Quick Node.js static dev server

This is a static web server (based on Express.js) that I wrote for the purpose of locally serving static HTML website projects during development. I'm sharing it here in case it could be of interest to anyone.

How to install and use

NPM project scope

# Install the package
npm install --save-dev @bb301/quick-static-dev-server

# Run the server
npx quick-static-dev-server

Globally

# Install globally
npm install -g @bb301/quick-static-dev-server

# Use from anywhere
quick-static-dev-server

Configurations

For the moment, server configurations must be done using the following optional environment variables:

• QUICK_SERVER_PORT – (default: 28080) The server's port number.
• QUICK_SERVER_HOSTNAME – (default: 127.0.0.1) The server's hostname.
• QUICK_SERVER_PUBLIC_DIR_PATH – (default: ./; i.e., the directory where the program is run) The directory from where static files will be served.
• QUICK_SERVER_HTML_INDEX_NAME – (default: index.html) The HTML file to be served for requests made to the GET / endpoint.
• QUICK_SERVER_SSL_CERT_PATH – The path of the SSL certificate file to be used (enables HTTPS).
• QUICK_SERVER_SSL_KEY_PATH – The path of the SSL private key file to be used (enables HTTPS).

Example

This is a simple example that illustrates the deployment of a static website on 0.0.0.0:80. The files located inside the ./website directory will be served and requests to the GET / endpoint will be returned the contents of ./website/home.html.

# Server will listen on port 80
export QUICK_SERVER_PORT=80
# Server will be exposed on the LAN
export QUICK_SERVER_HOSTNAME=0.0.0.0
# Server will serve files from the `./website` directory
export QUICK_SERVER_PUBLIC_DIR_PATH=./website
# Server will return `./website/home.html` for requests to `GET /`
export QUICK_SERVER_HTML_INDEX_NAME=home.html

# Start the server
quick-static-dev-server

Contact

If you have any questions, if you find bugs, or if you have suggestions for this project, please feel free to contact me by opening an issue on the repository.

License

This project is released under the MIT License.

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2024 BB-301 ([email protected])