Node.js Express Middleware Order Causing Unexpected 404 Errors with Static Files
I'm following best practices but I'm a bit lost with I've been banging my head against this for hours... I'm sure I'm missing something obvious here, but I'm working with an scenario with my Node.js Express application where static files are returning 404 errors, but only under certain circumstances. I have the following setup in my `app.js` file: ```javascript const express = require('express'); const path = require('path'); const morgan = require('morgan'); const bodyParser = require('body-parser'); const app = express(); const PORT = process.env.PORT || 3000; // Logger Middleware app.use(morgan('dev')); // Body Parser Middleware app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false })); app.use(bodyParser.json()); // Static Files Middleware app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public'))); // Route Handler app.get('/api/data', (req, res) => { res.json({ message: 'Hello World' }); }); // Catch-all Route app.use((req, res) => { res.status(404).send('Not Found'); }); app.listen(PORT, () => { console.log(`Server running on http://localhost:${PORT}`); }); ``` When I access static files directly from the browser (e.g., `http://localhost:3000/styles.css`), they load correctly. However, if I make a request to any API endpoint (like `http://localhost:3000/api/data`) first and then try to access the static file, I get a 404 behavior. I have verified that the static files exist in the `public` directory, and I even tried adjusting the order of the middleware, but the behavior continues. I've also checked for any typos in file names and paths, but everything appears to be correct. Is there something about how Express handles middleware order that could be causing this scenario? Should I be using a different approach for serving static files or organizing my routes? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated! This is part of a larger CLI tool I'm building. This is part of a larger web app I'm building. What's the best practice here? I'm working on a application that needs to handle this. For context: I'm using Javascript on Linux. Any ideas how to fix this? This is happening in both development and production on Ubuntu 22.04. Thanks, I really appreciate it!