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[](https://www.npmjs.org/package/local-web-server)[](https://www.npmjs.org/package/local-web-server)[](https://travis-ci.org/lwsjs/local-web-server)[](https://coveralls.io/github/lwsjs/local-web-server?branch=master)[](https://david-dm.org/lwsjs/local-web-server)[](https://github.com/feross/standard)
*Requires node v8 or above. Upgraders, please read the [release notes](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/releases)*.
# local-web-server
A modular, personalisable HTTP, HTTPS and HTTP2 command-line web server.
Use this tool to:
* Build any type of front-end web application (static, dynamic, Single Page App, Progessive Web App, React etc).* Prototype a back-end service (REST API, microservice, websocket or Server Sent Events service etc).* Monitor activity, analyse performance, fine-tune caching strategy etc.
Local-web-server is a distribution of [lws](https://github.com/lwsjs/lws) bundled with a "starter pack" of useful middleware.
## Synopsis
This package installs the `ws` command-line tool (take a look at the [usage guide](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/wiki/CLI-usage)).
### Static web site
Running `ws` without any arguments will host the current directory as a static web site. Navigating to the server will render a directory listing or your `index.html`, if that file exists.
```sh$ wsListening on http://mbp.local:8000, http://127.0.0.1:8000, http://192.168.0.100:8000```
This clip demonstrates static hosting plus a couple of log output formats - `dev` and `stats`.
<img src="https://imgur.com/download/NJC3POY" width="618px" title="Static static log output">
### Single Page Application
Serving a Single Page Application (an app with client-side routing, e.g. a React or Angular app) is as trivial as specifying the name of your single page:
```sh$ ws --spa index.html```
With a static site, requests for typical SPA paths (e.g. `/user/1`, `/login`) would return `404 Not Found` as a file at that location does not exist. However, by marking `index.html` as the SPA you create this rule:
*If a static file is requested (e.g. `/css/style.css`) then serve it, if not (e.g. `/login`) then serve the specified SPA and handle the route client-side.*
[SPA tutorial](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/wiki/How-to-serve-a-Single-Page-Application-(SPA)).
<img src="https://imgur.com/download/IQVmi8v" title="SPA">
### URL rewriting and proxied requests
Another common use case is to forward certain requests to a remote server.
The following command proxies blog post requests from any path beginning with `/posts/` to `https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/`. For example, a request for `/posts/1` would be proxied to `https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1`.
```sh$ ws --rewrite '/posts/(.*) -> https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/$1'```
This clip demonstrates the above plus use of `--static.extensions` to specify a default file extension and `--verbose` to monitor activity.
<img src="https://imgur.com/download/3flcbJn" width="618px" title="Proxy json requests to remote resource">
### HTTPS
Launch a secure server by setting the `--https` flag. [See the wiki](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/wiki) for further configuration options and a guide on how to get the "green padlock" in your browser.
```sh$ ws --https```
### HTTP2
Launch a secure HTTP2 server. Follow the same instructions as `--https` to use certs, get the "green padlock" etc.
```sh$ ws --http2```
## Features
* Full control over request handling. The middleware stack is personalisable - use one or more custom or pre-built middleware plugins.* Single Page Application (SPA) support* URL Rewriting* Proxy requests to remote resources* HTTP Conditional Request support* Range request support* Gzip response compression* HTTP Basic Authentication* Configurable access log* Route blacklisting and more
## Further Documentation
[See the wiki for plenty more documentation and tutorials](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/wiki).
## Install
**Requires node v8 or above**. Install the [previous release](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/tree/v1.x) for node >= v4.0.0.
```sh$ npm install -g local-web-server```
* * *
© 2013-19 Lloyd Brookes \<75pound@gmail.com\>. Documented by [jsdoc-to-markdown](https://github.com/jsdoc2md/jsdoc-to-markdown).
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