How to Fetch Images from Node Server ?

The images, CSS files, JavaScript files, and other files that the client downloads from the server are known as static files. These static files can be fetched with the use of the express framework and without the use of it. The methods that can be used to serve static files are discussed below. The image to be accessed (geeksforgeeks.png) is placed inside the images folder, as shown in the directory tree below:

Project Structure:

We will discuss the following approaches to fetch images from Node server:

Using the Express framework

Using the Express framework its built-in middleware function express.static() can be used to serve static files.

Syntax:

express.static(root, [options])

Parameters:

This method accepts two parameters as mentioned above and described below:

• root: It specifies the directory from which the static files are to be served. Basically, all the static files reside in the public directory.
• options: It is used to specify other options which you can read more about here.

Example: The following code is an example of how to get an image or other static files from the node server.

// Requiring module
const express = require('express');

// Creating express object
const app = express();

// Defining port number
const PORT = 3000;

// Function to serve all static files
// inside public directory.
app.use(express.static('public'));
app.use('/images', express.static('images'));

// Server setup
app.listen(PORT, () => {
    console.log(`Running server on PORT ${PORT}...`);
})

Steps to run the program:

node server.js

Output: Open any browser and to go http://localhost:3000/images/geeksforgeeks.png and you will see the following output:

Without the Express Framework

To serve static files using the fundamentals of Node.js, we can follow these steps:

• Parse the incoming HTTP request, to know the requested path.
• Check if the path exists to respond to status as success or not found (optional).
• Get the extension of the file to set content-type.
• Serve the content-type in the header and serve the requested file in response.

Example: The following code is an example of how to get an image or other static files from the node server.

const http = require("http");
const fs = require("fs");
const path = require("path");
const url = require("url");

http.createServer((req, res) => {

    const request = url.parse(req.url, true);
    const action = request.pathname;
    const filePath = path.join(__dirname, action).split("%20").join(" ");

    fs.exists(filePath, function (exists) {

        if (!exists) {
            res.writeHead(404, {
                "Content-Type": "text/plain"
            });
            res.end("404 Not Found");
            return;
        }

        const ext = path.extname(action);

        let contentType = "text/plain"; // Default content type

        // Checking if the extension of the image is '.png'
        if (ext === ".png") {
            contentType = "image/png";
        }

        // Setting the headers
        res.writeHead(200, {
            "Content-Type": contentType
        });

        // Reading the file
        fs.readFile(filePath, function (err, content) {
            if (err) {
                res.writeHead(500);
                res.end("Server Error");
                return;
            }
            // Serving the image
            res.end(content);
        });
    });
})

// Listening to the PORT: 3000
.listen(3000, "127.0.0.1");

Steps to run the program:

node server.js

Output: Open any browser and to go http://localhost:3000/images/geeksforgeeks.png and you will see the following output: