Doesn't work for single page apps with client-side routing

[Ricki-BumbleDev]

For single page apps with client-side routing the index.html file needs to be served for any path that cannot be resolved otherwise, so that it can be handled by the client-side JS.

From the way it works in Express or Fastify I would expect this to work:

app.use(staticPlugin({ assets: './static', prefix: '/'}));
app.get('/*', () => Bun.file('./static/index.html'));

But with the Elysia static plugin it doesn't work. In this case I get the index.html returned also for my static assets.

Would be nice if this could be addressed.

For now I cannot use the plugin and instead wrote this:

app.get('/*', async ({ path }) => {
  const staticFile = Bun.file(`./static/${path}`);
  const fallBackFile = Bun.file('./static/index.html');
  return (await staticFile.exists()) ? staticFile : fallBackFile;
});

(I'm a little bit worried it might be vulnerable to path-traversal attacks, although from what I have tried it seems fine.)

[aryzing]

It works as intended when setting alwaysStatic: true,

const app = new Elysia()
  .use(staticPlugin({ assets: "./static", prefix: "/", alwaysStatic: true }))
  .get("/*", () => Bun.file("./static/index.html"));

The plugin resolves files differently depending on alwaysStatic. When set, it iterates through all the assets and loads their paths as routes into the router rather than trying to dynamically resolve the file at "request time".

It's the "request time" file resolution that is interfering with the app.get("/*", ...) route. Setting alwaysStatic: true avoids the "request time" resolution.

[Ricki-BumbleDev]

@aryzing Thank you for your response. I tried alwaysStatic: true already. It did not resolve the issue. Do you have a full example where it is working for you?

[aryzing]

What version are you on? It works with,

"elysia": "0.7.29",
"@elysiajs/static": "0.7.1",

[bogeychan]

Hi all 👋

you can do this instead of .get("/*"):

import { Elysia } from 'elysia';
import { staticPlugin } from '@elysiajs/static';

const app = new Elysia()
  .onError((ctx) => {
    if (ctx.code === 'NOT_FOUND') {
      ctx.set.redirect = '/';
      return '';
    }
  })
  .use(staticPlugin({ assets: 'app/dist', prefix: '/' }))
  .get('/', () => Bun.file('app/dist/index.html'))
  .listen(8080);

console.log(app.server?.url.toString());

and make sure to exclude folders as described here: #17 (comment)

[Ricki-BumbleDev]

@aryzing I am using the same versions, it's definitely not working like that. It responds with the index.html for everything, even if there is a matching static file.

[aryzing]

@Ricki-BumbleDev It may be worth locally adding a console.log() directly inside the if/else to help understand which branch is being called. If it's the first branch and the issue persists, there may be other factors affecting the response.

[KernelKrusha]

I can confirm that the suggestion by @bogeychan is not working for SPA's with client side routing since it redirects everything to /, when you would actually want it to route everything to the index.html file while keeping the path in the url.

The workaround suggested by @Ricki-BumbleDev (#22 (comment)) works perfectly.

[myukselen]

@bogeychan's error handler opened opportunities for me.
I have static files for React SPA under '/app/' base url.

I also want to preserve the path for client side routing to pick where it left off. This is the solution I am using right now:

        .onError((ctx) => {
            if (ctx.code === 'NOT_FOUND') {
                if (ctx.path.startsWith('/app/')) {
                    // ctx.set.redirect = '/app/';  // looses path for the SPA
                    ctx.set.status = 'OK'
                    return Bun.file('../frontend/dist/index.html');
                } else {
                    ctx.set.redirect = '/';
                }
                return '';
            }
        })
        .use(staticPlugin({
            assets: '../frontend/dist',
            prefix: '/app',
        }))

Thanks for this repository and the discussion.

[elliotBraem]

For anyone that stumbles across this and looking for a solution, this is what worked for me:

      .use(
        staticPlugin({
          assets: FRONTEND_DIST_PATH,
          prefix: "/",
          alwaysStatic: true,
        }),
      )
      .get("/*", () => Bun.file(`${FRONTEND_DIST_PATH}/index.html`))

Backend serving api routes and a SPA. Thanks @aryzing