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Express server don't search static files in Angular 12 app

Background
I am migrating an Angular app in GKE cluster. The base docker image that I must use(company policy) does not have any options to install any new softwares like shell, Angular cli command ng etc. The base docker image has only Node installed.
There is a shared base url, let's say, www.my-company.com, that everyone has to use for app deployment with a path added after the base url like www.my-company.com/my-angular-app/ - all the other Angular apps must be differentiated using the path of the app.
What I did
Since I can't run ng serve command in the base image, I added Express dependency in the package.json in Angular application and created an express server to route the traffic to Angular app.
I was following this youtube video to configure the application - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTbQphoYbK0&t=303s. The problem I am facing is to how I load the the static files in the application.
If I define absolute path inside sendFile method of server.js file, although the application is working, but in future, if I need to add any other files in the application, I have to create another route in server.js file.
I don't know how Express can search a file automatically from the static folder(and sub folders) and return only that file when needed. I defined a static folder too, but seems like it is not working.
Following is my server.js code
==============================
const express = require('express');
const http = require('http');
const path = require('path');
const port = 8080;
const contextPath = '/my-angular-app';
const router = express.Router();
const app = express();
app.use(contextPath, router);
app.listen(port, ()=> {
console.log("Listening on port: ", port);
});
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/dist/testapp/'));
router.get('/', function(req, res) {
// to get index.html file
res.sendFile(path.resolve(__dirname + '/dist/testapp/index.html'));
});
router.get('/*', function(req, res) {
let path = __dirname +'/dist/testapp/' + req.path
console.log('full path: ', path);
// To return static files based on incoming request, I am facing problem here(I think)
res.sendFile(path);
});
==============================
I want Express will send any files based on file name in the request. It should also take care of nested directories in the /dist/testapp/ directory
/dist/testapp/ -> This is the directory where Angular generates code for my app after I execute ng build command

WEBAPP.get("/admin/script.js", (req, res) => {
console.log(req.path);
if (req.session.username !== "Admin") return res.render("error");
res.sendFile(__dirname + "/admin/admin.js")
});
WEBAPP.get("/admin", (req, res) => {
if (!req.session.loggedin) return res.render("error");
if (req.session.username !== "Admin") return res.render("error",);
res.render("admin", {
csrfToken: req.csrfToken(),
title: "ADMIN PORTAL",
username: req.session.username,
nav_avatar: GetImageURL(req.session.avatar, "small")
});
});
There's no need to publically share /admin/script.js in my case but if a user requests this URL say example.com/admin/script.js a check for username equaling "Admin" if all is okay we sendFile.
I would maybe assume that you're not properly targeting your static files. Perhaps console.log the target.

How to route in Node.js/React.js Web App?

I'm creating a Next.js Frontend - Express.js Backend Web App.
I have some problems with routing. In the official documentation of Next.js, I read that if we use a custom server, we have to disable the automatic routing that uses the folder /pages to work.
module.exports = {
useFileSystemPublicRoutes: false,
}
But at this point, how can I route the pages. I'm thinking to still use the /pages folder to group the several pages.
How can i route from backend? Have I to import in some way the javascript
pages? Like this code...
router.get('/users', function (req, res) { "import Next.js page" });
Or it's antoher type of process like use "react-router".
Can anyone give me an example of the best choice? Thanks

You can use next-routes.
// server.js
const next = require('next')
const routes = require('./routes')
const app = next({dev: process.env.NODE_ENV !== 'production'})
const handler = routes.getRequestHandler(app)
// With express
const express = require('express')
app.prepare().then(() => {
express().use(handler).listen(3000)
})
// Without express
const {createServer} = require('http')
app.prepare().then(() => {
createServer(handler).listen(3000)
})
and your routes.js file
const routes = module.exports = require('next-routes')()
routes
.add('about')
.add('blog', '/blog/:slug')
.add('user', '/user/:id', 'profile')

Express routes work when serving locally but fail once deployed

I am building a blog using Node js and Express and hosting it on firebase. When I serve the website locally everything works just fine and the html is served as expected. But, when I deploy the server the routes no longer work and the html files can't be found. I'm sure it has to do with how firebase deploy hold the html files.
I'm not really sure where to go from here. I can't really find great guidance on how to set up something like this on the firebase docs.
const functions = require("firebase-functions")
const cors = require("cors")
const express = require("express")
const path = require("path")
/* Express with CORS */
const app = express()
app.use(cors({ origin: true }))
app.get("/", (request, response) => {
response.send("Hello from Express on Firebase with CORS!")
})
//File path consts
const publicDir = "/Users/wilson/wildman-talks-fb/public";
const blogDir = "/Users/wilson/wildman-talks-fb/public/blogs";
app.get("/about/", (req, res) =>{
res.sendFile(path.join(publicDir, "/about.html"));
});
app.get("/contact/", (req, res) =>{
res.sendFile(path.join(publicDir, "/contact.html"));
});
app.get("/tools/", (req, res) =>{
res.sendFile(path.join(publicDir, "/tools.html"));
});
app.get("/five-steps-july-20/", (req, res) =>{
//res.send(path.join(publicDir, "/five-steps-july-20.html"));
res.sendFile(path.join(publicDir, "/five-steps-july-20.html"));
})
exports.app = functions.https.onRequest(app)
So what is happening is when I deploy the site locally all of the links in my webpage work to other html webpages for my site. When I deploy it on firebase I get 404 errors. I was able to use path.join(__dirname, "../public") and print out all of the files contained there. When i did that these were the files that were there on my local host: [".DS_Store","404.html","about.html","blogs","contact.html","css","five-steps-july-20.html","img","index.html","js","mail","tools.html","vendor"]. After deploying it just returns me a 500 error so I guess that won't help.

