Error: Failed to lookup view in Express

Question

Note: my auto answer at end of the post

I'm trying to make a better experience of nodeJS and i don't really like to get all the script in one file.

so, following a post here i use this structure

./  config/    enviroment.js    routes.js  public/    css/      styles.css    images  views    index      index.jade    section      index.jade    layout.jade  app.js 

My files are right now:

app.js

var express = require('express'); var app = module.exports = express.createServer();  require('./config/enviroment.js')(app, express); require('./config/routes.js')(app);  app.listen(3000); 

enviroment.js

module.exports = function(app, express) {     app.configure(function() {         app.use(express.logger());         app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));         app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');         app.set('view engine', 'jade'); //extension of views      });      //development configuration     app.configure('development', function() {         app.use(express.errorHandler({             dumpExceptions: true,             showStack: true         }));     });      //production configuration     app.configure('production', function() {         app.use(express.errorHandler());     });  }; 

routes.js

module.exports = function(app) {      app.get(['/','/index', '/inicio'], function(req, res) {         res.render('index/index');     });      app.get('/test', function(req, res) {         //res.render('index/index');     });  }; 

layout.jade

!!! 5 html     head         link(rel='stylesheet', href='/css/style.css')         title Express + Jade     body         #main             h1 Content goes here             #container!= body 

index/index.jade

h1 algoa 

The error i get is:

Error: Failed to lookup view "index/index" at Function.render (c:\xampp\htdocs\nodejs\buses\node_modules\express\lib\application.js:495:17) at render (c:\xampp\htdocs\nodejs\buses\node_modules\express\lib\response.js:614:9) at ServerResponse.render (c:\xampp\htdocs\nodejs\buses\node_modules\express\lib\response.js:638:5) at c:\xampp\htdocs\nodejs\buses\config\routes.js:4:7 at callbacks (c:\xampp\htdocs\nodejs\buses\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:177:11) at param (c:\xampp\htdocs\nodejs\buses\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:151:11) at pass (c:\xampp\htdocs\nodejs\buses\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:158:5) at Router._dispatch (c:\xampp\htdocs\nodejs\buses\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:185:4) at Object.router [as handle] (c:\xampp\htdocs\nodejs\buses\node_modules\express\lib\router\index.js:45:10) at next (c:\xampp\htdocs\nodejs\buses\node_modules\express\node_modules\connect\lib\proto.js:191:15)

But i don't really know what is the problem...

I'm starting thinking is because the modules exports...

Answer: Far away the unique solution i found is to change the place i defined app.set('views') and views engine

I moved it to the app.js and now is working well.

var express = require('express'); var app = module.exports = express.createServer();   require('./config/enviroment.js')(app, express);  app.set('views', __dirname + '/views'); app.set('view engine', 'jade');  require('./config/routes.js')(app);  app.listen(3000); 

I don't really understand the logic behind this but i gonna supose it have one.

Answer 1

Adding to @mihai's answer:

If you are in Windows, then just concatenating __dirname' + '../public' will result in wrong directory name (For example: c:\dev\app\module../public).

Instead use path, which will work irrespective of the OS:

var path = require ('path'); app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname + '../public'))); 

path.join will normalize the path separator character and will return correct path value.

Answer 2

npm install [email protected] installs the previous version, if it helps.

I know in 3.x the view layout mechanic was removed, but this might not be your problem. Also replace express.createServer() with express()

Update:

It's your __dirname from environment.js
It should be:

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