lam: local web application manager
NOTE: only opens browsers on Linux and OS X currently.
Node-based local web applications are interesting. They can run on any operating system with Node installed on it. They are easy to write if you're familiar with web technologies. As browser technologies evolve, they will likely become more commonplace.
Local web applications feel a bit weird to use though. If you use them regularly you end up having to do things like creating shell aliases to run them. There is also no definitive list of them to search through to find them.
This tool attempts to improve the situation a bit. lam makes it easy to discover local web applications and launch them in the browser. lam does this by leveraging the Node Package Manager (npm).
Normally you have to do this to end up running a local web application:
- Hear about the local web application
- Install the local web application
- Create a shell alias to conveniently run the local web application
- Run the local web application
- Navigate to the local web application in your browser
With lam it's easier:
- Discover local web applications using
lam search - Install and run the local web applications using
lam install <package>
Once you've installed a package using lam you can run it using the following command syntax.
lam run <package>
If the package's name doesn't conflict with a lam command you can also run it using the following command syntax.
lam <package>
To list packages that you've installed using lam, you can use the following command syntax.
lam ls
To only list packages with names matching a pattern, use the following command syntax.
lam ls <search pattern>
Similarly, to search for packages you might want to install, you can use the following command syntax.
lam search
To only show packages with names matching a pattern, use the following command syntax.
lam search <search pattern>
Requirements and Installation
lam requires Node and npm. Install using the following command.
npm install -g lam
Developers
If you've developed a local web application and want to publish it to the local web application registry, simply include a "local" element in your package's package.json file. The element should be hash with a "start" element and, optionally, a "port" element (if your local web application can't have a port specified when run using the command-line).
Here's an example package.json specification for a local web application which can be run on any port:
"local": { "start": "nide init -p {port}" },
Note that the "{port}" in the "start" element gets replaced with any available port when the web application is launched.
Here's an example package.json specification for a local web application which can only be run on a specific port:
"local": { "start": "node /Users/mike/programming/js/lam/finance/app.js", "port": 3000 }
If you want an example of implementing a lam-friendly npm package, check
out lam-example (https://github.com/mcantelon/node-lam-example).
License
(The MIT License)
Copyright (c) 2011 Mike Cantelon <mcantelon@gmail.com>
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.