Getting unexpected token ILLEGAL error for server.js file

Question

So I'm going through the node.js in action book and I'm currently trying to build the chat based application on the second chapter. However, I keep on getting the Unexpected token ILLEGAL when I try to run the HTTP server, but i don't seem to see anything wrong:

var http  = require('http');
var fs    = require('fs');
var path  = require('path');
var mime  = require('mime');
var cache = {};

function send404(response) {
  response.writeHead(404, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
  response.write('Error 404: resource not found.');
  response.end();
}

function sendFile(response, filePath, fileContents) {
  response.writeHead(
    200,
    {"content-type": mime.lookup(path.basename(filePath))}
  );
    response.end(fileContents);
  }

function serveStatic(response, cache, absPath) {
  if (cache[absPath]) {
    sendFile(response, absPath, cache[absPath]);
  } 
  else {
    fs.exists(absPath, function(exists) {
      if (exists) {
        fs.readFile(absPath, function(err, data) {
          if (err) {
            send404(response);
          } 
          else {
            cache[absPath] = data;
            sendFile(response, absPath, data);
          }
              });
         } 
      else {
        send404(response);
      }
    }); 
   }
}
  
var server = http.createServer(function(request, response) {
  var filePath = false;
  if (request.url == '/') {
    filePath = 'public/index.html';
  } 
  else {
    filePath = 'public' + request.url;
  }
  var absPath = './' + filePath;
  serveStatic(response, cache, absPath);
});

server.listen(3000, function() {
  console.log("Server listening on port 3000.");
});

Answer 1

You seem to have strange hidden characters in your code, try this

var http  = require('http');
var fs    = require('fs');
var path  = require('path');
var mime  = require('mime');
var cache = {};

function send404(response) {
  response.writeHead(404, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
  response.write('Error 404: resource not found.');
  response.end();
}

function sendFile(response, filePath, fileContents) {
  response.writeHead(
    200,
    {"content-type": mime.lookup(path.basename(filePath))}
  );
    response.end(fileContents);
  }

function serveStatic(response, cache, absPath) {
  if (cache[absPath]) {
    sendFile(response, absPath, cache[absPath]);
  }
  else {
    fs.exists(absPath, function(exists) {
      if (exists) {
        fs.readFile(absPath, function(err, data) {
          if (err) {
            send404(response);
          }
          else {
            cache[absPath] = data;
            sendFile(response, absPath, data);
          }
              });
         }
      else {
        send404(response);
      }
    });
   }
}

var server = http.createServer(function(request, response) {
  var filePath = false;
  if (request.url == '/') {
    filePath = 'public/index.html';
  }
  else {
    filePath = 'public' + request.url;
  }
  var absPath = './' + filePath;
  serveStatic(response, cache, absPath);
});

server.listen(3000, function() {
  console.log("Server listening on port 3000.");
});