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JavaScript Build a Simple Dynamic Site with Node.js Handling Routes in Node.js Home Route

Elena Man
Elena Man
21,092 Points
Posted by Elena Man
Elena Man
21,092 Points

Can't understand request.url

Can someone explain in more detail what request.url does and why we set it equal to "/"? I have looked over the documentation and went through the video several times but still don't understand it.

Thank you!

2 Answers

Adam N
Adam N
70,280 Points

This is how I understand it:

Say you have example.com/library

The route is considered '/library'

So, if you just want to go to the homepage (example.com), it's referred to as '/' because example.com can also be written as example.com/ (notice the last character of this url is a forward slash)

Let me know if this helps here

Elena Man
Elena Man
21,092 Points
Elena Man
Elena Man
21,092 Points

But why are we looking only for the '/'? Why not he whole string ('example.com/')?

Adam N
Adam N
70,280 Points

I think routes are built to work regardless of what the domain name is. For example, locally your domain will be different than in production.

Elena Man
Elena Man
21,092 Points
Elena Man
Elena Man
21,092 Points

Thanks for the help! It makes more sense for me now!

wildgoosestudent
wildgoosestudent
11,274 Points
wildgoosestudent
wildgoosestudent
11,274 Points

I had the same question so I added in some code to see what the url actually is

// Handle HTTP route GET and POST ex Home
function homeRoute(request, response) {
  if(request.url === "/") {
    response.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
    response.write("Header\n");
    response.write("Search\n");
    // didn't make any changes to the url
    response.write(request.url);
    // '/' is returned 
    response.end(" ");
  } else {
    // added '/banana' to the url
    response.write(request.url);
    // '/banana' is returned 
    response.end(" ");
  }
}