Single Page App dev-server

A simple dev-server designed for Single Page App (SPA) developers. ngx-http-server is not, and makes no claims to be, a production server.

It returns a file if it exists (ex. your-icon.png, index.html), routes all other requests to index.html (rather than giving a 404 error) so that you SPA's routing can take over. The only time it will error out is if it can't locate the index.html file.

Originally designed for my Angular work, this dev-server will work with any Single Page App (SPA) framework that uses URL routing (React, Vue, Elm, ...).

To use:

npm install -g ngx-http-server
cd /path/to/site
ngx-http-server

And browse to localhost:8080.

Options

Specify a hostname using -h <host name>

ngx-http-server -h example.com

Specify a port using -p <port number>

ngx-http-server -p 9000

Open in a default browser automatically by using --open alias -o

ngx-http-server --open

HTTPS can be enabled (using a generated self-signed certificate) with --https or --ssl

ngx-http-server --https

You may manually specify the paths to your self-signed certificate using the --key and --cert flags

ngx-http-server --https --key ./secret/key.pem --cert ./secret/cert.pem

CORS can be enabled with the --cors flag

ngx-http-server --cors

Specify a path to serve from

ngx-http-server --path example

Specify the base href of the application

ngx-http-server --baseHref myapp

Specify the rootFile of the application

ngx-http-server --rootFile myindex.html

Disable logging

ngx-http-server --silent

All options can be specified by a config file, optionally read via --config flag. CLI options take precedence over any options read from the config file.

ngx-http-server --config configs/ngx-http-server.config.js

Feedback via: https://github.com/simonh1000/ngx-http-server

Config File

The config file can either export an object of parameters, or a function that will be passed in the parsed argv from minimalist.

Simple example:

module.exports = {
    p: 8081,
    cors: true,
    silent: true,
};

Complicated example:

module.exports = (argv) => {
    const config = {
        cors: true,
    };

    if (argv.p === 443) {
        config.ssl = true;
    }

    return config;
};

Http proxy

Enabling proxy

The server contains a simple http proxy. The proxy must be configured in the config file. To enable this proxy:

ngx-http-server --config configs/ngx-http-server.config.js --useProxy true

configuring proxy

To configure the proxy add a proxy object to your config file. The proxy should be an array of configs with two required properties: a forward property which must be a string array listing url parts which should trigger the proxy, and a target property which should define the target to proxy to. The config can also contain an optional protocol option, when this is absent the server will default to https

simple example:

module.exports = {
    proxy: [
        {
            forward: ["api/example-api", "api-proxy/example"],
            target: "localhost:5000",
            protocol: "http",
        },
        {
            forward: ["api/example-api-2", "api-proxy-2/example"],
            target: "localhost:6000",
        },
    ],
};

Self-Signed HTTPS Use

Production

The --https or --ssl flags are intended for development and/or testing purposes only. Self-signed certificates do not properly verify the identity of the web app and they will cause an end-users web browser to display an error. This can be accomplished by using the self-signed certificate generated when you pass the --https/--ssl flag. An example of when you should use this feature is with end-to-end testing suites such as Protractor or other suites which require the SPA application to be served over https.

Changelog

• 1.11.0 - adds proxy support (thanks AVierwind)
• 1.10.0 - adds --rootPath (thanks Aakash)
• 1.9.0 - adds --baseHref (thanks bertbaron)
• 1.8.0 - rewrite of path resolution (thanks dpraul)
• 1.7.0 - add option to include own ssl certificate (thanks dpraul)
• 1.6.0 - add --config option (thanks dpraul)
• 1.5.0 - add --open option (thanks tluanga34)
• 1.4.0 - add --path option (thanks nick-bogdanov)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome, but do create an issue first to discuss.

Use prettier for formatting

Testing

Run unit tests with

$ npm run test

Testing - try:

node ngx-http-server.js --path example --ssl -p 9000