Node.js/Express Routing to a static file URL - file

Question

I don't have a problem as such as I have a work-around. However the process of understanding and developing the work-around has highlighted what seems to me a fundamental gap in my knowledge (as a self-taught programmer, this happens a lot ;-) !) and I can't seem to find the answer to plug it anywhere.
Standard node.js/express setup with for example:
app.get('/index.htm', function (request, response) {
console.log("/index.htm");
});
app.get('*', function (request, response) {
console.log("*");
});
Why when the user connects directly to index.htm (by typing in the URL although I've not tried clicking on a link) does nothing fire ? The page is served no problem. The obvious use-case for this is to check if the user is authenticated prior to serving the static page.
FYI the workaround is to pass the user to a route such as "/authenticated" (which matches fine), do the check and then redirect and basically block everything else.
Thanks for educating me in advance ;-)
N
UPDATE to Raynos' question - yes (ignore the server/app variable name discrepancy).
// CREATE SERVER
var server = express.createServer();
server.configure(function() {
server.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public'));
server.use(express.logger());
server.use(express.errorHandler({dumpExceptions: true, showStack: true}));
// start of session stuff
server.use(express.cookieParser());
server.use(express.session({store: sessionStore, secret: 'secret', key: 'express.sid'}));
});
I've now found that the routing matches fine once you delete the static file i.e. in the original example, deleting index.htm means that the console will now log "/index.htm".
N

Answer 1

Just to bring some closure to this question:
Express static handler if it finds the file it will serve it and it won't let the other handlers to be called. If you remove it, then app.get('/index.htm' handler will be called. If you want to have a callback on all URLs just add server.use(function(req, res, next) {...}) before everything and that function will be called on all routers, make sure you call next if you want other middlewares or route handlers to be called.