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  D  Folder file zip D  Folder file2 html D  Folder folder file-in-folder jpg   Then starting in D  Folder  node node-file-server js I could access file via  http   hostname file zip http   hostname file2 html http   hostname folder file-in-folder jpg   Why is my node static file server dropping requests  reference some mystical      standard node js static file server   If there s no such tool  what framework should I use   Related  Basic static file server in NodeJS

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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

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I know it s not Node  but I ve used Python s SimpleHTTPServer   python -m SimpleHTTPServer  port    It works well and comes with Python

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You also asked why requests are dropping - not sure what s the specific reason on your case  but in overall you better server static content using dedicated middleware  nginx  S3  CDN  because Node is really not optimized for this networking pattern  See further explanation here  bullet 13   http   goldbergyoni com checklist-best-practice-of-node-js-in-production

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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

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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

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Install express using npm  https   expressjs com en starter installing html  Create a file named server js at the same level of your index html with this content   var express   require  express    var server   express    server use      express static   dirname          server listen 8080     If you wish to put it in a different location  set the path on the third line   server use      express static   dirname     public       CD to the folder containing your file and run node from the console with this command   node server js   Browse to localhost 8080

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connect could be what you re looking for   Installed easily with   npm install connect   Then the most basic static file server could be written as   var connect   require  connect        directory     path to Folder    connect        use connect static directory        listen 80    console log  Listening on port 80

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You can try serve-me  Using it is so easy   ServeMe   require  serve-me      ServeMe start 3000     Thats all    PD  The folder served by default is  public

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Here s another simple web server     https   www npmjs com package hostr  Install  npm install -g hostr   Change working director  cd myprojectfolder    And start  hostr

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In plain node js   const http   require  http   const fs   require  fs   const path   require  path    process on  uncaughtException   err   gt  console error  uncaughtException   err   process on  unhandledRejection   err   gt  console error  unhandledRejection   err    const publicFolder   process argv length  gt  2   process argv 2        const port   process argv length  gt  3   process argv 3    8080  const mediaTypes       zip   application zip     jpg   image jpeg     html   text html        add more media types       const server   http createServer function request  response      console log request method         request url     const filepath   path join publicFolder  request url    fs readFile filepath  function err  data        if  err          response statusCode   404       return response end  File not found or you made an invalid request               let mediaType    text html      const ext   path extname filepath      if  ext length  gt  0  amp  amp  mediaTypes hasOwnProperty ext slice 1            mediaType   mediaTypes ext slice 1              response setHeader  Content-Type   mediaType      response end data           server on  clientError   function onClientError err  socket      console log  clientError   err    socket end  HTTP 1 1 400 Bad Request r n r n       server listen port   127 0 0 1   function       console log    Development server is online         This is a simple node js server that only serves requested files in a certain directory   Usage   node server js folder port   folder may be absolute or relative depending on the server js location  The default value is   which is the directory you execute node server js command   port is 8080 by default but you can specify any port available in your OS   In your case  I would do   cd D  Folder node server js   You can browse the files under D  Folder from a browser by typing http   127 0 0 1 8080 somefolder somefile html

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One-line    Proofs instead of promises  The first is http-server  hs - link npm i -g http-server      install hs C  repos               run with one line   FTW    The second is serve by ZEIT co - link npm i -g serve            install serve C  repos            run with one line   FTW     Following are available options  if this is what helps you decide   C  Users Qwerty http-server --help usage  http-server  path   options   options    -p           Port to use  8080    -a           Address to use  0 0 0 0    -d           Show directory listings  true    -i           Display autoIndex  true    -g --gzip    Serve gzip files when possible  false    -e --ext     Default file extension if none supplied  none    -s --silent  Suppress log messages from output   --cors  headers    Enable CORS via the  Access-Control-Allow-Origin  header                      Optionally provide CORS headers list separated by commas   -o  path     Open browser window after starting the server   -c           Cache time  max-age  in seconds  3600   e g  -c10 for 10 seconds                 To disable caching  use -c-1    -U --utc     Use UTC time format in log messages     -P --proxy   Fallback proxy if the request cannot be resolved  e g   http   someurl com    -S --ssl     Enable https    -C --cert    Path to ssl cert file  default  cert pem     -K --key     Path to ssl key file  default  key pem      -r --robots  Respond to  robots txt  User-agent    nDisallow       -h --help    Print this list and exit    C  Users Qwerty serve --help    Usage  serve js  options   command     Commands       help  Display help    Options       -a  --auth      Serve behind basic auth     -c  --cache     Time in milliseconds for caching files in the browser     -n  --clipless  Don t copy address to clipboard  disabled by default      -C  --cors      Setup   CORS headers to allow requests from any origin  disabled by default      -h  --help      Output usage information     -i  --ignore    Files and directories to ignore     -o  --open      Open local address in browser  disabled by default      -p  --port   Port to listen on  defaults to 5000      -S  --silent    Don t log anything to the console     -s  --single    Serve single page applications  sets  -c  to 1 day      -t  --treeless  Don t display statics tree  disabled by default      -u  --unzipped  Disable GZIP compression     -v  --version   Output the version number   If you need to watch for changes  see hostr  credit Henry Tseng s answer

