{"id":216,"hash":"b3d5e4865612be63817ce032faae539989a1e8595394c8fc2c0897de60b6a360","pattern":"Error: No default engine was specified and no extension was provided","full_message":"I am working through setting up a http server using node.js and engine. However, I keep running into issues that I have little information on how to resolve I would appreciate some help solving  this please. \n\nError: No default engine was specified and no extension was provided. \nat new View (...\\node_modules\\express\\lib\\view.js:41:42) \nat Function.app.render (...\\node_modules\\express\\lib\\application.js:484:12) \nat ServerResponse.res.render (...\\node_modules\\express\\lib\\response.js:783:7) \nat Layer.handle (...\\app.js:123:7) \nat trim_prefix (...\\node_modules\\express\\lib\\router\\index.js:225:17) \nat c (...\\node_modules\\express\\lib\\router\\index.js:198:9) \nat Function.proto.process_params (...\\node_modules\\express\\lib\\router\\index.js:253:12) \nat next (...\\node_modules\\express\\lib\\router\\index.js:189:19) \nat next (...\\node_modules\\express\\lib\\router\\index.js:202:7) \nat next (...\\node_modules\\express\\lib\\router\\index.js:166:38)\n\nBelow is what I have set up to start up this engine. \n\nvar http = require('http');  \nvar module = require(\"module\")\nvar logger = require('morgan');\nvar express = require('express');\nvar app =  module.exports = express();\nvar silent = 'test' == process.env.NODE_ENV;\nvar httpServer = http.createServer(app);  // app middleware\n\napp.enable('strict routing');\n// app.all('*', function(req, res, next)/*** CORS support.*/\n// {\n//   if (!req.get('Origin')) return next();// use \"*\" here to accept any origin\n//   res.set('Access-Control-Allow-Origin', 'http://localhost:3000');\n//   res.set('Access-Control-Allow-Methods', 'GET, POST');\n//   res.set('Access-Control-Allow-Headers', 'X-Requested-With, Content-Type');\n//   res.set('Access-Control-Allow-Max-Age', 3600);\n//   if ('OPTIONS' == req.method) return res.send(200);\n//   next();\n// });\napp.set('views', __dirname + '/views'); // general config\napp.set('view engine', 'html');\napp.get('/404', function(req, res, next){\nnext();// trigger a 404 since no other middleware will match /404 after this one, and we're not responding here\n});\napp.get('/403', function(req, res, next){// trigger a 403 error\n  var err = new Error('not allowed!');\n  err.status = 403;\n  next(err);\n});\napp.get('/500', function(req, res, next){// trigger a generic (500) error\n  next(new Error('keyboard cat!'));\n});\napp.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public')); \n//error handlers\napp.use(logErrors);\napp.use(clientErrorHandler);\napp.use(errorHandler);  \n// middleware with an arity of 4 are considered error handling middleware. When you next(err)\n// it will be passed through the defined middleware in order, but ONLY those with an arity of 4, ignoring regular middleware.\nfunction clientErrorHandler(err, req, res, next) {\n  if (req.xhr) {// whatever you want here, feel free to populate properties on `err` to treat it differently in here.\n  res.send(err.status || 500, { error: err.message });\n  } \n  else \n  { next(err);}\n};\n// create an error with .status. we can then use the property in our custom error handler (Connect repects this prop as well)\nfunction error  (status, msg) {\n  var err = new Error(msg);\n  err.status = status;\n  return err;\n};\nfunction logErrors  (err, req, res, next) {\n  console.error(err.stack);\n  next(err);\n};\nfunction errorHandler (err, req, res, next) {\n  res.status(500);\n  res.render('error', { error: err });\n};\n\n// Error handlers\n// Since this is the last non-error-handling middleware use()d, we assume 404, as nothing else responded.\n// $ curl http://localhost:3000/notfound\n// $ curl http://localhost:3000/notfound -H \"Accept: application/json\"\n// $ curl http://localhost:3000/notfound -H \"Accept: text/plain\"\napp.use(function(req, res, next){\n  res.status(404); \n  if (req.accepts('html')) {// respond with html page\n    res.render('404', { url: req.url });\n    return;\n  } \n  if (req.accepts('json')) {// respond with json\n    res.send({ error: 'Not found' });\n    return;\n  } \n  res.type('txt').send('Not found');// default to plain-text. send()\n});\n\n// error-handling middleware, take the same form as regular middleware, however they require an\n// arity of 4, aka the signature (err, req, res, next).when connect has an error, it will invoke ONLY error-handling middleware.\n\n// If we were to next() here any remaining non-error-handling middleware would then be executed, or if we next(err) to\n// continue passing the error, only error-handling middleware would remain being executed, however here\n// we simply respond with an error page.\napp.use(function(err, req, res, next){\n  // we may use properties of the error object here and next(err) appropriately, or if we possibly recovered from the error, simply next().\n  res.status(err.status || 500);\n  res.render('500', { error: err });\n});\n\nif (!module.parent) {// assigning to exports will not modify module, must use module.exports\n  app.listen(3000);\n  silent || console.log('Express started on port 3000');\n};","ecosystem":"npm","package_name":"node.js","package_version":null,"solution":"The res.render stuff will throw an error if you're not using a view engine. \n\nIf you just want to serve json replace the res.render('error', { error: err }); lines in your code with:\n\nres.json({ error: err })\n\nPS: People usually also have message in the returned object:\n\nres.status(err.status || 500);\nres.json({\n  message: err.message,\n  error: err\n});","confidence":0.95,"source":"stackoverflow","source_url":"https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23595282/error-no-default-engine-was-specified-and-no-extension-was-provided","votes":198,"created_at":"2026-04-19T04:41:32.695787+00:00","updated_at":"2026-04-19T04:51:14.654417+00:00"}