bitran-server v1.0.0-alpha.3

bitran-server

This is a development server with load capability. Use it for hacking your HTML/JavaScript/CSS files, but not for deploying the final site.

There are two reasons for using this:

1. AJAX requests don't work with the file:// protocol due to security restrictions, i.e. you need a server if your site fetches content through JavaScript.
2. Having the page reload automatically after changes to files can accelerate development.

You don't need to install any browser plugins or manually add code snippets to your pages for the reload functionality to work, see "How it works" section below for more information. If you don't want/need the live reload, you should probably use something even simpler, like the following Python-based one-liner:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer

Usage

Parameters:

• --port=NUMBER - select port to use, default: PORT env var or 8080
• --host=ADDRESS - select host address to bind to, default: IP env var or 0.0.0.0 ("any address")
• --no-browser - suppress automatic web browser launching
• --browser=BROWSER - specify browser to use instead of system default
• --quiet | -q - suppress logging
• --verbose | -V - more logging (logs all requests, shows all listening IPv4 interfaces, etc.)
• --open=PATH - launch browser to PATH instead of server root
• --watch=PATH - comma-separated string of paths to exclusively watch for changes (default: watch everything)
• --ignore=PATH - comma-separated string of paths to ignore (anymatch-compatible definition)
• --ignorePattern=RGXP - Regular expression of files to ignore (ie .*\.jade) (DEPRECATED in favor of --ignore)
• --no-css-inject - reload page on CSS change, rather than injecting changed CSS
• --middleware=PATH - path to .js file exporting a middleware function to add; can be a name without path nor extension to reference bundled middlewares in middleware folder
• --entry-file=PATH - serve this file (server root relative) in place of missing files (useful for single page apps)
• --mount=ROUTE:PATH - serve the paths contents under the defined route (multiple definitions possible)
• --spa - translate requests from /abc to /#/abc (handy for Single Page Apps)
• --wait=MILLISECONDS - (default 100ms) wait for all changes, before reloading
• --htpasswd=PATH - Enables http-auth expecting htpasswd file located at PATH
• --cors - Enables CORS for any origin (reflects request origin, requests with credentials are supported)
• --https=PATH - PATH to a HTTPS configuration module
• --https-module=MODULE_NAME - Custom HTTPS module (e.g. spdy)
• --proxy=ROUTE:URL - proxy all requests for ROUTE to URL
• --help | -h - display terse usage hint and exit
• --version | -v - display version and exit

Default options:

If file exists it will be loaded and used as default options on the command line. See "Usage from node" for option names.

HTTPS

In order to enable HTTPS support, you'll need to create a configuration module. The module must export an object that will be used to configure a HTTPS server. The keys are the same as the keys in options

For example:

var fs = require("fs");

module.exports = {
	cert: fs.readFileSync(__dirname + "/server.cert"),
	key: fs.readFileSync(__dirname + "/server.key"),
	passphrase: "12345",
};

If using the node API, you can also directly pass a configuration object instead of a path to the module.

HTTP/2

To get HTTP/2 support one can provide a custom HTTPS module via --https-module CLI parameter (httpsModule option for Node.js script). Be sure to install the module first. HTTP/2 unencrypted mode is not supported by browsers, thus not supported.

How it works

The server is a simple node app that serves the working directory and its subdirectories. It also watches the files for changes and when that happens, it sends a message through a web socket connection to the browser instructing it to reload. In order for the client side to support this, the server injects a small piece of JavaScript code to each requested html file. This script establishes the web socket connection and listens to the reload requests. CSS files can be refreshed without a full page reload by finding the referenced stylesheets from the DOM and tricking the browser to fetch and parse them again.

Contributing

We welcome contributions!

Version history

• v0.6.2
  • Fix a deprecation warning from send
• v0.6.1
  • Republish to fix npm troubles
• v0.6.0
  • Support for using as node library (@dpgraham)
• v0.5.0
  • Watching was broken with new versions of watchr > 2.3.3
  • Added some logging to console
• v0.4.0
  • Allow specifying directory to serve from command line
• v0.3.0
  • Directory listings
• v0.2.0
  • On-the-fly CSS refresh (no page reload)
  • Refactoring
• v0.1.1
  • Documentation and meta tweaks
• v0.1.0
  • Initial release

License

Uses MIT licensed code.

(MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2012 Tapio Vierros

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.