“Cannot GET /” when trying to connect to localhost:8080 in node.js

Question

I am working on backbone.js application with node.js as backend server. the application is based on twitter API. When requesting to localhost:8080 I got the error "Cannot GET /" in the browser and I do not know what is the matter. My code is as follows:

server.js

var express = require('express');
var app = express();

var Twit = require('twit')

var client = null;


function connectToTwitter(){
   client = new Twit({
      consumer_key:         'xxx'
    , consumer_secret:      'xxx'
    , access_token:         'xxx'
    , access_token_secret:  'xxx'
  });
}

//get the app to connect to twitter.
connectToTwitter();

var allowCrossDomain = function(req, response, next) {
response.header('Access-Control-Allow-Origin', "http://localhost");
response.header('Access-Control-Allow-Methods', 'OPTIONS, GET,PUT,POST,DELETE');
response.header('Access-Control-Allow-Headers', 'Content-Type');

if ('OPTIONS' == req.method) {
  response.send(200);
}
else {
  next();
}
};

app.configure(function() {
    app.use(allowCrossDomain);
  //Parses the JSON object given in the body request
    app.use(express.bodyParser());
});

//Start server
var port = 8080;
app.listen( port, function() {
  console.log( 'Express server listening on port %d in %s mode', port, app.settings.env );
});

Directory structure in general:

C:\Users\eva\Desktop\twitter application\server\server.js 
                                        \client\index.html 
                                                \js

Can someone tell me why this error occur?

Solution

You need to implement what server must response on / requests. For example:

app.get('/', function(req, res, next) {
    res.send("Hello world");
});

Without it, express doesn't know how to handle /.

Comments

[evahriekes]

I tried to add this : app.get('/', function(req,res) { res.sendfile('index.html'); } ); but I got the following error in the browser: Error: ENOENT, stat 'C:\Users\eva\Desktop\twitter application\server\index.html' at Error (native)

[vanadium23]

@evahriekes Yes, because your index.html is in client folder, try to move it in server folder.

[evahriekes]

now the index.html is working but in static mode only...there is no dynamic code received from twitter i.e my application do not work as it should work @vanadium23

[vanadium23]

Okay, let's try following. Add app.use(express.static('../client')); and try to open http://localhost:8080/index.html

[evahriekes]

now that works for me thank you very much @vanadium23