Send Static Files in Express with sendFile()

Express' sendFile() function lets you send a raw file as a response to an HTTP request. You can think of res.sendFile() as Express' static middleware for a single endpoint.

Using sendFile()

Suppose you have an HTML file test.html that looks like this:

<h1>Hello, World</h1>

You can make Express serve this HTML file as an HTTP response using res.sendFile() by passing the path to test.html. Note that the path must be absolute unless you specify the root option.

app.get('/myendpoint', (req, res) => {
  res.sendFile(`${__dirname}/test.html`);
});

If you don't want to specify the absolute path, you can pass the root option to specify the directory the path is relative to.

app.get('/myendpoint', (req, res) => {
  res.sendFile('test.html', { root: __dirname });
});

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More Express Tutorials

• Handle POST Form Data with Express JS
• What Does `app.use(express.json())` Do in Express?
• Handling POST Requests with Express
• What Does `app.use(express.static())` Do in Express?
• The `app.get()` Function in Express
• The `app.use()` Function in Express
• Express Template Engines