Question

Okay so basically I am building an application for JavaScript development using Node. My issue that keeps arising is when the server starts.

var host = '127.0.0.1',
    port = 8080;

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

http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/html'});
    var buffer = new Buffer(100);
    res.end(fs.read('index.html'));
}).listen(port, host);
console.log('Server running at http://' + host + ':' + port);

My issue lies with res.end(fs.read(‘index.html’)); I want the server to run that html document when a connection is made in the browser. I always get this error response in the console.

buffer.js:236
        throw new Error('First argument needs to be a number, ' +

Error: First argument needs to be a number, array or string.
    at new Buffer (buffer.js:236:15)
    at Object.fs.read (fs.js:348:14)
    at Server.<anonymous> (C:\Users\myname\Desktop\app\bin\server.js:45:20)
    at Sever.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:96:17)
    at HTTPParser.parser.onIncoming (http.js:1807:12)
    at HTTPParser.parserOnHeadersComplete [as onHeadersComplete] (http.js:111:23)
    at Socket.socket.ondata (http.js:1704:22)

My question is, how do you display an html document in the web browser when a connection is made to the server? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

Your code raises a few questions but if I understand your requirement this is what you need:

You need to write the result of the file to the response stream as you see below.

var host = '127.0.0.1',
    port = 8080;

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

http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/html'});
    fs.readFile('index.html',function(err,data){
        res.write(data);
        res.end();
    });
}).listen(port, host);

console.log('Server running at http://' + host + ':' + port);

Of course this has no error checking etc but will get you going.