Express.js application bug: delete post route is not found

Question

I am working on a blogging application (click the link to see the GitHub repo) with Express, EJS and MongoDB.

I have been unable to delete a post via AJAX.

In my Dashboard routes file (routes\admin\dashboard.js) I have:

// Delete Post
router.delete('/post/delete/:id', dashboardController.deletePost);

In my Dashboard controller:

exports.deletePost = (req, res, next) => {
    const postId = req.params.id;
    posts.findByIdAndRemove(postId, function(err){
        if (err) {
            console.log('Error: ', err);
        }
        res.sendStatus(200);
    });
}

In the view that lists the post in a table, with and "Edit" and a "Delete" button for each one I have:

<% if (posts) { %>
    <% posts.forEach(function(post) { %>
        <tr data-id="<%= post._id %>" class="d-flex">
            <td class="col-1"></td>
            <td class="col-4 col-lg-5">
                <%= post.title %>
            </td>
            <td class="col-2"></td>
            <td class="col-2"></td>
            <td class="col-3 col-lg-2 text-right">
                <div class="btn-group">
                    <a href="#" class="btn btn-sm btn-success">Edit</a>
                    <a href="#" class="btn btn-sm btn-danger delete-post" data-id="<%= post._id %>">Delete</a>
                </div>
            </td>
        </tr>
        <% }); %>
<% } else { %>
        <tr>
           <td colspan="5">There are no posts</td>
        </tr>
<% } %>

Finally in public\assets\js\admin.js I have:

$(document).ready(function(){
  $('.delete-post').on('click', function(evt){
    evt.preventDefault();
    let postId = $(this).data('id');
    if(confirm('Delete this post?')) {
      $.ajax({
        url: '/post/delete/' + postId,
        method: 'GET',
        success: function(deleteMsg){
          $('tr[data-id="' + postId +'"]').fadeOut('250');
        }
      });
    }
  });
});

I have that was enough for the delete operation to be successful, but it is not.

UPDATE:

If I replace url: '/post/delete/' + postId, with url: '/dashboard/post/delete/' + postId, I get a 500 internal server error. I see posts is not defined in the network tab.

What am I missing?

you are using the router method `delete` but the ajax call is a `GET`? — josh.trow, Mar 02 '20 at 14:06
@josh.trow If I use delete I just get `Cannot DELETE /post/delete/5e5cfc7604083c083465f47c` instead of `Cannot GET /post/delete/5e5cfc7604083c083465f47c`. — Razvan Zamfir, Mar 02 '20 at 14:08
What is your main server.js or whatever? Are you sure you have your dashboard router correctly being setup on the app? — josh.trow, Mar 02 '20 at 14:37

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 02 '20 at 15:54

1

I did it like this, for complete running example clone updated node-cheat XPressBlog and run node index followed by npm i.

added delete to routes/front-end/posts.js, like:

// Delete Single Post
router.delete('/:id', postsController.deleteSinglePost);

added deleteSinglePost to controllers/front-end/posts.js, like:

exports.deleteSinglePost = (req, res, next) => {
    const {id} = req.params;
    res.send(`This will DELETE post with id : ${id}`);
};

This is done based on looking at index.js, that is:

const dashboardRoute = require("./routes/admin/dashboard");
app.use('/dashboard', dashboardRoute);

const postsRoute = require('./routes/front-end/posts');
app.use('/', postsRoute);

curl -X DELETE http://localhost:3000/100:

This will DELETE post with id : 100

answered Mar 02 '20 at 15:54

Zeeshan Hassan Memon

8,105
4
43
57

I deed to *add*, *edit* and *delete* in the back-end (from the dashboard). – Razvan Zamfir Mar 02 '20 at 15:59
then add above code in dashboard route and controller respectively and then url will become http://localhost:3000/dashboard/100 because your code is configured that way. – Zeeshan Hassan Memon Mar 02 '20 at 16:01
/post/delete/5e5cfc7604083c083465f47c should be dashboard/post/delete/5e5cfc7604083c083465f47c – Zeeshan Hassan Memon Mar 02 '20 at 16:22
I did: I just get Cannot DELETE /post/delete/5e5cfc7604083c083465f47c instead of Cannot GET /post/delete/5e5cfc7604083c083465f47c. – Razvan Zamfir Mar 02 '20 at 16:22
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](https://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/208856/discussion-between-zeeshan-hassan-memon-and-razvan-zamfir). – Zeeshan Hassan Memon Mar 02 '20 at 16:23
If I replace `url: '/post/delete/' + postId,` with `url: '/dashboard/post/delete/' + postId,` I get a `500 internal server error. I see `posts is not defined` in the network tab. – Razvan Zamfir Mar 02 '20 at 16:34
lets chat here https://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/208856/discussion-between-zeeshan-hassan-memon-and-razvan-zamfir – Zeeshan Hassan Memon Mar 02 '20 at 16:40
Please give me a hand with **[this question](https://stackoverflow.com/q/60548245/4512005)** too. Thanks! – Razvan Zamfir Mar 05 '20 at 17:51

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 02 '20 at 16:41

0

I have solved the issue this way:

1) I replaced posts.findByIdAndRemove with Post.findByIdAndRemove:

exports.deletePost = (req, res, next) => {
    const postId = req.params.id;
    Post.findByIdAndRemove(postId, function(err){
        if (err) {
            console.log('Error: ', err);
        }
        res.sendStatus(200);
    });
}

2) I replaced url: '/post/delete/' + postId, with url: '/dashboard/post/delete/' + postId, in my jQuery snippet.

answered Mar 02 '20 at 16:41

Razvan Zamfir

4,209
6
38
252

your original question was related to delete route not found, I am glad that i was of some help figuring out the correct route to hit. – Zeeshan Hassan Memon Mar 02 '20 at 16:50

Express.js application bug: delete post route is not found

2 Answers2