New to Node.js I do understand that createReadStream() function is better for the performance than readFile(), because createReadStream() reads and writes data in chucks while readFile() first reads the whole content. Thus if the file is large, readFile() function might take longer before data can be processed futher. Thus I choose to create server using createReadStream() function as following.
// Create a server with fs.createReadStream(), better performance and less memory usage.
http.createServer( function (request, response) {
// Parse the request containing file name
var pathname = url.parse(request.url).pathname;
// Create a readable stream.
var readerStream = fs.createReadStream(pathname.substr(1));
// Set the encoding to be UTF8.
readerStream.setEncoding('UTF8');
// Handle stream events --> data, end and error
readerStream.on('data', function(chunk) {
// Page found
// HTTP Status: 200 : OK
// Content Type: text/plain
response.writeHead(200, {'Content-type': 'text/html'});
// Write the content of the file to response body.
response.write(chunk);
console.log('Page is being streamed...');
});
readerStream.on('end', function() {
console.log('Page is streamed and emitted successfully.');
});
readerStream.on('error', function(err) {
// HTTP Status: 404 : NOT FOUND
// Content Type: text/plain
response.writeHead(404, {'Content-type': 'text/html'});
console.log('Page streaming error: ' + err);
});
console.log('Code ends!');
}).listen(8081);
// Console will print the message
console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8081/');
My .html or .txt file contains three short lines of text. After starting my server I visit my web page by going to http://127.0.0.1:8081/index.html. Everything works fine and the content of index.html is echoed on the browser.
But on the tab of the browser, the loader icon keeps turning like it keeps loading for about 1 minute.
Is that normal with Node.js server? Does the icon just keep turning, but costs nothing to the server? Or do I miss something and icon is not supposed to keep turning?
