I'm very new to node and trying to set up a simple backend solution to handle the routes in my Backbone application. Right now I'm routing everything to index.html. My problem is when I make a data request the response es back with Content-Type:text/html; charset=UTF-8 when I need it to be Content-Type:application/json. I know I need to set this header somewhere but not sure where and was wondering if someone could help?

JS

 var express = require('express');
var port = 8000;

var server = express();
server.use('/dist', express.static(__dirname + '/dist'));

server.get('scripts/data/*.json', function(req, res) {
    return res.json({
        success: true
    })
});

server.get('*', function(req, res){
    return res.sendFile(__dirname + '/index.html');
});

server.listen(port, function() {
    console.log('server listening on port ' + port);
});

I'm very new to node and trying to set up a simple backend solution to handle the routes in my Backbone application. Right now I'm routing everything to index.html. My problem is when I make a data request the response es back with Content-Type:text/html; charset=UTF-8 when I need it to be Content-Type:application/json. I know I need to set this header somewhere but not sure where and was wondering if someone could help?

JS

 var express = require('express');
var port = 8000;

var server = express();
server.use('/dist', express.static(__dirname + '/dist'));

server.get('scripts/data/*.json', function(req, res) {
    return res.json({
        success: true
    })
});

server.get('*', function(req, res){
    return res.sendFile(__dirname + '/index.html');
});

server.listen(port, function() {
    console.log('server listening on port ' + port);
});

• javascript
• json
• node.js

Share Follow edited Oct 1, 2015 at 11:49 styler asked Oct 1, 2015 at 9:28 stylerstyler 16.5k2525 gold badges8585 silver badges139139 bronze badges

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2 Answers 2

Sorted by: Reset to default 3

You need to do it in get method

add

res.setHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");

before sendFile

https://nodejs/api/http.html#http_response_setheader_name_value

You can also use middleware:

In express you can use express.static(root, [options])

Where one of option can be: setHeaders function

Check these links:

• Send additional http headers with Express.JS
• http://expressjs./api.html
• http://expressjs./starter/static-files.html

Here's another approach.

As pointed out in the answer above, you can pass additional parameters to express.static.

So, in order to serve your *.json files you should put this code about your * route:

app.use('/scripts', express.static(__dirname + '/scripts'), {
    setHeaders: function(res) {
        res.setHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");
    }
});