How do I setup a SSL certificate for an express.js server?

Before, in an older version of express, I could do this:

express.createServer({key:'keyFile', cert:'certFile'});

However, in newer versions of express this no longer works:

var app = express();

Should I call app.use() to set the certs? If so how?

Solution 1:

See the Express docs as well as the Node docs for https.createServer (which is what express recommends to use):

var privateKey = fs.readFileSync( 'privatekey.pem' );
var certificate = fs.readFileSync( 'certificate.pem' );

https.createServer({
    key: privateKey,
    cert: certificate
}, app).listen(port);

Other options for createServer are at: http://nodejs.org/api/tls.html#tls_tls_createserver_options_secureconnectionlistener

Solution 2:

I was able to get SSL working with the following boilerplate code:

var fs = require('fs'),
    http = require('http'),
    https = require('https'),
    express = require('express');

var port = 8000;

var options = {
    key: fs.readFileSync('./ssl/privatekey.pem'),
    cert: fs.readFileSync('./ssl/certificate.pem'),
};

var app = express();

var server = https.createServer(options, app).listen(port, function(){
  console.log("Express server listening on port " + port);
});

app.get('/', function (req, res) {
    res.writeHead(200);
    res.end("hello world\n");
});

Solution 3:

This is my working code for express 4.0.

express 4.0 is very different from 3.0 and others.

4.0 you have /bin/www file, which you are going to add https here.

"npm start" is standard way you start express 4.0 server.

readFileSync() function should use __dirname get current directory

while require() use ./ refer to current directory.

First you put private.key and public.cert file under /bin folder, It is same folder as WWW file.

no such directory found error:

  key: fs.readFileSync('../private.key'),

  cert: fs.readFileSync('../public.cert')

error, no such directory found

  key: fs.readFileSync('./private.key'),

  cert: fs.readFileSync('./public.cert')

Working code should be

key: fs.readFileSync(__dirname + '/private.key', 'utf8'),

cert: fs.readFileSync(__dirname + '/public.cert', 'utf8')

Complete https code is:

const https = require('https');
const fs = require('fs');

// readFileSync function must use __dirname get current directory
// require use ./ refer to current directory.

const options = {
   key: fs.readFileSync(__dirname + '/private.key', 'utf8'),
  cert: fs.readFileSync(__dirname + '/public.cert', 'utf8')
};


 // Create HTTPs server.

 var server = https.createServer(options, app);