Node.js quick file server (static files over HTTP)

Question

Is there Node.js ready-to-use tool (installed with npm), that would help me expose folder content as file server over HTTP.

Example, if I have

Answer 1

I know it's not Node, but I've used Python's SimpleHTTPServer:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer [port]

It works well and comes with Python.

Answer 2

Below worked for me:

Create a file app.js with below contents:

// app.js

var fs = require('fs'),
    http = require('http');

http.createServer(function (req, res) {
  fs.readFile(__dirname + req.url, function (err,data) {
    if (err) {
      res.writeHead(404);
      res.end(JSON.stringify(err));
      return;
    }
    res.writeHead(200);
    res.end(data);
  });
}).listen(8080);

Create a file index.html with below contents:

Hi

Start a command line:

cmd

Run below in cmd:

node app.js

Goto below URL, in chrome:

http://localhost:8080/index.html

That's all. Hope that helps.

Source: https://nodejs.org/en/knowledge/HTTP/servers/how-to-serve-static-files/

Answer 3

I haven't had much luck with any of the answers on this page, however, below seemed to do the trick.

Add a server.js file with the following content:

const express = require('express')
const path = require('path')
const port = process.env.PORT || 3000
const app = express()

// serve static assets normally
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/dist'))

// handle every other route with index.html, which will contain
// a script tag to your application's JavaScript file(s).
app.get('*', function (request, response){
  response.sendFile(path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist', 'index.html'))
})

app.listen(port)
console.log("server started on port " + port)

Also make sure that you require express. Run yarn add express --save or npm install express --save depending on your setup (I can recommend yarn it's pretty fast).

You may change dist to whatever folder you are serving your content is. For my simple project, I wasn't serving from any folder, so I simply removed the dist filename.

Then you may run node server.js. As I had to upload my project to a Heroku server, I needed to add the following to my package.json file:

  "scripts": {
    "start": "node server.js"
  }

Answer 4

If you use the Express framework, this functionality comes ready to go.

To setup a simple file serving app just do this:

mkdir yourapp
cd yourapp
npm install express
node_modules/express/bin/express

Answer 5

First install node-static server via npm install node-static -g -g is to install it global on your system, then navigate to the directory where your files are located, start the server with static it listens on port 8080, naviaget to the browser and type localhost:8080/yourhtmlfilename.

Answer 6

DEMO/PROTO SERVER ONLY

If that's all you need, try this:

const http = require('http');
const fs = require('fs');
const port = 3000;
const app = http.createServer((req,res) => {
    res.writeHead(200);
    if (req.url === '/') req.url = '/index.html'; // courtesy of @JosephCho
    res.end(fs.readFileSync(__dirname + req.url));
});

app.listen(port);

note: You need to use "/index.html" as part of your address ie "http://localhost:3000/index.html"