[javascript] Cannot GET / Nodejs Error

I'm using the tutorial found here: http://addyosmani.github.io/backbone-fundamentals/#create-a-simple-web-server and added the following code.

// Module dependencies.
var application_root = __dirname,
express = require( 'express' ), //Web framework
path = require( 'path' ), //Utilities for dealing with file paths
mongoose = require( 'mongoose' ); //MongoDB integration

//Create server
var app = express();

// Configure server
app.configure( function() {
//parses request body and populates request.body
app.use( express.bodyParser() );

//checks request.body for HTTP method overrides
app.use( express.methodOverride() );

//perform route lookup based on url and HTTP method
app.use( app.router );

//Where to serve static content
app.use( express.static( path.join( application_root, 'site') ) );

//Show all errors in development
app.use( express.errorHandler({ dumpExceptions: true, showStack: true }));
});

//Start server
var port = 5000;
app.listen( port, function() {
console.log( 'Express server listening on port %d in %s mode', port, app.settings.env );
});

After starting the server with node server.js I'm getting an error stating Cannot GET / when I access localhost:5000 and I just wondered if anyone knew much about this error as Express and Node are new to me?

Have you checked your folder structure? It seems to me like Express can't find your root directory, which should be a a folder named "site" right under your default directory. Here is how it should look like, according to the tutorial:

node_modules/
  .bin/
  express/
  mongoose/
  path/
site/
  css/
  img/
  js/
  index.html
package.json

For example on my machine, I started getting the same error as you when I renamed my "site" folder as something else. So I would suggest you check that you have the index.html page inside a "site" folder that sits on the same path as your server.js file.

Hope that helps!

Much like leonardocsouza, I had the same problem. To clarify a bit, this is what my folder structure looked like when I ran node server.js

node_modules/
app/
  index.html
  server.js

After printing out the __dirname path, I realized that the __dirname path was where my server was running (app/).

So, the answer to your question is this:

If your server.js file is in the same folder as the files you are trying to render, then

app.use( express.static( path.join( application_root, 'site') ) );

should actually be

app.use(express.static(application_root));

The only time you would want to use the original syntax that you had would be if you had a folder tree like so:

app/
  index.html
node_modules
server.js

where index.html is in the app/ directory, whereas server.js is in the root directory (i.e. the same level as the app/ directory).

Side note: Intead of calling the path utility, you can use the syntax application_root + 'site' to join a path.

Overall, your code could look like:

// Module dependencies.
var application_root = __dirname,
express = require( 'express' ), //Web framework
mongoose = require( 'mongoose' ); //MongoDB integration

//Create server
var app = express();

// Configure server
app.configure( function() {

    //Don't change anything here...

    //Where to serve static content
    app.use( express.static( application_root ) );

    //Nothing changes here either...
});

//Start server --- No changes made here
var port = 5000;
app.listen( port, function() {
    console.log( 'Express server listening on port %d in %s mode', port, app.settings.env );
});

If you are getting this error, it could be because you don't have a route defined for your get.

For example:

const express = require('express');

const app = express();

app.get('/people', function (req, res) {
    res.send('hello');
})

app.listen(3000);


http://http://localhost:3000/people --> this works
http://http://localhost:3000 --> this will output Cannot GET / message.