beefy
a local development server designed to work with browserify.
it:
- can live reload your browser when your code changes (if you want)
- works with whatever version of browserify; globally installed or
locally installed to
node_modules/browserify
. - will spit compile errors out into the browser so you don't have that
1-2 seconds of cognitive dissonance and profound ennui that follows
refreshing the page only to get a blank screen.
- will spit out a default
index.html
for missing routes so you don't
need to even muck about with HTML to get started - serves up static files with grace and aplomb (and also appropriate
mimetypes)
- makes it easy to sanity check your testling ci tape test suite.
- loves you, unconditionally
how do I get it?
npm install -g beefy
; and if you want to always have a browserify available
for beefy to use, npm install -g browserify
.
usage
$ cd directory/you/want/served
$ beefy path/to/thing/you/want/browserified.js PORT -- [browserify args]
path/to/file.js
the path to the file you want browserified. can be just a normal node module.
you can also alias it: path/to/file.js:bundle.js
if you want -- so all requests
to bundle.js
will browserify path/to/file.js
. this is helpful for when you're
writing gh-pages
-style sites that already have an index.html, and expect the
bundle to be pregenerated and available at a certain path.
--browserify command
use command
instead of browserify
or ./node_modules/.bin/browserify
.
in theory, you could even get this working with r.js
, but that would probably
be scary and bats would fly out of it. but it's there if you need it!
--live
enable live reloading. this'll start up a sideband server and an fs
watch on
the current working directory -- if you save a file, your browser will refresh.
if you're not using the generated index file, put the following script tag above
all of your other JS:
<script src="/-/live-reload.js"></script>
--cwd dir
serve files as if running from dir
.
--debug=false
turn off browserify source map output. by default, beefy automatically inserts
-d
into the browserify args -- this turns that behavior off.
--open
automatically discover a port and open it using your default browser.
api
beefy exports one function which returns a http server created from http.createServer()
beefy(cwd, browserify_path, browserify_args, entry_points, live_reload, log)
cwd
(string) root folder beefy uses for serving content. this folder is also watched if the live_reload
parameter is set.browserify_path
(string) command to execute when browserifying the code. use 'browserify'
for standard behavior.browserify_args
(array of strings) arguments to the browserify command. use e.g. [ '-d' ]
for debug mode.entry_points
(object) dictionary for your entry points and corresponding file to browserify. see example below.live_reload
(boolean) enable live reload if setlog
(function) logging callback. see signature below.
var beefy = require('beefy')
var entry_points = { 'bundle.js': 'path/to/some/js/file.js' }
var server = beefy('path/to/wwwroot', 'browserify', [ '-d' ], entry_points, true, log)
server.listen(9966)
function log(code, time, bytesize, logged_pathname, color) {}
the server object is patched with a reload()
method which allows you to reload clients programmatically:
var watchr = require('watchr')
watchr.watch({
path: '/some/other/path/not/watched/by/beefy'
, listener: function (event, file, stat_now, stat_then) {
server.reload()
}
})
the fake index
by default, if you get a URL that doesn't exist (with an Accept
header that has html
in it someplace), you'll get the "fake index." this page is setup so that
it automatically includes both the live reload script (if it's enabled) and the
path you want browserified.
license
MIT