ExpressJS Serve static files within request function

Question

I'm currently serving static files like this:

app.use('/javascripts', express.static(join(__dirname + '/assets/javascripts')));

and it works as expected.

What I would like to do is to use the user session to serve static files depending on the session. I've tried this:

app.use('/javascripts', (req: Request, res: Response, next) =>{
    if(req.session.auth){
        express.static(join(__dirname + '/auth/javascripts'))
    } else{
        express.static(join(__dirname + '/assets/javascripts'))
    }
});

but it doesn't serve the files. Can someone explain why it doesn't work and how I can achieve what I'm trying to do?

Answer 1

A middleware function (the second argument of .use()) should process the request and call next(), so this code does nothing.

What you need is to just have a dynamic route (instead of middleware) that redirects to the correct static directory according to req.session.auth:

app.get('/javascripts/*', function(req, res){
    if(req.session.auth){
        res.sendfile(req.params[0], {root: './auth/javascripts'});
    } else {
        res.sendfile(req.params[0], {root: './assets/javascripts'});
    } 
});