templating using handlebars with nodejs to include layout

Question

app.js

var exphbs = require('express-handlebars');
app.engine('handlebars', exphbs({defaultLayout: 'layout'}));
app.set('view engine', 'handlebars');
app.use('/catalog', require('./routes/catalog'));

so in my routes folder I have a folder call catalog then within it I have catalog.js.

In catalog.js I do

var express = require('express');
var router  = module.exports = express.Router();
router.get('/', function(req, res) {
        res.render('catalog/index');
});

It worked fine when I go to http://localhost:3000/catalog but it excluded from the layout when I try to run http://localhost:3000/catalog/ Any idea why?

Answer 1

There is an npm package (connect-slashes) which installs some middleware which will add a slash on urls without one. This process is called URL canonicalisation.

This is better because you won't display similar content for 'catalog' and 'catalog/' urls which would be bad for SEO (duplicate content penalties).

Package details here:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/connect-slashes

From the command line:

npm install connect-slashes --save