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# local-web-server
A simple web-server for productive front-end development.
**Requires node v4.0.0 or higher**.
## Synopsis
For the examples below, we assume we're in a project directory looking like this:
```sh
.
├── css
│ └── style.css
├── index.html
└── package.json
```
All paths/routes are specified using [express syntax](http://expressjs.com/guide/routing.html#route-paths). To run the example projects linked below, clone the project, move into the example directory specified, run `ws`.
### Static site
Fire up your static site on the default port:
```sh
$ ws
serving at http://localhost:8000
```
[Example](https://github.com/75lb/local-web-server/tree/master/example/simple).
### Single Page Application
You're building a web app with client-side routing, so mark `index.html` as the SPA.
```sh
$ ws --spa index.html
```
By default, typical SPA urls (e.g. `/user/1`, `/login`) would return `404 Not Found` as a file does not exist with that path. By marking `index.html` as the SPA you create this rule:
*If a static file at the requested path exists (e.g. `/css/style.css`) then serve it, if it does not (e.g. `/login`) then serve the specified SPA and handle the route client-side.*
[Example](https://github.com/75lb/local-web-server/tree/master/example/spa).
### Access Control
By default, access to all files is allowed (including dot files). Use `--forbid` to establish a blacklist:
```sh
$ ws --forbid '*.json' '*.yml'
serving at http://localhost:8000
```
[Example](https://github.com/75lb/local-web-server/tree/master/example/forbid).
### URL rewriting
Your application requested `/css/style.css` but it's stored at `/build/css/style.css`. To avoid a 404 you need a rewrite rule:
```sh
$ ws --rewrite '/css/style.css -> /build/css/style.css'
```
Or, more generally (matching any stylesheet under `/css`):
```sh
$ ws --rewrite '/css/:stylesheet -> /build/css/:stylesheet'
```
With a deep CSS directory structure it may be easier to mount the entire contents of `/build/css` to the `/css` path:
```sh
$ ws --rewrite '/css/* -> /build/css/$1'
```
this rewrites `/css/a` as `/build/css/a`, `/css/a/b/c` as `/build/css/a/b/c` etc.
#### Proxied requests
If the `to` URL contains a remote host, local-web-server will act as a proxy - fetching and responding with the remote resource.
Mount the npm registry locally:
```sh
$ ws --rewrite '/npm/* -> http://registry.npmjs.org/$1'
```
Map local requests for repo data to the Github API:
```sh
$ ws --rewrite '/:user/repos/:name -> https://api.github.com/repos/:user/:name'
```
[Example](https://github.com/75lb/local-web-server/tree/master/example/rewrite).
### Stored config
Use the same port and blacklist every time? Persist it to `package.json`:
```json
{
"name": "example",
"version": "1.0.0",
"local-web-server": {
"port": 8100,
"forbid": "*.json"
}
}
```
or `.local-web-server.json`
```json
{
"port": 8100,
"forbid": "*.json"
}
```
local-web-server will merge and use all config found, searching from the current directory upward. In the case both `package.json` and `.local-web-server.json` config is found in the same directory, `.local-web-server.json` will take precedence. Command-line options take precedence over all.
To inspect stored config, run:
```sh
$ ws --config
```
### Logging
By default, local-web-server outputs a simple, dynamic statistics view. To see traditional web server logs, use `--log-format`:
```sh
$ ws --log-format combined
serving at http://localhost:8000
::1 - - [16/Nov/2015:11:16:52 +0000] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 12290 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_11_1) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/48.0.2562.0 Safari/537.36"
```
The format value supplied is passed directly to [morgan](https://github.com/expressjs/morgan). The exception is `--log-format none` which disables all output.
### Other usage
#### Debugging
Prints information about loaded middleware, arguments, remote proxy fetches etc.
```sh
$ ws --verbose
```
#### Compression
Serve gzip-compressed resources, where applicable
```sh
$ ws --compress
```
#### Disable caching
Disable etag response headers, forcing resources to be served in full every time.
```sh
$ ws --no-cache
```
#### mime-types
You can set additional mime-type/extension mappings, or override the defaults by setting a `mime` value in the stored config. This value is passed directly to [mime.define()](https://github.com/broofa/node-mime#mimedefine). Example:
```json
{
"mime": {
"text/plain": [ "php", "pl" ]
}
}
```
[Example](https://github.com/75lb/local-web-server/tree/master/example/mime-override).
#### Log Visualisation
Instructions for how to visualise log output using goaccess, logstalgia or gltail [here](https://github.com/75lb/local-web-server/blob/master/doc/visualisation.md).
## Install
Ensure [node.js](http://nodejs.org) is installed first. Linux/Mac users may need to run the following commands with `sudo`.
```sh
$ npm install -g local-web-server
```
This will install the `ws` tool globally. To see the available options, run:
```sh
$ ws --help
```
## Distribute with your project
The standard convention with client-server applications is to add an `npm start` command to launch the server component.
1\. Install the server as a dev dependency
```sh
$ npm install local-web-server --save-dev
```
2\. Add a `start` command to your `package.json`:
```json
{
"name": "example",
"version": "1.0.0",
"local-web-server": {
"port": 8100,
"forbid": "*.json"
},
"scripts": {
"start": "ws"
}
}
```
3\. Document how to build and launch your site
```sh
$ npm install
$ npm start
serving at http://localhost:8100
```
## API Reference
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* * *
© 2015 Lloyd Brookes <75pound@gmail.com>. Documented by [jsdoc-to-markdown](https://github.com/jsdoc2md/jsdoc-to-markdown).