dev-express-static-server

A simple static server for development mode using Express JS

Note:

• This utility's purpose is to be used in your local development environments. So some common production standards are ignored.
• By default site-index, cors, compression (gzip) is enabled

1. Installation

npm install --global dev-express-static-server

2. Usage (command-line)

2.1. startup a server instance

dev-express-static-server <options>

Options ( <options> )

1. --port=<port> ( default = 8080 )
2. --dir=<path-to-directory-to-server> ( default = {CWD} )
3. --https=<true/false> [optional] ( default = false )
   • You can also just specify --https to set it as true
4. If --https enabled, --keyPath=<path-to-key.pem-file> [optional] ( default = "{CWD}/key.pem" )
5. If --https enabled, --certPath=<path-to-cert.pem-file> [optional] ( default = "{CWD}/cert.pem" )

E.g.

dev-express-static-server --port=9092 --https --keyPath="~/dev-certs/key.pem" --certPath="~/dev-certs/cert.pem"

Note:

• {CWD} is current directory where the command/util is running from
• All paths above support HOME dir shortcut char ~
• Temporary PID files will be managed by the script on the current dir to manage servers, if started in background.

2.2. shutdown a server instance

dev-express-static-server --stop --port=<port>

E.g.

dev-express-static-server --stop --port=9092

Note:

• --port option is mandatory as PID files will be created using port numbers as ID and using that we will shutdown node process.

3. Usage (api)

let server = require("dev-express-static-server/server.js");

3.1. server.start(port, [directory, opts]) method

Arguments:

• port is required argument

• directory - Directory to serve ( default = {CWD} )

• opts

  • opts.useHttps - If true, https server instance will be created, otherwise http will be used
  • opts.keyPath - If https enabled, path to key.pem file ( default = {CWD}/key.pem )
  • opts.certPath - If https enabled, path to cert.pem file ( default = {CWD}/cert.pem )
  • opts.onListen - [callback] function which will be invoked once the server starts up successfully and is listening for clients. An object argument with { pid: process.pid } will be passed to the callback.

      opts = {
          onListen: function (args) {
              console.log(args.pid);
          }
      }

  • opts.onError - [callback] function which will be invoked in case any error happens in server startup. The thrown error will be passed to the callback.

      opts = {
          onError: function (err) {
              console.log(err.message);
          }
      }

  • opts.onClose - [callback] function which will be invoked once the server is stopped.

      opts = {
          onClose: function () {
              console.log("Cleanup !");
          }
      }

Returns:

• Returns an object with close method, which if called shuts down the server

let serverInstance = server.start(9092, path.resolve("../app/", {
    https: true,
    keyPath: path.join("../../dev-certs/key.pem"),
    certPath: path.join("../../dev-certs/cert.pem"),
    onListen: ...,
    onClose: ...,
    onError: ...
}) );

// After job done ..
serverInstance.close();

3.2. server.kill(processID) method

You can also kill your server if running in a separate processs and you know its process ID.

Note:

• Be careful to not kill your current process

Arguments:

• processID is required argument

E.g.

server.kill(9879869);