javascript, how to know if the url is a static file

Question

javascript, how to know if the url is a static file

I'm using express.js on a Node server and at the moment some GET request is for static file like ZZZ.html or YY.css ... I want to identify wich url is for static file and wich is a route.

How can I do that in my middleware ?

(not sure if it's clear or not :/)

node.js
express
middleware

Answer 1

Put your static files in a public directory and have

app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));

after your routes so it will catch other requests.

Answer 2

You may use fs module to determine if requested file exists.

In the simplest case your code might look like following:

app.use(function(req, res, next) {
  require('fs').stat(__dirname + req.url, function(err, stats) {
    var isFile = stats && stats.isFile();
    //do something with isFile variable
    next();
  });
});

Just put it before any other routes.

Edit: doing this way you suppose that all your static files are located in the project's root dir. If your static files are in another dir (/public for example), you should write __dirname + '/public' + req.url, and check if req.url starts with /public.