Httpx-server NPM

httpx-server

Respond to encrypted and unencrypted HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2 requests on the same port

Usage

Install httpx-server by running:

yarn add httpx-server

Start a server like so:

import * as httpx from 'httpx-server'
import makeCert from 'make-cert'

const { key, cert } = makeCert('localhost')

const server = httpx.createServer(
  { key, cert },
  (request, response) => {
    response.end('Hello World!')
  }
)

server.listen(8080)

This starts a net.Server, that examines the first byte of each request. If the first byte is 22 (0x16), we know that the client is negotiating a TLS connection, which we then route to an HTTP/2 server that can handle both HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2 requests over TLS. Otherwise, if the request includes the text HTTP/1.1, it is routed to an HTTP/1.1 server. And, if the request includes the text HTTP/2, it is routed to a clear text HTTP/2 server.

Enabling TLS is optional. If no certificate is passed in, the server will function, just without TLS support.

The code for differentiating between unencrypted HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2 requests relies on currently deprecated code. There's an outstanding issue to undeprecate that code.

Upgrading from unencrypted HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/2 via the Upgrade header is not supported.

The returned server object behaves like an http.Server or http2.Http2Server or http2.Http2SecureServer. Properties, methods, and events common to both are implemented on this object. In other words, binding an event listener to this object binds event listeners to both the HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2 server objects.

Requests are routed from net.Server to http.Server or http2.Http2Server or http2.Http2SecureServer using the connection event.

WebSocket is supported, both encrypted and unencrypted. ws has a usage example that works with the server object returned by httpx.createServer.