SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data?

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Can anyone tell me why this code will work perfectly in an HTML page when accessing the data from my hard drive but when I add it to express and node I get a

SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data

with perfectly formatted code. I know I tested it with a formatter and I even manually created a json object. Here is the code:

<html>
    <!doctype html>
    <html>
        <head>
            <meta charset="utf-8">
            <meta name="description" content="">
            <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
            <title>Untitled</title>
        </head>
        <body>

    <div id="output"></div>

          <button id="getProperty">Get Property</button>

          <script>
            document.getElementById('getProperty').addEventListener('click', getProperty);


            function getProperty() {
                fetch('2016-regular.json')
                .then((res) => res.json())
                .then((data) => {
                    let output = '<h2>Property</h2>';
                    console.log(data);
                    data.propertystandings.propertystandingsentry.forEach(function(propertyEntry){
                        output += `
                            <ul>
                                <li>id: ${propertyEntry.property.ID}</li>
                                <li>city: ${propertyEntry.property.City}</li>
                                <li>prop name: ${propertyEntry.property.Name}</li>
                                <li>prop name: ${propertyEntry.rank}</li>
                            </ul>
                        `;
                    });
                document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = output;
                })
            }
          </script>

        </body>
    </html>
</html>
</html>
But then this code in express causes the error- same exact file that worked perfectly before ran thru express now causes this error: 
**"index.ejs"**

    <div id="output"></div>

          <button id="getProperty">Get Property</button>

    <script>

            document.getElementById('getProperty').addEventListener('click', getProperty);


            function getProperty() {
                /*fetch('sample.txt')
                .then(function(res) {
                    return res.text();
                })
                .then(function(data){
                    console.log(data);
                });*/
                fetch("2016-regular.json")
                .then((res) => res.json())
                .then((data) => {
                    console.log(data);//**won't even read the data without that error**
                });
            }
    </script>


**express code**
var express = require('express');
//var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var cors = require('cors');
var path = require('path');

var app = express();

app.use(bodyParser());
app.use(cors());

app.set('views', path.join(__dirname, 'views'));
app.set('view engine', 'ejs');

app.get('/', function (request, response) {
    response.render('index.ejs');
});

app.listen(8000, function() {
    console.log('running on 8000');
});

any ideas why this works fine in plain html when accessing a folder or if I manually create and save the file on my hard drive but once I put it in express or try to access the API the data came from (the final goal) I get the error SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data

express fetch json javascript
1 Answers

I think the bottom line is that you need to make sure your JSON file is reachable/loadable, and then make sure it is valid. Here is a minimal working example. You app.js should be simply:

var express = require('express');
var index = require('./routes/index');
var app = express();

app.set('views', 'views');
app.set('view engine', 'ejs');

app.use(express.static('public'));

app.use('/', index);

module.exports = app;

Your routes/index.js is simply:

var express = require('express');
var router = express.Router();

/* GET home page. */
router.get('/', function(req, res, next) {
  res.render('index', { title: 'Express' });
});

module.exports = router;

And your views/index.ejs should be:

<html>
<body>
  <div id="output">JSON contents will appear here.</div>  
  <button id="getProperty">Click to load JSON</button>

  <script>
      document.getElementById('getProperty').addEventListener('click', getProperty);  
      function getProperty() {
          fetch("./2016-regular.json")
          .then((res) => res.json())
          .then((data) => {
              document.getElementById('output').innerHTML = JSON.stringify(data);
          });
      }
  </script>
</body>
</html>

Finally, make sure your JSON file is saved at ./public/2016-regular.json. Here is mine:

{ "item1": "value1", "item2": "value2", "item3": "value3" }

TEST 1 Make sure your JSON file is reachable my pointing your browser to http://localhost:3000/2016-regular.json (note you may have to change the port if you are running on a different port).

TEST 2 Navigate to http://localhost:3000/ and click on the button. The file contents should appear in the results div.

Full working code is available here. Just clone the repository, then

cd exp1
npm install
npm start
user_40322780
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