CODEWITHSUNDEEP
node.jsexpress
user995604
user995604

Reputation:

node.js and express: possible to skip from route back to middleware (static)?

When writing my node.js with express server I would like to first have the route middleware run before static middleware (want to have full control over the req/res before static content is being served).

Now, I am also using a route matching on * at the end to simply return with a 404. Obviously, since I am not having routes for the static content, I need to add routes for my static (public) folder. When doing so, I would like to pass control from inside the route to the static middleware and thereby skip my 404 route. Is that possible? I read I could call next("route"), but this gives me the same result as calling next().

Thanks

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2427

Answers (2)

Peter Lyons
Peter Lyons

Reputation: 145994

You don't need to add a * route explicitly. Express will do a 404 for you.

All you need to do is tell express to run the custom routes before the static middleware. You do this like so:

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

Upvotes: 3

bithavoc
bithavoc

Reputation: 1539

I'm not sure if this helps, but if what you want is selectively log or deny the static file downloads you can do this:

First, Ensure the routing is executed before the static middleware:

app.configure(function(){
...
    app.use(app.router); // this one goes first
    app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
...

Second, register a route that catches all the requests and just respond conditionally. The following example detects and log a message when file-A.txt (which filesystem path is /public/file-A.txt) will be downloaded, any other file request will download with no interruption:

app.get('/*', function(req, res, next){
    if(req.params[0] === 'file-A.txt') { // you can also use req.uri === '/file-A.txt'
        // Yay this is the File A... 
        console.warn("The static file A has been requested")
        // but we still let it download
        next()
    } else {
        // we don't care about any other file, let it download too
        next()
    }
});

That's it, I hope this helps.

Upvotes: 0

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