phantomjs-pixel-server v0.1.0

phantomjs-pixel-server

PhantomJS server that converts canvas actions into pixels

This is part of the gifsockets project.

Getting Started

Install the module with: npm install -g phantomjs-pixel-server

Start a server and get some pixels:

bin/phantomjs-pixel-server &
# PhantomJS server is running at http://127.0.0.1:9090/
curl http://127.0.0.1:9090/ -X POST --data \
'{"width":10,"height":10,"js":{"params":["canvas","cb"], '\
'"body":"var context = canvas.getContext(\"2d\"); '\
'context.fillStyle = \"#BADA55\"; context.fillRect(0, 0, 10, 10); cb();"}}'
# [186,218,85,255,186,218, ..., 255]

With request, that would look like:

// We use JSON as our body and must serialize it in this maner
var arg = JSON.stringify({
  width: 10,
  height: 10,
  js: {
    params: ["canvas", "cb"],
    body: [
      'var context = canvas.getContext(\'2d\');'
      'context.fillStyle = \'#BADA55\';',
      'context.fillRect(0, 0, 10, 10);',
      'cb();'
    ].join('')
  }
});
var encodedArg = encodeURIComponent(arg);

// Request to our server
request({
  url: 'http://localhost:9090/',
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    // PhantomJS looks for Proper-Case headers, request is lower-case
    // This means you *must* supply this header
    'Content-Length': encodedArg.length
  },
  body: encodedArg,
}, function handlePhantomResponse (err, res, body) {
  // body is "[186,218,85,255,186,218, ..., 255]"
});

Documentation

CLI

The CLI command for phantomjs-pixel-server is a node wrapper which invokes a PhantomJS script. The script path is resolved by node's require function.

// Resolve locally installed server path
// '/home/todd/github/phantomjs-pixel-server/lib/phantomjs-pixel-server.js'
require.resolve('phantomjs-pixel-server');

Inside the server, we use commander to accept different parameters for the server. Currently, we only support port.

$ phantomjs-pixel-server --help

  Usage: phantomjs-pixel-server.js [options]

  Options:

    -h, --help         output usage information
    -V, --version      output the version number
    -p, --port <port>  Port to run the server on

HTTP interface

phantomjs-pixel-server will reply with 200s to any non-POST request (e.g. GET). This is a nice way to know when the server has started.

curl http://127.0.0.1:9090/
# IT'S ALIVE!

For POST requests, we expect a JSON body that has been run through escapeURIComponent (see Getting Started for example). The request can have the following parameters

• width Number - Width of canvas and output image
• height Number - Height of canvas and output image
• js Object - Container for commands to run against a canvas instance
  • This can be prepared by passing a function to function-to-string
  • The function itself should have a signature of function (canvas, cb) {}
  • params String[] - Array of parameter names for a function
    • The first parameter will be a canvas instance with the provided width and height
  • body String - Body of the function to execute
    • This must callback when it is completed (second parameter)
    • It is expected that js.body will write out the content you want to the canvas
• responseType String - Optional flag to set response type.
  • By default, the response will be an rgba array of pixels.
    • For example, [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] is 2 pixels with r: 0, g: 1, b: 2, a: 3 and r: 4, g: 5, b: 6, a: 7
  • If responseType is 'string', the response will be a string where each character represents a pixel value
    • For example, abcd is [97, 98, 99, 100]
    • These values can be extracted via charCodeAt. Another example is in the tests.
    • This is practical for reducing padding and using a more efficient parsing technique.

Donating

Support this project and others by twolfson via gittip.

Contributing

In lieu of a formal styleguide, take care to maintain the existing coding style. Add unit tests for any new or changed functionality. Lint via grunt and test via npm test.

Unlicense

As of Nov 15 2013, Todd Wolfson has released this repository and its contents to the public domain.

It has been released under the UNLICENSE.