In lesson 5, you directed URL traffic with a routing system that matched request URLs to custom responses. In this lesson, you learn how to serve whole HTML files and assets such as client-side JavaScript, CSS, and images. Say goodbye to plain-text responses. At the end of the lesson, you improve your route code and place your logic in its own module for cleaner organization.
This lesson covers
- Serving entire HTML files by using the fs module
- Serving static assets
- Creating a router module
Consider this
It’s time to build a basic recipe website. The site should have three static pages with some images and styling. You quickly realize that all the applications you’ve built so far respond only with individual lines of HTML. How do you respond with rich content for each page without cluttering your main application file?
Using only the tools that came with your Node.js installation, you can serve HTML files from your project directory. You can create three individual pages with pure HTML and no longer need to place your HTML in main.js.
6.1. Serving static files with the fs module