express-history-api-fallback
v2.2.1
Published
Simple fallback for Express-served single page apps that use the HTML5 History API for client side routing.
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express-history-api-fallback
A tiny, accurate, fast Express middleware for single page apps with client side routing.
Works as a middleware for Express. Can be used as either an application middleware or a router middleware.
import fallback from 'express-history-api-fallback'
import express from 'express'
const app = express()
const root = `${__dirname}/public`
app.use(express.static(root))
app.use(fallback('index.html', { root }))
Or in ECMAScript 5:
var fallback = require('express-history-api-fallback')
var express = require('express')
var app = express()
var root = __dirname + '/public'
app.use(express.static(root))
app.use(fallback('index.html', { root: root }))
fallback(path[, options])
Returns a middleware for use by Express applications and routers.
Arguments are passed to res.sendFile() in express@>=v4.8.0
, or res.sendfile() otherwise.
Absolute path:
app.use(fallback(__dirname + '/dist/app.html'))
Relative path:
app.use(fallback('dist/app.html', { root: __dirname }))
path
Location of the HTML file containing single page app entry point.
Unless the root
option is set in the options
object, path
must be an absolute path of the file.
options
Valid options are maxAge
, root
, lastModified
, headers
, and dotfiles
. See Response.sendFile() for details. Note that only maxAge
and root
are supported with express@<4.8
.
But doesn't this already exist?
Yes, but this implementation is much better.
- Only for GET (and HEAD) requests: The fallback should not serve your
index.html
forPOST
or other requests. - Only for HTML requests: Never serve mistakenly for JS or CSS or image or other static file requests. Less debugging headaches.
- Only when needed: Serve the fallback only when the file is missing.
- High performance: Let
res.sendFile()
in Express>=4.8.0
do the heavy lifting of serving the file. - Minimal code: Just a few lines. No magic. No complexity.
See the blog post "Single Page App Routing with Express & Node.js" for an overview of the problems with alternative middlewares.