In express how do I redirect a user to an external url?

Question

I have a payment system using node.js and braintree, when the payment is successful I want to send the user to the back end. My back end is setup elsewhere.

I have tried

res.writeHead(301,
  {Location: 'http://app.example.io'}
);
res.end();

So window.location is obviously not available. I cant think of any ways to redirect a user?

Solution 1

You can do

res.redirect('https://app.example.io');

Express docs: https://expressjs.com/en/api.html#res.redirect

Solution 2

The selected answer did not work for me. It was redirecting me to: locahost:8080/www.google.com - which is nonsense.

301 Moved Permanently needs to be included with res.status(301) as seen below.

app.get("/where", (req, res) => {

    res.status(301).redirect("https://www.google.com")

})

You are in the same situation since your back-end is elsewhere.

Solution 3

    app.get("/where", (req, res) => {

    res.status(301).redirect("https://www.google.com")

})

You need to include the status (301)

Solution 4

I just have the same issue and got it work by adding "next". I use routers so maybe you have same issue as mine? Without next, i got error about no render engine...weird

var express = require('express');
var router = express.Router();
var debug = require('debug')('node_blog:server');

/* GET home page. */
router.get('/', function(req, res, next) {
  debug("index debug");
  res.render('index.html', { title: 'Express' });
});

router.post("/", function (req, res, next) {
    //var pass = req.body("password");
    //var loginx = req.body("login");
    //res.render('index.html', { title: 'Express' });
    res.redirect("/users")
    next
});

module.exports = router;

Solution 5

redirect a user to an external URL is pretty simple.

res.redirect('enter the URL here');

View more solutions

Comments

[Michael Joseph Aubry]

I tried that earlier but I dont think it worked trying it again.

[TheIronDeveloper]

I just tested it on a personal app and it redirects correctly. Question: What version of express are you using?

[TheIronDeveloper]

Well if your willing to link your github repo I can try to debug more, but to answer your question... this is how you redirect to an external site in express.

[Michael Joseph Aubry]

Yeah I would agree, it's weird, I am sure I am overlooking something. On success I will just render a success message and give the user the option to go to the backend.

[Y Anderson]

I was having similar issues and I found that this has to do with https:// or http:// needing to be attached to the redirect url. If not it seems to fail. Also adding a 301 results in the redirect url being cached by the browser which means everytime you hit the same url it will redirect you to the first address regardless of whether it could have changed or not.

[Krish]

how to pass headers to this redirect url?

[B--rian]

Please be so kind and elaborate a bit what you mean by tricked.

[Alex]

Headers can't be passed to redirect

[TheIronDeveloper]

Rather than the server returning a 301 to tell the browser to immediately redirect, they are returning a webpage with JavaScript that redirects the url.

[Admin]

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please edit to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.