Failed to lookup view "index.ejs" in views directory

Question

I have the following code in my express app (app.js file):

const express = require("express");
const app = express();

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

app.get('/', function(req, res) {
    res.render('index');
});

app.listen(8080);

And the following dependencies:

"ejs": "^2.6.1",
"express": "^4.16.3",
"request": "^2.87.0"

And this is my folder structure:

myapp
   app.js
   package.json
   views
      index.ejs
   node_modules
      [all node files]

But when I run the app, it shows this error:

Failed to lookup view "index.ejs" in views directory "mylocaldirectory/myapp/views"

If it would help here are the other error messages:

  at Function.render (/mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/application.js:580:17)
    at ServerResponse.render (/mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/response.js:1008:7)
    at //mylocaldirectory/myapp/app.js:11:9
    at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (/mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/router/layer.js:95:5)
    at next (/mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/router/route.js:137:13)
    at Route.dispatch (/mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/router/route.js:112:3)
    at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (/mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/router/layer.js:95:5)
    at /mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:281:22
    at Function.process_params (/mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:335:12)
    at next (/mylocaldirectory/myapp/node_modules/express/lib/router/index.js:275:10)

I get no error if I just use res.send("SOME TEXT") but when I try to render an ejs file, it doesn't. What's the issue?

Answer 1

You need to set your view directory and your viewengine before requesting any of your view files.

Hence you need to add the below lines, before your app.get

app.set('views', './views');
app.set('view engine', 'ejs');

And your res.render('index.ejs'); should be changed as,

res.render('index');

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

This issue basically comes when your ejs views engine unable to find file or folder. So do following checks:

1.check directory name. it should be 'views' not 'view'.

2.check file under directory having correct file extension or not? it should be .ejs only not others like .html or .json etc.

3.tell express that i am going to use ejs view engine by using below code:

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

Answer 3

Did you set up the views folder?

app.set('views', './views')

Answer 4

First you have to tell express what view engine to use by setting

javascript // set the view engine to ejs app.set('view engine', 'ejs');

And when referring to a view you should leave out the extension. So instead of res.render('index.ejs'); use res.render('index');.

Setting up the view folder is not required since you're using the default view folder views to store your view files.