XALWatcher

XALWatcher is an app that can monitor changes in an directory and run apps by applying simple conditions.

Installation

npm i -g xalwatcher

Usage

XALWatcher requires an configuration file in order to work. Here is a simple configuration file:

path: src
env:
    NODE_PORT: 3000
execute:
    NODE: babel-node src/server.js
    GENERATE_SOME_FILES:
        run: generator.sh
        when:
            changed: 
                - src/file1.js
                - src/ex
    WEBPACK: 
        run: webpack --config webpack.config.js --display-error-details
        color: green
        waitFor: GENERATE_SOME_FILES
    

The config above watch the directory src and set the environmental variable NODE_PORT to 3001 and will share it to all the apps.

The watcher launch at first all 3 apps we specified: NODE, GENERATE_SOME_FILES, WEBPACK. STATISTICS_APP.

The app NODE launch the command babel-node src/server.js without any conditions and will be restarted when every single change in the src directory will be made.

The app GENERATE_SOME_FILES will run the command generator.sh only when are some changes with the file src/file1.js or some file in the directory src/ex.

The app WEBPACK will show its output with the color green and will wait for GENERATE_SOME_FILES to finish, but will run straight away if GENERATE_SOME_FILES is not run because its conditions are not met.

Documentation

Config

• path - String|Array (required) the folders to watch for changes(relative path are taken from the working directory)
• env - Object additional entries to the enviromental variables
• once - TODO
• execute - Object (required) the apps to execute

For each object in execute you have the options:

• run - String (required) the path to launch
• when - Object Relaunch the app only if some files/paths are modified
  • not - TODO
  • changed - String|Array The paths/files to check if changed
  • addedOrDeleted - String|Array The paths/files to check if added or deleted
• color - String the name of the colors. Using the package colors
• waitFor - String|Array wait for some apps before executing this app
• ignoreChangesWhileRunning - Boolean ignore the changes to the files while this app is running (useful if the app is modifying the watched files)

Also the value of the object in execute can be the string to execute.