Angular 2 Routing Does Not Work When Deployed to Http Server

Question

I am going to develop a simple Angular 2 application. I have created a project with routing, using Angular CLI and added several components to the app using 'ng generate component ' command. Then I specified routing in the app-routing.module.ts as following.

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { Routes, RouterModule } from '@angular/router';
import { HomeComponent } from './home/home.component';
import { AboutComponent } from './about/about.component';
import { UserComponent } from './user/user.component';
import { ErrorComponent } from './error/error.component';
import { SpecialpageComponent } from './specialpage/specialpage.component';

const routes: Routes = [
  {
    path: '',
    component: HomeComponent
  },
  {
    path: 'about',
    component: AboutComponent
  },
    {
    path: 'user',
    component: UserComponent
  },
  {
    path: 'specialpage',
    component: SpecialpageComponent
  },
  {
    path: '**',
    component: ErrorComponent
  }

];

@NgModule({
  imports: [RouterModule.forRoot(routes)],
  exports: [RouterModule],
  providers: []
})
export class AppRoutingModule { }

app.module.ts is as following.

import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { FormsModule } from '@angular/forms';
import { HttpModule } from '@angular/http';
import { AppRoutingModule } from './app-routing.module';

import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import { HomeComponent } from './home/home.component';
import { AboutComponent } from './about/about.component';
import { ErrorComponent } from './error/error.component';
import { UserComponent } from './user/user.component';
import { SpecialpageComponent } from './specialpage/specialpage.component';

@NgModule({
  declarations: [
    AppComponent,
    HomeComponent,
    AboutComponent,
    ErrorComponent,
    UserComponent,
    SpecialpageComponent
  ],
  imports: [
    BrowserModule,
    FormsModule,
    HttpModule,
    AppRoutingModule
  ],
  providers: [],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})
export class AppModule { }

I have not added any modifications for the other components. Then I deployed the application using 'ng serve' command and the app works fine with the links. Eg: http://localhost:4200/about

But when I deploy the project in http-server, the links do not work as expected. I deployed the app using 'http-server ./dist' command and the app gets deployed fine, but the links do not work. When I go to 'http://localhost:4200/about', it gives 404 error.

Am I doing anything wrong? Why 'ng-serve' works and 'http-server' does not work?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I have uploaded my project to github.

Answer 1

This problem is solved by implementing HashLocationStrategy which adds # to all your routes. You achieve this by adding HashLocationStrategy to AppModule providers.

    providers: [{provide: LocationStrategy, useClass: HashLocationStrategy}],

and add the corresponding import

   import { HashLocationStrategy, LocationStrategy } from '@angular/common';

This will solve your problem.

And if you don't want to use the HashLocationStrategy, you can use the PahtLocationStrategy, and so your Angular app will not show Hash in the URL. For more details about it check the official Link: https://angular.io/api/common/PathLocationStrategy