Angular universal is rendering home page html in page source for every pages

Question

I've multiple components in my angular universal project. when I route to other components from the home component, I'm only getting the content for the home component in the page source. It's not getting updated by the routed component.

I've checked whether every components are rendering in server side by console.log in server side, but it's only loading the home page, other components are not getting rendered in server side.

I'm using npm run build:ssr for the build and npm run serve:ssr for serving on the server side.

There are no errors while running the above commands in the cmd or browser console as well.

Can anybody please help! I'm stuck at this problem for about a week now.

Please let me know if you guys need any other information about the project.

Package.json

"dependencies": {
    "@agm/core": "^1.0.0-beta.2",
    "@angular/animations": "^5.2.0",
    "@angular/common": "^5.2.0",
    "@angular/compiler": "^5.2.0",
    "@angular/core": "^5.2.0",
    "@angular/forms": "^5.2.0",
    "@angular/http": "^5.2.0",
    "@angular/platform-browser": "^5.2.0",
    "@angular/platform-browser-dynamic": "^5.2.0",
    "@angular/platform-server": "^5.2.8",
    "@angular/router": "^5.2.0",
    "@ngu/carousel": "^1.4.8",
    "@nguniversal/express-engine": "^5.0.0-beta.6",
    "@nguniversal/module-map-ngfactory-loader": "^5.0.0-beta.6",
    "bootstrap": "^3.3.7",
    "core-js": "^2.4.1",
    "hammerjs": "^2.0.8",
    "ng2-nouislider": "^1.7.7",
    "ngx-bootstrap": "^2.0.0-beta.8",
    "nouislider": "^11.0.3",
    "reflect-metadata": "^0.1.12",
    "rxjs": "^5.5.6",
    "ts-loader": "^3.5.0",
    "zone.js": "^0.8.19"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@angular/cli": "~1.7.3",
    "@angular/compiler-cli": "^5.2.0",
    "@angular/language-service": "^5.2.0",
    "@types/jasmine": "~2.8.3",
    "@types/jasminewd2": "~2.0.2",
    "@types/node": "~6.0.60",
    "codelyzer": "^4.0.1",
    "cpy-cli": "^1.0.1",
    "jasmine-core": "~2.8.0",
    "jasmine-spec-reporter": "~4.2.1",
    "karma": "~2.0.0",
    "karma-chrome-launcher": "~2.2.0",
    "karma-coverage-istanbul-reporter": "^1.2.1",
    "karma-jasmine": "~1.1.0",
    "karma-jasmine-html-reporter": "^0.2.2",
    "localstorage-polyfill": "^1.0.1",
    "protractor": "~5.1.2",
    "ts-node": "~4.1.0",
    "tslint": "~5.9.1",
    "typescript": "~2.5.3"
  }

Server.ts

// These are important and needed before anything else
import 'zone.js/dist/zone-node';
import 'reflect-metadata';

import { renderModuleFactory } from '@angular/platform-server';
import { enableProdMode } from '@angular/core';

import * as express from 'express';
import { join } from 'path';
import { readFileSync } from 'fs';
import 'localstorage-polyfill';

// Faster server renders w/ Prod mode (dev mode never needed)
enableProdMode();

// Express server
const app = express();

const PORT = process.env.PORT || 4000;
const DIST_FOLDER = join(process.cwd(), 'dist');

// Our index.html we'll use as our template
const template = readFileSync(join(DIST_FOLDER, 'browser', 'index.html')).toString();

// jay
const domino = require('domino');
const win = domino.createWindow(template);
global['window'] = win;
global['document'] = win.document;
global['localStorage'] = localStorage;
// jay

// * NOTE :: leave this as require() since this file is built Dynamically from webpack
const { AppServerModuleNgFactory, LAZY_MODULE_MAP } = require('./dist/server/main.bundle');

const { provideModuleMap } = require('@nguniversal/module-map-ngfactory-loader');

app.engine('html', (_, options, callback) => {
  renderModuleFactory(AppServerModuleNgFactory, {
    // Our index.html
    document: template,
    url: options.req.url,
    // DI so that we can get lazy-loading to work differently (since we need it to just instantly render it)
    extraProviders: [
      provideModuleMap(LAZY_MODULE_MAP)
    ]
  }).then(html => {
    callback(null, html);
  });
});

app.set('view engine', 'html');
app.set('views', join(DIST_FOLDER, 'browser'));

