ecstatic

What is ecstatic?

The 'ecstatic' npm package is a simple static file server middleware for Node.js. It allows you to serve static files with ease, making it useful for development and simple web servers.

What are ecstatic's main functionalities?

Basic Static File Serving

This feature allows you to serve static files from a specified directory. In this example, files from the 'public' directory will be served on port 8080.

const http = require('http');
const ecstatic = require('ecstatic');
const server = http.createServer(
  ecstatic({ root: __dirname + '/public' })
);
server.listen(8080);

Custom Error Pages

This feature allows you to handle errors and serve custom error pages. In this example, a custom 404 error page is served when a file is not found.

const http = require('http');
const ecstatic = require('ecstatic');
const server = http.createServer(
  ecstatic({ root: __dirname + '/public', handleError: false })
);
server.on('request', (req, res) => {
  res.on('error', (err) => {
    res.writeHead(404, { 'Content-Type': 'text/html' });
    res.end('<h1>Custom 404 Page</h1>');
  });
});
server.listen(8080);

Cache Control

This feature allows you to set cache control headers for the served files. In this example, the cache is set to expire in 3600 seconds (1 hour).

const http = require('http');
const ecstatic = require('ecstatic');
const server = http.createServer(
  ecstatic({ root: __dirname + '/public', cache: 'max-age=3600' })
);
server.listen(8080);

Other packages similar to ecstatic

serve-static

'serve-static' is a middleware for serving static files in a Connect/Express application. It is similar to 'ecstatic' but is more commonly used in Express applications. It provides similar functionality with a focus on integration with Express.

http-server

'http-server' is a simple, zero-configuration command-line static HTTP server. It is similar to 'ecstatic' but is designed to be used as a standalone server rather than middleware. It is useful for quick static file serving without needing to write any code.

static-server

'static-server' is another simple static file server for Node.js. It is similar to 'ecstatic' but offers additional features like directory listings and custom headers. It is designed to be easy to use and configure.

README

Ecstatic

A simple static file server middleware. Use it with a raw http server, express/connect, or flatiron/union!

Examples:

express 3.0.x

var http = require('http');
var express = require('express');
var ecstatic = require('ecstatic');

var app = express();
app.use(ecstatic({ root: __dirname + '/public' }));
http.createServer(app).listen(8080);

console.log('Listening on :8080');

union

var union = require('union');
var ecstatic = require('ecstatic');

union.createServer({
  before: [
    ecstatic({ root: __dirname + '/public' }),
  ]
}).listen(8080);

console.log('Listening on :8080');

stock http server

var http = require('http');
var ecstatic = require('ecstatic');

http.createServer(
  ecstatic({ root: __dirname + '/public' })
).listen(8080);

console.log('Listening on :8080');

fall through

To allow fall through to your custom routes:

ecstatic({ root: __dirname + '/public', handleError: false })

API:

ecstatic(opts);

Pass ecstatic an options hash, and it will return your middleware!

var opts = {
             root       : __dirname + '/public', 
             baseDir    : '/',
             cache      : 3600,
             showDir    : false,
             autoIndex  : false,
             defaultExt : 'html', 
             gzip       : false
           }

If opts is a string, the string is assigned to the root folder and all other options are set to their defaults.

opts.root

opts.root is the directory you want to serve up.

opts.baseDir

opts.baseDir is / by default, but can be changed to allow your static files to be served off a specific route. For example, if opts.baseDir === "blog" and opts.root = "./public", requests for localhost:8080/blog/index.html will resolve to ./public/index.html.

opts.cache

Customize cache control with opts.cache , if it is a number then it will set max-age in seconds. Other wise it will pass through directly to cache-control. Time defaults to 3600 s (ie, 1 hour).

opts.showDir

Turn on directory listings with opts.showDir === true. Defaults to false.

opts.autoIndex

Serve /path/index.html when /path/ is requested. Turn off autoIndexing with opts.autoIndex === false. Defaults to true.

opts.defaultExt

Turn on default file extensions with opts.defaultExt. If opts.defaultExt is true, it will default to html. For example if you want a request to /a-file to resolve to ./public/a-file.html, set this to true. If you want /a-file to resolve to ./public/a-file.json instead, set opts.defaultExt to json.

opts.gzip

Set opts.gzip === true in order to turn on "gzip mode," wherein ecstatic will serve ./public/some-file.js.gz in place of ./public/some-file.js when the gzipped version exists and ecstatic determines that the behavior is appropriate.

opts.handleError

Turn off handleErrors to allow fall-through with opts.handleError === false, Defaults to true.

middleware(req, res, next);

This works more or less as you'd expect.

ecstatic.showDir(folder);

This returns another middleware which will attempt to show a directory view. Turning on auto-indexing is roughly equivalent to adding this middleware after an ecstatic middleware with autoindexing disabled.

ecstatic command

to start a standalone static http server, run npm install -g ecstatic and then run ecstatic [dir?] [options] --port PORT all options work as above, passed in optimist style. port defaults to 8000. If a dir or --root dir argument is not passed, ecsatic will serve the current dir.

Tests:

npm test

License:

MIT.