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[](https://www.npmjs.org/package/local-web-server)
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[](https://www.npmjs.org/package/local-web-server)
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[](https://travis-ci.org/lwsjs/local-web-server)
[](https://coveralls.io/github/lwsjs/local-web-server?branch=master)
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[](https://david-dm.org/lwsjs/local-web-server)
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[](https://github.com/feross/standard)
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*Requires node v8 or above. Upgraders, please read the [release notes ](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/releases )*.
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# local-web-server
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A lean, modular web server for rapid full-stack development.
* Supports HTTP, HTTPS and HTTP2.
* Small and 100% personalisable. Load and use only the behaviour required by your project.
* Attach a custom view to personalise how activity is visualised.
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* Programmatic and command-line interfaces.
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Use this tool to:
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* Build any type of front-end web application (static, dynamic, Single Page App, Progessive Web App, React etc).
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* Prototype a back-end service (REST API, microservice, websocket, Server Sent Events service etc).
* Monitor activity, analyse performance, experiment with caching strategy etc.
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Local-web-server is a distribution of [lws ](https://github.com/lwsjs/lws ) bundled with a "starter pack" of useful middleware.
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## Synopsis
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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 )).
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### Static web site
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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.
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```sh
$ ws
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Listening on http://mbp.local:8000, http://127.0.0.1:8000, http://192.168.0.100:8000
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```
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[Static files tutorial ](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/wiki/How-to-serve-static-files ).
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This clip demonstrates static hosting plus a couple of log output formats - `dev` and `stats` .
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< img src = "https://imgur.com/download/NJC3POY" width = "618px" title = "Static static log output" >
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### Single Page Application
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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:
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```sh
$ ws --spa index.html
```
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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:
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*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.*
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[SPA tutorial ](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/wiki/How-to-serve-a-Single-Page-Application-(SPA )).
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< img src = "https://imgur.com/download/IQVmi8v" title = "SPA" >
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### URL rewriting and proxied requests
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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` .
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```sh
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$ ws --rewrite '/posts/(.*) -> https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/$1'
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```
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[Rewrite tutorial ](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/wiki/How-to-rewrite-URLs-to-local-or-remote-destinations ).
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This clip demonstrates the above plus use of `--static.extensions` to specify a default file extension and `--verbose` to monitor activity.
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< img src = "https://imgur.com/download/3flcbJn" width = "618px" title = "Proxy json requests to remote resource" >
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### HTTPS and HTTP2
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For HTTPS or HTTP2, pass the `--https` or `--http2` flags respectively. [See the wiki ](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/wiki ) for further configuration options and a guide on how to get the "green padlock" in your browser.
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```
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$ lws --http2
Listening at https://mba4.local:8000, https://127.0.0.1:8000, https://192.168.0.200:8000
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```
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## Built-in middleware stack
If you do *not* supply a custom middleware stack via the `--stack` option the following default stack will be used. It's designed to cover most typical web development scenarios.
| Name | Description |
| ------------------ | ---- |
| ↓ [Basic Auth ](https://github.com/lwsjs/basic-auth ) | Password-protect a server using Basic Authentication |
| ↓ [Body Parser ](https://github.com/lwsjs/body-parser ) | Parses the request body, making `ctx.request.body` available to downstream middleware.|
| ↓ [Request Monitor ](https://github.com/lwsjs/request-monitor ) | Feeds traffic information to the `--verbose` output.|
| ↓ [Log ](https://github.com/lwsjs/log ) | Outputs an access log or stats view to the console.|
| ↓ [Cors ](https://github.com/lwsjs/cors ) | Support for setting Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) headers |
| ↓ [Json ](https://github.com/lwsjs/json ) | Pretty-prints JSON responses. |
| ↓ [Rewrite ](https://github.com/lwsjs/rewrite ) | URL Rewriting. Use to re-route requests to local or remote destinations.|
| ↓ [Blacklist ](https://github.com/lwsjs/blacklist ) | Forbid access to sensitive or private resources|
| ↓ [Conditional Get ](https://github.com/lwsjs/conditional-get ) | Support for HTTP Conditional requests.|
| ↓ [Mime ](https://github.com/lwsjs/mime ) | Customise the mime-type returned with any static resource.|
| ↓ [Compress ](https://github.com/lwsjs/compress ) | Compress responses using gzip.|
| ↓ [SPA ](https://github.com/lwsjs/spa ) | Support for Single Page Applications.|
| ↓ [Static ](https://github.com/lwsjs/static ) | Serves static files.|
| ↓ [Index ](https://github.com/lwsjs/index ) | Serves directory listings.|
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## Further Documentation
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[See the wiki for plenty more documentation and tutorials ](https://github.com/lwsjs/local-web-server/wiki ).
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## Install
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**Requires node v8 or above**.
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```sh
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$ npm install -g local-web-server
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```
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* * *
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© 2013-19 Lloyd Brookes \<75pound@gmail .com\>. Documented by [jsdoc-to-markdown ](https://github.com/jsdoc2md/jsdoc-to-markdown ).