👀 Views: 91 💬 Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-06-30

express static-files routing JavaScript

I'm having trouble with I'm working on a project and hit a roadblock... After trying multiple solutions online, I still can't figure this out... I'm relatively new to this, so bear with me. I'm currently working with an scenario with my Express application where static files are not being served correctly when using nested routes. My setup consists of Express 4.17.1, and I have a directory structure that looks like this: ``` /project ├── server.js ├── public │ ├── css │ │ └── styles.css │ └── js │ └── app.js └── routes └── api.js ``` In my `server.js`, I have the following configuration: ```javascript const express = require('express'); const path = require('path'); const apiRoutes = require('./routes/api'); const app = express(); // Serve static files from the public directory app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public'))); // Use API routes app.use('/api', apiRoutes); app.listen(3000, () => { console.log('Server running on http://localhost:3000'); }); ``` And in my `api.js` file, I have: ```javascript const express = require('express'); const router = express.Router(); router.get('/data', (req, res) => { res.json({ message: 'This is your data!' }); }); module.exports = router; ``` When I try to access the static files directly from the browser (e.g., `http://localhost:3000/css/styles.css`), I receive a 404 response, but when I access the API endpoint at `http://localhost:3000/api/data`, it works fine. I confirmed that the files exist in the correct directory. I've tried using `express.static` with different paths and checking the network tab in the browser for any hints, but nothing seems to work. This scenario seems to be related to how I'm structuring my middleware and routing. Is there a way to ensure that the static files are served correctly alongside my API routes? Any insight into this question would be appreciated! Is there a better approach? I'm working on a API that needs to handle this. What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance! This is part of a larger API I'm building. What's the best practice here? I recently upgraded to Javascript 3.10. What am I doing wrong? This issue appeared after updating to Javascript 3.10. I'm on macOS using the latest version of Javascript. I'd really appreciate any guidance on this.