Node.js Web Server

📄 Introduction

This project is a lightweight, modular web server built with Node.js. It demonstrates core concepts of server-side programming without relying on frameworks, focusing on:

• Event-driven architecture using Node.js EventEmitter.
• Asynchronous file handling with fs/promises.
• Dynamic MIME type handling for serving static and dynamic files.
• Modular code organization with dedicated utilities for logging and file serving.

🛠️ Features

• Static File Serving: Supports serving files (CSS, JavaScript, images, etc.) from a public directory.
• Dynamic Routing: Dynamically resolves routes for .html files in a views directory.
• Custom Logging: Logs requests and errors into separate log files (reqLog.txt, errorLog.txt) using a unique ID for each log entry.
• 404 Handling: Serves a custom 404.html page for invalid routes.
• Redirects: Handles specific redirects with status code 301.
• MIME Type Support: Supports a wide range of MIME types, including text/html, application/json, and various image formats.

🗂️ Project Structure

├── logs/                 # Directory for generated log files
|     ├── errorLog.txt    # Errors logs text file
|     └── reqLog.txt      # Requests logs text file
├── node_modules/         # Node modules
├── public/               # Directory for static assets (CSS, JS, images, etc.)
|      └── css/           # CSS stylesheets
|      └── img/           # Images directory
└── src/                  # App source directory
     ├── views/           # Directory for HTML files
     ├── server.js        # Main server file
     ├── logEvents.js     # Logging utility
     └── serveFile.js     # File serving utility

🛠️ Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/MartinXCVI/node-web-server

2. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd node-web-server

3. Install dependencies:

   npm install

4. Start the server:

   npm start

5. Open your browser and navigate to:

   http://localhost:3500
   

⚙️ Environment Variables

• PORT: Define the port number for the server. Defaults to 3500 if not specified.

📋 How It Works

Request Handling

1. Logs every incoming request (URL and method) to reqLog.txt.
2. Serves files from the public directory if they exist and match the request.
3. For dynamic routes:
   • Serves HTML files from the views directory.
   • Redirects or serves a 404.html page if the file doesn't exist.

Logging

• All logs are timestamped and include a unique ID.
• Logs are written to the logs directory, with separate files for requests and errors.

Error Handling

• Errors encountered while serving files are logged in errorLog.txt.
• A generic 500 Internal Server Error response is sent if file serving fails.

📚 Learn More

• Node.js latest documentation
• Introduction to Node.js
• Nodemon project website
• date-fns official documentation
• UUID repository

🧑‍💻 Developer:

• MartinXCVI