CodeOnly Development Server

coserv is a simple file server intended to be used primarily while developing single page apps, or statically generated sites.

In includes:

• Bundle-free - NPM package serving, support for SPA normal file paths and prominent in-browser error messages
• LiveReload - automatically refresh the browser when files changed
• Morgan Logging - console logging of requests

#Installation

Normally installation isn't required as it's included in the NPM packages for CodeOnly generated projects that need it.

eg: the CodeOnly SPA project uses coserv automatically when running npm run dev or npm run prod

To manually install (use --save or -g as required)

npm install codeonlyjs/coserv

To run:

npx coserv

To run without installing

npx codeonlyjs/coserv

#Configuration

coserv requires a file named coserv.config.js in the current directory.

The config file should have a default export that defines the configuration settings to use.

const config = {
    port: 3000,
    development: {
        bundleFree: {
            // Bundle free options here
        },
        livereload: {
            options:
            {
                // Live reload options here
            }
            watch: 
            [
                // Folders to watch here
            ]
        }
    },
    production: {
        // Production options here (same as development)
    }
};

export default config;

The final configuration is determined by deeply merging:

1. coserv's built-in default configuration
2. The root level from the configuration options
3. Either the development or production branches of the configuration (or other branch as specified by NODE_ENV)

#Default Configuration

The following shows the default configuration. You only need to specify options in your configuration file that differ from these:

{
    port: 3000,
    host: null,
    development: 
    {
        logging: "dev",
        bundleFree: {
            path: ".",
            spa: true,
            node_modules: "./node_modules",
            inYaFace: true,
        },
        livereload: {
            options: {
            },
            watch: [
                ".",
            ]
        }
    },
    production: 
    {
        logging: "combined",
        bundleFree: {
            path: "./dist",
            spa: true,
        }
    }
}

#Settings

Most of the settings in the configuration file match exactly those expected by the respective modules:

• bundleFree: See Bundle-free

• livereload: See Live Reload

  • options - the options passed to livereload.createServer
  • watch - the array passed to livereload.watch

• logging: See Morgan

The following coserv specific options are also supported:

• port - the port to use (can be overridden by --port)
• host - the host name to use (can be overridden by --host)

#Command Line Arguments

The following command line options are supported:

      --env:<env>      Set NODE_ENV (typically development|production)
      --dev            Shortcut for --env:development
      --prod           Shortcut for --env:production
  -p, --port:<port>    Set server port
      --host:<host>    Set server host
      --show-config    Log final configuration
  -v, --version        Show version info
  -h, --help           Show this help
      <dir>            Change current working directory

#Example Configuration

For a complete example configuration file, see the config file used for this site:

https://github.com/codeonlyjs/website/blob/main/coserv.config.js