[![view on npm](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/local-web-server.svg)](https://www.npmjs.org/package/local-web-server) [![npm module downloads](https://img.shields.io/npm/dt/local-web-server.svg)](https://www.npmjs.org/package/local-web-server) [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/lwsjs/local-web-server.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/lwsjs/local-web-server) [![Coverage Status](https://coveralls.io/repos/github/lwsjs/local-web-server/badge.svg?branch=master)](https://coveralls.io/github/lwsjs/local-web-server?branch=master) [![Dependency Status](https://badgen.net/david/dep/lwsjs/local-web-server)](https://david-dm.org/lwsjs/local-web-server) [![js-standard-style](https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-standard-brightgreen.svg)](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 HTTP, HTTPS and HTTP2 command-line web server for productive full-stack development. Use this tool to: * Help build any flavour of front-end web application. * *Static site, dynamic site with client or server-rendered content, Single Page App, Progessive Web App, Angular or React app etc.* * Prototype a CORS-enabled back-end service. * *RESTful HTTP API, microservice, websocket server, 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 $ ws Listening 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`. ### 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)). ### 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. ### 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).