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:

.
├── css
│   └── style.css
├── index.html
└── package.json

All paths/routes are specified using express syntax. 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:

$ ws
serving at http://localhost:8000

Example.

Single Page Application

You're building a web app with client-side routing, so mark index.html as the SPA.

$ 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.

Access Control

By default, access to all files is allowed (including dot files). Use --forbid to establish a blacklist:

$ ws --forbid '*.json' '*.yml'
serving at http://localhost:8000

Example.

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:

$ ws --rewrite '/css/style.css -> /build/css/style.css'

Or, more generally (matching any stylesheet under /css):

$ 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:

$ 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:

$ ws --rewrite '/npm/* -> http://registry.npmjs.org/$1'

Map local requests for repo data to the Github API:

$ ws --rewrite '/:user/repos/:name -> https://api.github.com/repos/:user/:name'

Example.

Stored config

Use the same port and blacklist every time? Persist it to package.json:

{
  "name": "example",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "local-web-server": {
    "port": 8100,
    "forbid": "*.json"
  }
}

or .local-web-server.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:

$ ws --config

Logging

By default, local-web-server outputs a simple, dynamic statistics view. To see traditional web server logs, use --log-format:

$ 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. The exception is --log-format none which disables all output.

Other usage

Debugging

Prints information about loaded middleware, arguments, remote proxy fetches etc.

$ ws --verbose

Compression

Serve gzip-compressed resources, where applicable

$ ws --compress

Disable caching

Disable etag response headers, forcing resources to be served in full every time.

$ 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(). Example:

{
  "mime": {
    "text/plain": [ "php", "pl" ]
  }
}

Example.

Log Visualisation

Instructions for how to visualise log output using goaccess, logstalgia or gltail here.

Install

Ensure node.js is installed first. Linux/Mac users may need to run the following commands with sudo.

$ npm install -g local-web-server

This will install the ws tool globally. To see the available options, run:

$ 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

$ npm install local-web-server --save-dev

2. Add a start command to your package.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

$ npm install
$ npm start
serving at http://localhost:8100

API Reference

• local-web-server
  • localWebServer([options]) ⇒ KoaApplication ⏏
    • ~rewriteRule

localWebServer([options]) ⇒ KoaApplication ⏏

Returns a Koa application you can launch or mix into an existing app.

Kind: Exported function
Params

• [options] object - options
  • [.static] object - koa-static config
    • [.root] string - root directory
    • [.options] string - options
  • [.serveIndex] object - koa-serve-index config
    • [.path] string - root directory
    • [.options] string - options
  • [.forbid] Array.<string> - A list of forbidden routes, each route being an express route-path.
  • [.spa] string - specify an SPA file to catch requests for everything but static assets.
  • [.log] object - morgan config
    • [.format] string - log format
    • [.options] object - options
  • [.compress] boolean - Serve gzip-compressed resources, where applicable
  • [.mime] object - A list of mime-type overrides, passed directly to mime.define()
  • [.rewrite] Array.<rewriteRule> - One or more rewrite rules
  • [.verbose] boolean - Print detailed output, useful for debugging

Example

const localWebServer = require('local-web-server')
localWebServer().listen(8000)

localWebServer~rewriteRule

The from and to routes are specified using express route-paths

Kind: inner typedef of localWebServer
Properties

Name	Type	Description
from	string	request route
to	string	target route

Example

{
  "rewrite": [
    { "from": "/css/*", "to": "/build/styles/$1" },
    { "from": "/npm/*", "to": "http://registry.npmjs.org/$1" },
    { "from": "/:user/repos/:name", "to": "https://api.github.com/repos/:user/:name" }
  ]
}

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© 2015 Lloyd Brookes 75pound@gmail.com. Documented by jsdoc-to-markdown.