "@angular/core": "~11.0.1",
    "@angular/forms": "~11.0.1",
    "@angular/platform-browser": "~11.0.1",
    "@angular/platform-browser-dynamic": "~11.0.1",
    "@angular/platform-server": "~11.0.1",
    "@angular/router": "~11.0.1",
    "@nguniversal/express-engine": "^11.0.0",
    "angular-in-memory-web-api": "~0.11.0",
    "express": "^4.15.2",
    "rxjs": "~6.6.0",
    "tslib": "^2.0.0",
    "zone.js": "~0.10.3"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@angular-devkit/build-angular": "~0.1100.2",
    "@angular/cli": "~11.0.2",
    "@angular/compiler-cli": "~11.0.1",
    "@nguniversal/builders": "^11.0.0",
    "@types/express": "^4.17.8",
    "@types/jasmine": "~3.6.0",
    "@types/node": "^12.11.1",
    "codelyzer": "^6.0.0",
    "jasmine-core": "~3.6.0",
    "jasmine-marbles": "~0.6.0",
    "jasmine-spec-reporter": "~5.0.0",
    "karma": "~5.1.0",
    "karma-chrome-launcher": "~3.1.0",
    "karma-coverage": "~2.0.3",
    "karma-jasmine": "~4.0.0",
    "karma-jasmine-html-reporter": "^1.5.0",
    "protractor": "~7.0.0",
    "ts-node": "~8.3.0",
    "tslint": "~6.1.0",
    "typescript": "~4.0.3"
  }
}

And angular.json

{
  "$schema": "./node_modules/@angular/cli/lib/config/schema.json",
  "version": 1,
  "newProjectRoot": "projects",
  "projects": {
    "angular.io-example": {
      "projectType": "application",
      "schematics": {
        "@schematics/angular:application": {
          "strict": true
        }
      },
      "root": "",
      "sourceRoot": "src",
      "prefix": "app",
      "architect": {
        "build": {
          "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:browser",
          "options": {
            "outputPath": "dist/browser",
            "index": "src/index.html",
            "main": "src/main.ts",
            "polyfills": "src/polyfills.ts",
            "tsConfig": "tsconfig.app.json",
            "aot": true,
            "assets": [
              "src/favicon.ico",
              "src/assets"
            ],
            "styles": [
              "src/styles.css"
            ],
            "scripts": []
          },
          "configurations": {
            "production": {
              "fileReplacements": [
                {
                  "replace": "src/environments/environment.ts",
                  "with": "src/environments/environment.prod.ts"
                }
              ],
              "optimization": true,
              "outputHashing": "all",
              "sourceMap": false,
              "namedChunks": false,
              "extractLicenses": true,
              "vendorChunk": false,
              "buildOptimizer": true,
              "budgets": [
                {
                  "type": "initial",
                  "maximumWarning": "500kb",
                  "maximumError": "1mb"
                },
                {
                  "type": "anyComponentStyle",
                  "maximumWarning": "2kb",
                  "maximumError": "4kb"
                }
              ]
            }
          }
        },
        "serve": {
          "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:dev-server",
          "options": {
            "browserTarget": "angular.io-example:build"
          },
          "configurations": {
            "production": {
              "browserTarget": "angular.io-example:build:production"
            }
          }
        },
        "extract-i18n": {
          "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:extract-i18n",
          "options": {
            "browserTarget": "angular.io-example:build"
          }
        },
        "test": {
          "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:karma",
          "options": {
            "main": "src/test.ts",
            "polyfills": "src/polyfills.ts",
            "tsConfig": "tsconfig.spec.json",
            "karmaConfig": "karma.conf.js",
            "assets": [
              "src/favicon.ico",
              "src/assets"
            ],
            "styles": [
              "src/styles.css"
            ],
            "scripts": []
          }
        },
        "lint": {
          "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:tslint",
          "options": {
            "tsConfig": [
              "tsconfig.app.json",
              "tsconfig.spec.json",
              "e2e/tsconfig.json"
            ],
            "exclude": [
              "**/node_modules/**"
            ]
          }
        },
        "e2e": {
          "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:protractor",
          "options": {
            "protractorConfig": "e2e/protractor.conf.js",
            "devServerTarget": "angular.io-example:serve"
          },
          "configurations": {
            "production": {
              "devServerTarget": "angular.io-example:serve:production"
            }
          }
        },
        "server": {
          "builder": "@angular-devkit/build-angular:server",
          "options": {
            "outputPath": "dist/server",
            "main": "server.ts",
            "tsConfig": "tsconfig.server.json"
          },
          "configurations": {
            "production": {
              "outputHashing": "media",
              "fileReplacements": [
                {
                  "replace": "src/environments/environment.ts",
                  "with": "src/environments/environment.prod.ts"
                }
              ],
              "sourceMap": false,
              "optimization": true
            }
          }
        },
        "serve-ssr": {
          "builder": "@nguniversal/builders:ssr-dev-server",
          "options": {
            "browserTarget": "angular.io-example:build",
            "serverTarget": "angular.io-example:server"
          },
          "configurations": {
            "production": {
              "browserTarget": "angular.io-example:build:production",
              "serverTarget": "angular.io-example:server:production"
            }
          }
        },
        "prerender": {
          "builder": "@nguniversal/builders:prerender",
          "options": {
            "browserTarget": "angular.io-example:build:production",
            "serverTarget": "angular.io-example:server:production",
            "routes": [
              "/"
            ]
          },
          "configurations": {
            "production": {}
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "defaultProject": "angular.io-example"
}

Both from the sample app I used. Downloaded here: https://angular.io/guide/universal

Answer 1

i used nodemon to serve ssr application

try this :

npm install -g nodemon

nodemon --watch src/ -e ts,html,scss --exec 'npm run build:ssr && npm run serve:ssr'