Nodejitsu - Error: No default engine was specified and no extension was provided

Question

I'm having a problem with Nodejitsu. My app runs perfectly when deployed locally but I've recently been introduced to nodejitsu and I've uploaded my app, database and everything. However, when I try to deploy my application, I keep getting "Internal Server Error". When I view the log, it tells me:

Error: No default engine was specified and no extension was provided.

I specified both the viewing engine in the package.json and in the app.js file that is charged with controlling the application.

app.configure('development', function(){
 app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
 app.set('view engine', 'jade');

 app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
 app.use(express.logger('dev'));
 app.use(express.bodyParser({uploadDir: './uploads' }));
 app.use(express.cookieParser());
 app.use(express.session({secret: 'mySecret', cookie: {maxAge: 25920000000}}));
 app.use(express.errorHandler());

 app.use(passport.initialize());
 app.use(passport.session());

 app.use(app.router);
});

The package.json is

"engines": {
  "node": "0.10.x",
  "jade": "0.31.0"
}

As you can see, I'm clearly setting up the view engine but I don't understand why the am getting that error. I've also scanned the lib/views.js file for the line that threw the error

if (!ext && !this.defaultEngine) throw new Error('No default engine was specified and no extension was provided.');

Which makes sense when you think of why the error was thrown; however, becomes confusing when I know for certain that I specified a viewing engine.

Answer 1

Ah, omit the app.configure wrapper entirely. Just take the code inside it and have it be top-level. Nodejitsu is running your app with NODE_ENV=production, not development. In general, any configuration that should always be run, such as all of your code above should NOT be put in an app.configure callback. I never use app.configure at all as it is so trivial to be basically useless, but it's purpose is for things that differ between development and production environments.