How to manage CORS policy properly in express?

I am trying to allow access from everywhere.

I have tried using app middleware:

app.use(function (req, res, next) {
  res.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*");
  res.setHeader('Access-Control-Allow-Methods', '*');
  res.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Headers", "*");
  next();
});

I have tried using it in the route:

app.post('/login',function(req,res){
var login   = req.body;
var sess    = req.session;

if (!login.email && !login.pwd){    
    return res.status(401);
}
res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", '*');
res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Headers", '*');
.... more code here

Both do not work. I keep getting an error: "Response to preflight request doesn't pass access control check: No 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header is present on the requested resource."

Further down the server, we use similar code for another route, which works:

app.post('/questar',function(req,res){
//allow xhr post from retireup domains
var cors = {
    origin: "https://www.website.com";
};
res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", cors.origin);
res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Headers", "Origin, X-Requested-With, Content-Type, Accept");
res.type('application/json');

I cannot tell the difference between the code, but only one set works. Any ideas why? This seems like an issue that shouldn't be so complicated. Thanks

Solution

MDN has a very short explanation on how a server should respond to a Preflight Request.

You handle CORS preflight requests by handling the HTTP OPTIONS method (just like you would handle GET and POST methods) before handling other request methods on the same route:

app.options('/login', ...);
app.get('/login'. ...);
app.post('/login'. ...);

In your case, it might be as simple as changing your app.use() call to app.options(), passing the route as the first argument, setting the appropriate headers, then ending the response:

app.options('/login', function (req, res) {
  res.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*");
  res.setHeader('Access-Control-Allow-Methods', '*');
  res.setHeader("Access-Control-Allow-Headers", "*");
  res.end();
});
app.post('/login', function (req, res) {
  ...
});