express-static-files-manager

This package automatically builds and updates your static served files on express based on a given Github repository.

Installation

npm i express-static-files-manager

If you use TypeScript, make sure it's the latest version.

Motivations

On some of our projects, we use a pattern that allows us to have a single hosting point. We use express static files to serve the frontend directly from our backend (in this case an express app). The motivation behind this package comes from the need we had to automatically update the files served by our backend and not manually copy our React project build each time into the public folder and then redeploying the updated backend. This package also takes care of automatically updating the served frontend based on its current repository state. If the webhook is set up it will clone, rebuild and update the served files all by itself upon new commits.

Usage

manageStaticFilesServing(config : Config)

The only function that needs to be called when your express app starts. This will clone your project, build it and then place it within your /public directory (or the custom public directory if that is set) ready to be served by your express webserver. For this package, the default location of the /public directory is at the root of your project. If you set up the webhook, this will also automatically update your served files within the /public directory upon new commits.

src/index.ts

import express from 'express';
import path from 'path';
import { manageStaticFilesServing } from 'express-static-files-manager';
 
const app = express();
 
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, '../public')));
 
manageStaticFilesServing({
  repoUrl: 'https://github.com/Username/yourReponame',
  showConsoleLog: true
});

Config

field	type	defaultValue	mandatory	description
repoUrl	string	undefined	yes	Your repository's URL
onHookReceived	function	undefined	no	Overwrites default express-static-files-manager hook controller passing express res, req and next fields to your function
onStartBuild	function	undefined	no	Function called on build start
onError	function	undefined	no	Function called on error
onFinish	function	undefined	no	Function called on build finish
githubUsername	string	undefined	no	Your github username
githubPassword	string	undefined	no	Your github password
githubToken	string	undefined	no	Your github OAuth token
allowStdio	boolean	false	no	Setting this to true will pipe to stdio
showConsoleLog	boolean	false	no	Setting this to true will log the whole process
skipNpmInstall	boolean	false	no	If you wish to skip npm install phase
skipBuildPhase	boolean	false	no	If you wish to skip build phase
branch	string	"master"	no	Your branch name
customPublicDir	string	"public"	no	The directory containing your public static files
customWorkDir	string	$currentDir	no	The directory where builds are generated and processed
customBuildScript	string	"build"	no	Set a custom script to use in your packages.json to build your files
webhookConfig	WebhookConfig	undefined	no	The Github webhook config

WebhookConfig

field	type	defaultValue	mandatory	description
expressApp	Express	undefined	yes	Your express app (const expressApp = express();)
endpoint	string	undefined	yes	The endpoint called by your github hook
secret	string	undefined	no	The secret passphrase associated to your github hook

Webhook usage

• Declare a webhook manually on your repository https://github.com/{yourOrganization}/{repostoryName}/settings/hooks/new
• Assign it a route and express-static-files-manager will automatically take care of that endpoint as long as you set webhookConfig.endpoint accordingly.
• Select "application/json" for the field "Content Type"
• Create a secret passphrase and set webhookConfig.secret accordingly.

src/index.ts

import express from 'express';
import path from 'path';
import { manageStaticFilesServing } from 'express-static-files-manager';
 
const app = express();
 
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, '../public')));
 
manageStaticFilesServing({
  repoUrl: 'https://github.com/yourUserName/yourRepositoryName',
  branch: 'production',
  webhookConfig: {
    endpoint: '/githubhook',
    secret: 'yoursupertopsecret',
    expressApp: app
  }
});

Github credentials

If your repository is private, make sure to either ideally set your SSH key on your hosting machine or alternately set githubUsername and githubPassword. You can also use a github access token for the githubToken. If you take this path, consider setting up a bot with limited access rights to your repository.

Disclaimer

This is still in early stage development. Not production ready. Use it at your own risks. This is also super project specific and very opinionated.