Error: No default engine was specified and no extension was provided

Question

The res.render stuff will throw an error if you're not using a view engine.

If you just want to serve json replace the res.render('error', { error: err }); lines in your code with:

res.json({ error: err })

PS: People usually also have message in the returned object:

res.status(err.status || 500);
res.json({
  message: err.message,
  error: err
});

You are missing the view engine, for example use jade:

change your

app.set('view engine', 'html');

with

app.set('view engine', 'jade');

If you want use a html friendly syntax use instead ejs

app.engine('html', require('ejs').renderFile);
app.set('view engine', 'html');

EDIT

As you can read from view.js Express View Module

module.exports = View;

/**
 * Initialize a new `View` with the given `name`.
 *
 * Options:
 *
 *   - `defaultEngine` the default template engine name
 *   - `engines` template engine require() cache
 *   - `root` root path for view lookup
 *
 * @param {String} name
 * @param {Object} options
 * @api private
 */

function View(name, options) {
  options = options || {};
  this.name = name;
  this.root = options.root;
  var engines = options.engines;
  this.defaultEngine = options.defaultEngine;
  var ext = this.ext = extname(name);
  if (!ext && !this.defaultEngine) throw new Error('No default engine was specified and no extension was provided.');
  if (!ext) name += (ext = this.ext = ('.' != this.defaultEngine[0] ? '.' : '') + this.defaultEngine);
  this.engine = engines[ext] || (engines[ext] = require(ext.slice(1)).__express);
  this.path = this.lookup(name);
}

You must have installed a default engine

Express search default layout view by program.template as you can read below:

mkdir(path + '/views', function(){
      switch (program.template) {
        case 'ejs':
          write(path + '/views/index.ejs', ejsIndex);
          break;
        case 'jade':
          write(path + '/views/layout.jade', jadeLayout);
          write(path + '/views/index.jade', jadeIndex);
          break;
        case 'jshtml':
          write(path + '/views/layout.jshtml', jshtmlLayout);
          write(path + '/views/index.jshtml', jshtmlIndex);
          break;
        case 'hjs':
          write(path + '/views/index.hjs', hoganIndex);
          break;

      }
    });

and as you can read below:

program.template = 'jade';
if (program.ejs) program.template = 'ejs';
if (program.jshtml) program.template = 'jshtml';
if (program.hogan) program.template = 'hjs';

the default view engine is jade

Comment out the res.render lines in your code and add in next(err); instead. If you're not using a view engine, the res.render stuff will throw an error.

Sorry, you'll have to comment out this line as well:

app.set('view engine', 'html');

My solution would result in not using a view engine though. You don't need a view engine, but if that's the goal, try this:

app.set('views', path.join(__dirname, 'views'));
app.set('view engine', 'jade');
//swap jade for ejs etc

You'll need the res.render lines when using a view engine as well. Something like this:

// error handlers
// development error handler
// will print stacktrace
if (app.get('env') === 'development') {
  app.use(function(err, req, res, next) {
    res.status(err.status || 500);
    res.render('error', {
    message: err.message,
    error: err
    });
  });
}
// production error handler
// no stacktraces leaked to user
app.use(function(err, req, res, next) {
  res.status(err.status || 500);
  next(err);
  res.render('error', {
  message: err.message,
  error: {}
  });
});

If you wish to render a html file, use:

response.sendfile('index.html');

Then you remove:

app.set('view engine', 'html');

Put your *.html in the views directory, or serve a public directory as static dir and put the index.html in the public dir.

set view engine following way

app.set('views', path.join(__dirname, 'views'));
app.set('view engine', 'jade');

instead of

app.get('/', (req, res) => res.render('Hellooooo'))

use

app.get('/', (req, res) => res.send('Hellooooo'))

If all that's needed is to send html code inline in the code, we can use below

var app = express();
app.get('/test.html', function (req, res) {
   res.header('Content-Type', 'text/html').send("<html>my html code</html>");
});