Your directories contain absolute paths to your filesystem. Try to use dynamic absolute paths.
Change the paths from
const publicDir = "/Users/wilson/wildman-talks-fb/public";
const blogDir = "/Users/wilson/wildman-talks-fb/public/blogs";
To
const path = require("path");
const publicDir = path.join(__dirname, "/public";)
const blogDir = path.join( __dirname, "/public/blogs");

Firebase cloud functions work locally but not after deployment

I'm currently attempting to deploy a Nuxt SSR app to Firebase.
Everything works correctly on local and the firebase server. The cloud function correctly executes and renders the html, no problem.
The problem happens when I add a request to and external API (Storyblok). I'm on the Blaze plan so external requests should work, right?
Everything works on local using the cloud functions emulator and through firebase serve --only functions,hosting with the external API request but I get an error 500 after deploying.
Is there a way to get a more detailed log of what may be happening on the Firbase end?
Cloud Function:
const functions = require('firebase-functions');
const { Nuxt } = require('nuxt');
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const config = {
dev: false,
buildDir: 'nuxt',
build: {
publicPath: '/assets/'
}
}
const nuxt = new Nuxt(config);
function handleRequest(req, res) {
res.set('Cache-Control', 'public, max-age=150, s-maxage=150');
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
nuxt.render(req, res, promise => {
promise.then(resolve).catch(reject)
})
});
}
app.use(handleRequest);
exports.nuxtssr = functions.https.onRequest(app);

Try to add debug: true in your Nuxt config.
i.e.
const config = {
debug: true,
dev: false,
buildDir: 'nuxt',
build: {
publicPath: '/assets/'
}
}
This will make the error message shows in browser, instead of just error 500.

Referring you to :
https://firebase.google.com/docs/functions/writing-and-viewing-logs#viewing_logs
perhaps this would have more details using Using the Firebase CLI.

Setup create-react-app with Express

Problem - I am not able to get any response from postman when hitting localhost:9000. It should give me a user json back which is in my routes file only for time being. Instead it spits out the following.
<body>
<noscript>You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.</noscript>
<div id="root"></div>
<script type="text/javascript" src="/static/js/main.ce2f0561.js"></script>
</body>
Setup
Using create-react-app with express to connect.
My folder structure is
--src React app lives in this
--server
-- index.js
-- express.js
-- controllers
-- routes
-- rs_notes.js
rs_routes.js
'use strict';
module.exports = function(router){
const notesController = require('../controllers/cs_notes');
router.route('/', function(req, res, next) {
// Comment out this line:
//res.send('respond with a resource');
// And insert something like this instead:
res.json([{
id: 1,
username: "samsepi0l"
}, {
id: 2,
username: "D0loresH4ze"
}]);
});
};
express.js
const express = require('express');
const morgan = require('morgan');
const path = require('path');
const app = express();
const router = express.Router();
// Setup logger
app.use(morgan(':remote-addr - :remote-user [:date[clf]] ":method :url HTTP/:http-version" :status :res[content-length] :response-time ms'));
// Serve static assets
app.use(express.static(path.resolve(__dirname, '..', 'build')));
require('./routes/rs_notes')(router);
// Always return the main index.html, so react-router render the route in the client
router.get('*', (req, res) => {
res.sendFile(path.resolve(__dirname, '..', 'build', 'index.html'));
});
module.exports = app;
index.js
'use strict';
const app = require('./express');
const PORT = process.env.PORT || 9000;
app.listen(PORT, () => {
console.log(`App listening on port ${PORT}!`);
});
Full project link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B35OQMkRo3KcSHlkeXdWVjVjc0U/view?usp=sharing
My questions or doubts are
Am I passing the router in a right way. We used to pass app in this
way prior to express 4 ? So not sure if same structure works here.
I am able to load it in browser by hitting localhost:9000 (server is run by node server command as configured) but not in postman.

I was able to fix up this stack by learning the use of Router appropriately and moving some code here and there. But it was still not working for base route i.e when I simply do router.get('/', ...). Gives the same error message. So I rather reversed the approach of connecting node and react. I published my efforts on medium for the same reason as two separate posts.
https://medium.com/#kushalvmahajan/i-am-about-to-tell-you-a-story-on-how-to-a-node-express-app-connected-to-react-c2fb973accf2