nodejs send html file to client

you can render the page in express more easily

 var app   = require('express')();    
    app.set('views', path.join(__dirname, 'views'));
    app.set('view engine', 'jade');
 
    app.get('/signup',function(req,res){      
    res.sendFile(path.join(__dirname,'/signup.html'));
    });

so if u request like http://127.0.0.1:8080/signup that it will render signup.html page under views folder.

Try your code like this:

var app = express();
app.get('/test', function(req, res) {
    res.sendFile('views/test.html', {root: __dirname })
});

1. Use res.sendFile instead of reading the file manually so express can handle setting the content-type properly for you.

2. You don't need the app.engine line, as that is handled internally by express.

After years, I want to add another approach by using a view engine in Express.js

var fs = require('fs');

app.get('/test', function(req, res, next) {
    var html = fs.readFileSync('./html/test.html', 'utf8')
    res.render('test', { html: html })
    // or res.send(html)
})

Then, do that in your views/test if you choose res.render method at the above code (I'm writing in EJS format):

<%- locals.html %>

That's all.

In this way, you don't need to break your View Engine arrangements.