Node/Express: Trying to send static JSON file to API endpoint - json

Question

I am working on a MEAN stack app, and I'm trying to create a couple of API endpoints that the Angular client can $http.get, with simple JSON files populated with dummy data.
Here's the orders.json file I'm trying to test it with:
[
{
"order_status":"Shipped",
"order_qty":30
},
{
"order_status":"Shipped",
"order_qty":6
}
]
For example, the api route to $http.get:
apiRouter.get('/:fileName', queries.getStaticJSONFileForDevelopment);
But when I try to use express's sendFile method with a local .json file, like orders.json:
queries.js:
exports.getStaticJSONFile = function(req, res) {
var fileName = req.params.fileName;
console.log('path: ' + path.normalize(__dirname + '/' + fileName));
res.sendFile(path.normalize(__dirname + '/' + fileName), function(err) {
if (err) return res.send({ reason:error.toString() });
});
};
The console.log tells me I'm pointed at the correct path to the file, but Postman delivers this error:
TypeError: undefined is not a function
at Object.exports.getStaticJSONFile [as handle] (path/to/queries.js:260:7)
// queries.js:260:7 points to the 's' in 'sendFile' above
However, when I just send the json data by itself:
res.send([{"order_status":"Shipped","order_qty":30},{"order_status":"Shipped","order_qty":6}]);
...the endpoint renders the data as you would expect. Am I trying to get the sendFile method to do something it's not meant to do, or is there something I'm missing? Thanks very much for any advice you may have!

Answer 1

If You want to read json file and response with json so You can try this:
var jsonfile = require('jsonfile');
exports.getStaticJSONFile = function(req, res) {
var fileName = req.params.fileName;
var file = path.normalize(__dirname + '/' + fileName);
console.log('path: ' + file);
jsonfile.readFile(file, function(err, obj) {
if(err) {
res.json({status: 'error', reason: err.toString()});
return;
}
res.json(obj);
});
};