Installing a Web Server for Node.js

Question

I'm trying to follow a book I purchased called "Pro Angular JS", and I am having trouble getting a web server pointed to the right port. So I go to the command line, run Node, and the first error I get is this, when trying to install connect:

npm should be run outside of the node repl, in your normal shell.
(Press Control-D to exit.)

Ok, fair enough. So I do as the command specifies, and I get it to install just as the user, and it ends up adding a folder called node_modules in my user root folder. Ok, seems like everything still makes sense.

Now, the book tells me to create a server.js file within the Node.js installation folder. There is no Node.js installation folder actually created on my user. I see the node_modules folder for sure. So I'm guessing the root directory of my user is where node.js was installed but maybe it's hidden or something? I believe when I used the Mac installer for Node, it said it was created at usr/local/bin. But I have no idea if that is my user on my computer, or even more root access to my computer.

Lastly, back to this server.js file...so I created it with a text editor, containing this code:

var connect = require('connect');

connect.createServer(
connect.static(".../angularjs")

).listen(5000);

And of course they want me to add this file to the directory where my Node is installed. Currently, it's sitting where my current user (user is kst001) root directory is. This is also where my node_module folder was created when I installed it using the npm install connect line in the shell. They also wanted me to create a folder called angularjs, where I would store my app, and said to place it in the root directory where node.js was installed. Once again, sitting in the root directory with everything else. Yet, when I try and fire up my test document in port 5000 (localhost:5000/test.html), I get a "could not find page" error.

Already tried using this link to solve my problem, which seems dead on for my issue, but it resolved nothing:

Node / connect issue Object function createServer has no method static

I'm using a Mac, by the way. Any ideas, guys? Any help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

The reason why connect.static() does not work is that the latest major version of connect (3.x) no longer contains all of the middleware that connect was bundled with in 2.x.

The readme for connect has a list of middleware references that show you the name of the module on npm that gives you the old functionality for each middleware (e.g. static is now broken out into its own module serve-static).

Answer 2

I'm following the same book/example and the following works. I claim no credit, it is from another Stack Overflow answer about setting up a simple server plus the contents of a comment on the same answer (question 24346161 link to it from here: nodejs connect cannot find static)

Because I used it in exactly the same learning context (book I also purchased called "Pro Angular JS") and I have been around the houses for 3 hours trying to sort this out (yes a complete novice), I thought I would post it here.

firstly from your node installation directory npm install serve-static

secondly, your node server.js code for a simple static server to serve your angularjs directory contents in a localhost:5000 browser window, on a Windows 7 machine should be (as at July 2015) ...

var connect = require('connect'),
    serveStatic = require('serve-static');

var app = connect();

app.use(serveStatic("./angularjs"));
app.listen(5000);

I just stuck a simple index.html file in the angularjs directory to begin with containing

connection working

to test it and it worked a treat.