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Here is my one-file lightweight node js static file web-server pet project with no-dependency that I believe is a quick and rich tool which its use is as easy as issuing this command on your Linux Unix macOS terminal  or termux on Android  when node js  or nodejs-legacy on Debian Ubuntu  is installed   curl pad js org   node     different commands exist for Windows users on the documentation   It supports different things that I believe can be found useful    Hierarchical directory index creation serving   With sort capability on the different criteria Upload from browser by  multi-file  drag-and-drop and file text-only copy-paste and system clipboard screen-shot paste on Chrome  Firefox and other browsers may with some limitations  which can be turned off by command line options it provides  Folder note-creation upload button  Serving correct MIMEs for well known file types  with possibility for disabling that  Possibility of installation as a npm package and local tool or  one-linear installation as a permanent service with Docker HTTP 206 file serving  multipart file transfer  for faster transfers Uploads from terminal and browser console  in fact it was originally intended to be a file-system proxy for JS console of browsers on other pages domains  CORS download uploads  which also can be turned off  Easy HTTPS integration Lightweight command line options for achieving better secure serving with it    With my patch on node js 8  you can have access to the options without first installation  curl pad js org   node - -h Or first install it as a system-global npm package by  sudo  npm install -g pad js and then use its installed version to have access to its options  pad -h Or use the provided Docker image which uses relatively secure options by default   sudo  docker run --restart always -v  files  files --name pad js -d -p 9090 9090 quay io ebraminio pad js      The features described above are mostly documented on the main page of the tool http   pad js org which by some nice trick I used is also the place the tool source itself is also served from   The tool source is on GitHub which welcomes your feedback  feature requests and  s

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I use Houston at work and for personal projects  it works well for me    https   github com alejandro Houston

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Searching in NPM registry https   npmjs org search q server  I have found static-server https   github com maelstrom static-server     Ever needed to send a colleague a file  but can t be bothered emailing   the 100MB beast  Wanted to run a simple example JavaScript   application  but had problems with running it through the file       protocol  Wanted to share your media directory at a LAN without   setting up Samba  or FTP  or anything else requiring you to edit   configuration files  Then this file server will make your life that   little bit easier       To install the simple static stuff server  use npm   npm install -g static-server       Then to serve a file or a directory  simply run    serve path to stuff Serving path to stuff on port 8001    That could even list folder content    Unfortunately  it couldn t serve files

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For people wanting a server runnable from within NodeJS script   You can use expressjs serve-static which replaces connect static  which is no longer available as of connect 3    myapp js   var http   require  http     var finalhandler   require  finalhandler    var serveStatic   require  serve-static     var serve   serveStatic         var server   http createServer function req  res      var done   finalhandler req  res     serve req  res  done        server listen 8000     and then from command line      npm install finalhandler serve-static   node myapp js

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Take a look on that link   You need only to install express module of node js   var express   require  express    var app   express     app use   Folder   express static   dirname     Folder       You can access your file like http   hostname Folder file zip

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You can use the NPM serve package for this  if you don t need the NodeJS stuff it is a quick and easy to use tool   1 - Install the package on your PC   npm install -g serve   2 - Serve your static folder with serve  lt path gt     d  gt  serve d  StaticSite   It will show you which port your static folder is being served  just navigate to the host like   http   localhost 3000

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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    gt        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

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A good  ready-to-use tool  option could be http-server   npm install http-server -g   To use it   cd D  Folder http-server   Or  like this   http-server D  Folder   Check it out  https   github com nodeapps http-server

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For dev work you can use  express 4  https   github com appsmatics simple-httpserver git

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x000D   x000D  const http   require  http    x000D  const fs   require  fs    x000D  const url   require  url    x000D  const path   require  path    x000D   x000D   x000D  let mimeTypes     x000D      html    text html   x000D      css    text css   x000D      js    text javascript   x000D      jpg    image jpeg   x000D      png    image png   x000D      ico    image x-icon   x000D      svg    image svg xml   x000D      eot    appliaction vnd ms-fontobject   x000D      ttf    aplication font-sfnt  x000D     x000D   x000D   x000D   x000D  http createServer function  request  response    x000D    let pathName   url parse request url  path  x000D    if pathName           x000D      pathName     index html   x000D      x000D    pathName   pathName substring 1  pathName length   x000D    let extName   path extName pathName   x000D    let staticFiles        dirname  template   pathName    x000D   x000D        if extName     jpg     extName      png     extName      ico     extName      eot     extName      ttf     extName      svg   x000D          x000D            let file   fr readFileSync staticFiles   x000D            res writeHead 200    Content-Type   mimeTypes extname     x000D            res write file   binary    x000D            res end    x000D         else   x000D          fs readFile staticFiles   utf8   function  err  data    x000D            if  err   x000D              res writeHead 200    Content-Type   mimeTypes extname     x000D              res end data   x000D             else   x000D              res writeHead 404    Content-Type    text html charset utf8     x000D              res write   lt strong gt   staticFiles  lt  strong gt File is not found     x000D              x000D            res end    x000D              x000D          x000D     listen 8081   x000D   x000D   x000D

