Cannot find module from local file in express js app

Question

I have an express js project generated with npm init, the stack is (express mySql, sequelize), i am planing to do a mern stack starting out from doing backend first. For the database I use MySQL instead of MongoDB.

The error: the error is can't find module from local file

here is the snapshot of the error message:

the file structure

package.json

{
  "name": "login_system",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "type": "module",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "bcrypt": "^5.1.0",
    "cookie-parser": "^1.4.6",
    "cors": "^2.8.5",
    "dotenv": "^16.3.1",
    "express": "^4.18.2",
    "jsonwebtoken": "^9.0.1",
    "mysql2": "^3.6.0",
    "sequelize": "^6.32.1"
  }
}

index.js --> entry point

import express from "express";
import db from "./config/database.js";
import router from "./routes/index.js";

const app = express();

// create database connection 
try {
  await db.authenticate();
  console.log("Database Connected ...");
} catch (error) {
  console.log(error);
}

app.use(express.json());
app.use(router);

app.listen(5000, () => console.log("server is running at port 5000"));

routes/index.js

import express from "express";
import getUser from "../controllers/Users"; --> this is where the error is

const router = express.Router();

router.get("/users", getUser);

export default router;

controllers/Users.js --> 'cannot find module' error comes from this file

import users from "../models/UserModel";

const getUsers = async (req, res) => {
  try {
    const users_ = await users.findAll();
    res.json(users_);
  } catch (error) {
    console.log(error);
  }
};

export default getUsers;

Any Idea how to solve this error ? thankyou

Answer 1

You need to append .js to the import statements, for example:

import getUser from "../controllers/Users.js";

import users from "../models/UserModel.js";

As per Node docs:

A file extension must be provided when using the import keyword to resolve relative or absolute specifiers. Directory indexes (e.g. './startup/index.js') must also be fully specified.