requests.js

var url = require('url');
var fs = require("fs");
var path = require('path')
  // thanks! http://blog.kevinchisholm.com/javascript/node-js/making-a-simple-http-server-with-node-js-part-iv/

var headers = {

  "access-control-allow-origin": "*",
  "access-control-allow-methods": "GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS",
  "access-control-allow-headers": "content-type, accept",
  "access-control-max-age": 10, // Seconds.
  'Content-Type': "text/html"

};

var extensions = {
  ".html" : "text/html",
  ".css" : "text/css",
  ".js" : "application/javascript",
  ".png" : "image/png",
  ".gif" : "text/gif",
  ".jpg" : "text/jpg",
  ".ico" : "text/ico"
};

function getFile(filePath,res,page404,mimeType){
  //does the requested file exist?
  console.log('looking here: ',filePath)
  fs.exists(filePath,function(exists){
    //if it does...
    if(exists){
      //read the fiule, run the anonymous function
      fs.readFile(filePath,function(err,contents){
        if(!err){
        //if there was no error
        //send the contents with the default 200/ok header
        res.writeHead(200,{
          "Content-type" : mimeType,
          "Content-Length" : contents.length
        });
        res.end(contents);
        } else {
          //for our own troubleshooting
          console.dir(err);
        };
      });
    } else {
      //if the requested file was not found
      //serve-up our custom 404 page
      fs.readFile(page404,function(err,contents){
        //if there was no error
        if(!err){
          //send the contents with a 404/not found header 
          res.writeHead(404, {'Content-Type': 'text/html'});
          res.end(contents);
        } else {
          //for our own troubleshooting
          console.dir(err);
        };
      });
    };
  });
};

function handleRequest(req, res) {
  var
    fileName = req.url,
    ext = path.extname(fileName),
    localFolder = __dirname + '/public',
    page404 = localFolder + '/404.html';
  if (fileName === '/') {fileName ='/index.html'}
  console.log("Serving request type " + req.method + " for url " + req.url , localFolder, '\n', fileName);

  getFile((localFolder + fileName),res,page404,extensions[ext]);
};

exports.handleRequest = handleRequest;