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If you do not want to use ready tool  you can use the code below  as demonstrated by me at https   developer mozilla org en-US docs Node server without framework   var http   require  http    var fs   require  fs    var path   require  path     http createServer function  request  response        console log  request starting            var filePath         request url      if  filePath                  filePath      index html        var extname   path extname filePath       var contentType    text html       switch  extname            case   js               contentType    text javascript               break          case   css               contentType    text css               break          case   json               contentType    application json               break          case   png               contentType    image png               break                case   jpg               contentType    image jpg               break          case   wav               contentType    audio wav               break             fs readFile filePath  function error  content            if  error                if error code     ENOENT                    fs readFile    404 html   function error  content                        response writeHead 200     Content-Type   contentType                         response end content   utf-8                                                  else                   response writeHead 500                   response end  Sorry  check with the site admin for error    error code      n                    response end                                     else               response writeHead 200     Content-Type   contentType                 response end content   utf-8                          listen 8125   console log  Server running at http   127 0 0 1 8125       UPDATE If you need to access your server from external demand file  you need to overcome the CORS  in your node js file by writing the below  as I mentioned in a previous answer here     Website you wish to allow to connect response setHeader  Access-Control-Allow-Origin             Request methods you wish to allow response setHeader  Access-Control-Allow-Methods    GET  POST  OPTIONS  PUT  PATCH  DELETE        Request headers you wish to allow response setHeader  Access-Control-Allow-Headers    X-Requested-With content-type        Set to true if you need the website to include cookies in the requests sent    to the API  e g  in case you use sessions  response setHeader  Access-Control-Allow-Credentials   true     UPDATE  As Adrian mentioned  in the comments  he wrote an ES6 code with full explanation here  I just re-posting his code below  in case the code gone from the original site for any reason   const http   require  http    const url   require  url    const fs   require  fs    const path   require  path    const port   process argv 2     9000   http createServer function  req  res      console log    req method    req url           parse URL   const parsedUrl   url parse req url        extract URL path   let pathname       parsedUrl pathname         based on the URL path  extract the file extention  e g   js   doc        const ext   path parse pathname  ext       maps file extention to MIME typere   const map           ico    image x-icon         html    text html         js    text javascript         json    application json         css    text css         png    image png         jpg    image jpeg         wav    audio wav         mp3    audio mpeg         svg    image svg xml         pdf    application pdf         doc    application msword          fs exists pathname  function  exist        if  exist             if the file is not found  return 404       res statusCode   404        res end  File   pathname  not found           return                if is a directory search for index file matching the extention     if  fs statSync pathname  isDirectory    pathname      index    ext          read file from file system     fs readFile pathname  function err  data         if err           res statusCode   500          res end  Error getting the file    err              else              if the file is found  set Content-type and send data         res setHeader  Content-type   map ext      text plain             res end data                              listen parseInt port     console log  Server listening on port   port

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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

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For the benefit of searchers  I liked Jakub g s answer  but wanted a little error handling  Obviously it s best to handle errors properly  but this should help prevent a site stopping if an error occurs  Code below   var http   require  http    var express   require  express     process on  uncaughtException   function err      console log err        var server   express     server use express static   dirname     var port   10001  server listen port  function          console log  listening on port     port              var err   new Error  This error won t break the application            throw err

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From npm 5 2 0  npm started installing a new binary alongside the usual npm called npx  So now  one liners to create static http server from current directory   npx serve   or  npx http-server

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A simple Static-Server using connect  var connect   require  connect      directory     dirname    port   3000   connect      use connect logger  dev       use connect static directory      listen port    console log  Listening on port     port     See also Using node js as a simple web server

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For a healthy increase of performance using node to serve static resources  I recommend using Buffet  It works similar to as a web application accelerator also known as a  caching  HTTP reverse proxy but it just loads the chosen directory into memory       Buffet takes a fully-bufferred approach -- all files are fully loaded into memory when your app boots  so you will never feel the burn of the filesystem  In practice  this is immensely efficient  So much so that putting  Varnish  in front of your app might even make it slower      We use it on the codePile site and found an increase of  700requests sec to  4k requests sec on a page that downloads 25 resources under a 1k concurrent user connection load   Example   var  server     require  http   createServer     var  buffet     require  buffet   root     file           server on  request    function   req   res          buffet req   res   function                 buffet notFound req   res                      server listen 3000   function             console log  test  server  running  on  port  3000

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There is another static web server that is quite nice  browser-sync   It can be downloaded using node package manager   npm install -g browser-sync   After installation  navigate to the project folder in the cmd prompt and just run the following   browser-sync start --server --port 3001 --files         It will start catering all the files in the current folder in the browser   More can be found out from BrowserSync  Thanks

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It isn t on NPM  yet  but I built a simple static server on Express that also allows you to accept form submissions and email them through a transactional email service  Sendgrid for now  Mandrill coming    https   github com jdr0dn3y nodejs-StatServe

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If you are intrested in ultra-light http server without any prerequisites you should have a look at  mongoose

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small command-line web server on Node js  miptleha-http  full source code  80 lines

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

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