Import CSS and JS files into a Node.js project

I've been diving into Node.js and I've hit a roadblock. I'm facing an issue with loading css and js files in my project. Despite successfully rendering Bootstrap and Fontawesome from a CDN, my custom css and js files refuse to load.

This is the file path structure:

folder
index.html
app.js
package.json
css
main.css
files
file.pdf

Here's a snippet of my app.js code:

 var http = require('http');
     var fs = require('fs');

 //creating server
 http.createServer(function (req, res) {
   fs.readFile('index.html', function (err, html) {
     res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/html' });
     res.write(html);
     res.end();

   });
 }).listen(8080);

Answer №1

To ensure easy access to your javascript, CSS, and images, I recommend creating a public directory.

In the app.js file, add the following code to make these files accessible throughout your node.js project:

app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));

Remember to include path and express in your header like so:

var express = require('express');
var path = require('path');

You can now use your CSS/JS files wherever needed with code like this:

<link rel='stylesheet' href='/style.css' />

Just replace style.css with your custom CSS file name. Hope this method proves effective for you.

Hope That Helps! Thanks!

Answer №2

Imagine your assets directory (containing css, js, and fonts) is located in the root of your project like this

https://i.sstatic.net/zNeDp.png

If that's the case, you can use the following code snippet

within your app.js file

app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, '/')));

Then, in your .html file, import your CSS like this

<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css">

However, if your assets are nested under another parent folder such as

public/assets/css/style.css

You simply need to replace / with the public/assets folder like so

 app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, '/public/assets')));

And remember, the <link> tag will remain unchanged

Answer №3

If you're looking for a simpler way to handle and create servers, there are several packages available such as Express and Connect.

However, if you prefer sticking with plain old node.js, check out the following links:

https://gist.github.com/ryanflorence/701407

In summary:

var express = require('express');
var app = express();

//setting middleware
app.use(express.static(__dirname + 'public')); //Serves resources from public folder

Answer №4

An unconventional approach to achieving this without using express.js is by setting up separate server ports dedicated to serving each src or href attribute in your HTML template with their respective data. Essentially, you would create a new HTTP server for each data request, where each server operates on a unique port. Then, assign the absolute URI of the appropriate port to each src or href attribute, with each port reading and supplying data from a distinct file. This method can be viewed as a makeshift version of express.js.

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

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