// Server static files from /browser
app.get('*.*', express.static(join(DIST_FOLDER, 'browser')));

// All regular routes use the Universal engine
app.get('*', (req, res) => {
  res.render(join(DIST_FOLDER, 'browser', 'index.html'), { req });
});

// Start up the Node server
app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`Node server listening on http://localhost:${PORT}`);
});

app.server.module.ts

import {NgModule} from '@angular/core';
import {ServerModule} from '@angular/platform-server';
import {ModuleMapLoaderModule} from '@nguniversal/module-map-ngfactory-loader';

import {AppModule} from './app.module';
import {AppComponent} from './app.component';

@NgModule({
  imports: [
    // The AppServerModule should import your AppModule followed
    // by the ServerModule from @angular/platform-server.
    AppModule,
    ServerModule,
    ModuleMapLoaderModule // <-- *Important* to have lazy-loaded routes work
  ],
  // Since the bootstrapped component is not inherited from your
  // imported AppModule, it needs to be repeated here.
  bootstrap: [AppComponent],
})
export class AppServerModule {}

app.module.ts

// Other modules also imported here deleting that for saving space
import { routingComponents, AppRoutingModule } from './app.routing.module';
import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { FormsModule, ReactiveFormsModule } from '@angular/forms';
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import { HttpModule } from '@angular/http';
import { HttpClientModule } from '@angular/common/http';

@NgModule({
  declarations: [
    AppComponent,

    // Imported other components here

  ],
  imports: [
    BrowserModule.withServerTransition({ appId: 'universal-cli' }),
    FormsModule,
    ReactiveFormsModule,
    HttpModule,
    HttpClientModule,
    ModalModule,
    NguCarouselModule
  ],
  providers: [
    // added providers here
  ],
  entryComponents: [],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})
export class AppModule { }

.angular-cli.json

{
  "$schema": "./node_modules/@angular/cli/lib/config/schema.json",
  "project": {
    "name": "universal-cli"
  },
  "apps": [
    {
      "root": "src",
      "outDir": "dist/browser",
      "assets": [
        "assets",
        "favicon.ico"
      ],
      "index": "index.html",
      "main": "main.ts",
      "polyfills": "polyfills.ts",
      "test": "test.ts",
      "tsconfig": "tsconfig.app.json",
      "testTsconfig": "tsconfig.spec.json",
      "prefix": "app",
      "styles": [
       "styles.css",
      ],
      "scripts": [],
      "environmentSource": "environments/environment.ts",
      "environments": {
        "dev": "environments/environment.ts",
        "prod": "environments/environment.prod.ts"
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "ssr",
      "platform": "server",
      "root": "src",
      "outDir": "dist/server",
      "assets": [
        "assets",
        "favicon.ico"
      ],
      "index": "index.html",
      "main": "main.server.ts",
      "test": "test.ts",
      "tsconfig": "tsconfig.server.json",
      "testTsconfig": "tsconfig.spec.json",
      "prefix": "app",
      "styles": [
        "styles.css"
      ],
      "scripts": [],
      "environmentSource": "environments/environment.ts",
      "environments": {
        "dev": "environments/environment.ts",
        "prod": "environments/environment.prod.ts"
      }
    }
  ],
  "e2e": {
    "protractor": {
      "config": "./protractor.conf.js"
    }
  },
  "lint": [
    {
      "project": "src/tsconfig.app.json",
      "exclude": "**/node_modules/**"
    },
    {
      "project": "src/tsconfig.spec.json",
      "exclude": "**/node_modules/**"
    },
    {
      "project": "e2e/tsconfig.e2e.json",
      "exclude": "**/node_modules/**"
    }
  ],
  "test": {
    "karma": {
      "config": "./karma.conf.js"
    }
  },
  "defaults": {
    "styleExt": "css",
    "component": {}
  }
}

Answer 1

The issue was with the URL structure. We've used HashLocationStrategy https://codecraft.tv/courses/angular/routing/routing-strategies/ by adding # in the URL for avoiding 404-page error while refreshing the angular page in the server.

When we've removed the HashLocationStrategy from the application, it's working fine.

@david: Thanks for your support.