Why am i getting a 404 js file, while including a script tag?

Question

index.html

<head>
    <script src="/main.js"></script>
</head>

Error:

GET http://localhost:3000/main.js

Structure

Project
- app.js
- view
  - index.html
  - main.js

I've tried src="main.js". /view/main.js

Very basic, but dont want to get stuck on this any longer... sigh.

if it helps my app.js file has this:

app.get('/', function (req, res) { res.sendFile(__dirname + '/view/home.html'); });

Is main.js in the same directory as the html file you're accessing? — DotNetRussell, Jun 21 '17 at 19:30
`/` refers to the root of the program. Have you tried `/view/main.js`? Are you using any special routing? — Mike Cluck, Jun 21 '17 at 19:30
Also, make sure that the permissions on the file are correct — DotNetRussell, Jun 21 '17 at 19:31
@AnthonyRussell same directory, i am using node.js (learning). — ThePirateBae, Jun 21 '17 at 19:33
@Tamango from the base directory project, where my app.js is , the only routing i have is app.get('/', function (req, res) { res.sendFile(__dirname + '/view/home.html'); }); — ThePirateBae, Jun 21 '17 at 19:35
@mjw Tried that one, no lucky, i tried "main.js" "/main.js" "./main.js" i think im going crazy, or im forgetting to put a detail in my summary to resolve the error. — ThePirateBae, Jun 21 '17 at 19:37
So, it seems that your server is only serving the 'home.html' file (or I think you meant 'index.html'). You need to serve whole directory. — Artem Arkhipov, Jun 21 '17 at 19:37
@Tamango oh that makes sense, and wooops yea i meant index.html. — ThePirateBae, Jun 21 '17 at 19:39
I don't see home.html in your project structure above. Where is it in the project? — mjw, Jun 21 '17 at 19:39
@ThePirateBae , please add the code from your previous comments to the question, so new readers will clearly understand what was the problem. — Artem Arkhipov, Jun 21 '17 at 20:03

Artem Arkhipov · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-21T19:47:23.737

So, according to your comments - you are serving only the 'index.html' file instead of whole directory. Try this code:

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

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

//... other settings and server launching further

If you want to set serving static files to particular route - extend 'app.use' line with '/your-route', like this:

app.use('/your-route', express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'view')));

After that you can use <script src="main.js"></script> in your index.html

Why am i getting a 404 js file, while including a script tag?

1 Answers1