serve-index

What is serve-index?

The serve-index npm package is a middleware for Node.js that serves pages that display directory listings. It's commonly used with Express or other middleware-based HTTP server frameworks. It provides a responsive web interface to navigate the file structure of the served directories.

What are serve-index's main functionalities?

Directory Listing

This feature allows you to list the contents of a directory in a web page. The code sample shows how to use serveIndex with Express to serve the contents of the 'public/files' directory with file icons.

const express = require('express');
const serveIndex = require('serve-index');

const app = express();

app.use('/files', express.static('public/files'));
app.use('/files', serveIndex('public/files', {'icons': true}));

app.listen(3000);

Custom Styles and Templates

Serve-index allows for customization of the directory listing by using custom templates and styles. The code sample demonstrates how to specify a custom HTML template for the directory listing.

const express = require('express');
const serveIndex = require('serve-index');

const app = express();

app.use('/files', serveIndex('public/files', {
  'icons': true,
  'template': 'path/to/custom/template.html'
}));

app.listen(3000);

Filtering Files

Serve-index can filter the files that are displayed in the directory listing. In the code sample, a filter function is used to display only files with the '.html' extension.

const express = require('express');
const serveIndex = require('serve-index');

const app = express();

app.use('/files', serveIndex('public/files', {
  'filter': function (filename, index, files, dir) {
    return filename.endsWith('.html');
  }
}));

app.listen(3000);

Other packages similar to serve-index

http-server

http-server is a simple, zero-configuration command-line HTTP server that is powerful enough for production usage but also features a file server with directory listing. It is more focused on being a full-fledged HTTP server compared to serve-index which is a middleware.

express-static

express-static is built into Express and serves static files. It does not provide directory listing by default, but it can be used in conjunction with serve-index to achieve similar functionality.

node-static

node-static is a simple, rfc 2616 compliant file streaming module for Node.js. It is designed to develop production-ready file servers as quickly as possible. While it can serve static files like serve-index, it does not provide directory listing features out of the box.

README

Serve Index

Previously connect.directory().

Usage:

var connect = require('connect');
var serveIndex = require('serve-index');

var app = connect();

app.use(serveIndex('public/ftp', {'icons': true}));
app.listen();

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2014 Douglas Christopher Wilson

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

The Silk icons are created by/copyright of FAMFAMFAM.