remote

Remote

Remote is a simple CLI tool that enables you to work in local files while consuming an API from a remote server. An easy reverse proxy in Node, if you will.

If you'd like, it can also start a simple local server for your files.

Simply specify

• the address of your local files server, or where I should start one
• the address of your remote API
• the address of where to start a reverse proxy
• a directory, if you want me to start a local server
• some regex rules that define which files to serve locally, which to fetch from the remote host
• optionally, you can map requests to specific files with the mappings option

It aims to solve the dreaded cross domain request problem, so you can freely ajax like you have a local server-side.

Install

npm install -g remote

Quickstart

After installing, create a remote.json configuration file (check the example folder) and simply call remote.

Usage - command line

remote [options]

	Options:

		-h, --help                output usage information
		-V, --version             output the version number
		-d, --directory [path]    Path to a local folder. If defined, will serve files at server address. [undefined]
		-r, --remote [host:port]  Address of the remote API [localhost:80]
		-p, --proxy [host:port]   Address of the reverse proxy server [localhost:9001]
		-s, --server [host:port]  Address of the static file server [localhost:9000]
		-m, --mapping             Whether to use the mapping rules [false]
		-f, --file [remote.json]  Specific configuration file [remote.json]

Usage - configuration file (remote.json)

See the example configuration file at the example folder.

Read on for the possible options for your remote.json file.

Bounces

This is the simplest remote.json, with some bounce rules defined:

{
	"directory" : "./src/",
	"remote" : {"host": "remote-api-host.com", "port": 80},
	"bounces" : [
	    "public/.*",
	    "assets/.*"
	]
}

In this case, any call to localhost:3000/public/(...) or localhost:3000/assets/(...) will be bounced to your local files under ./src/. Other URL's will be forwarded to remote-api-host.com

Headers

You may wish to send along some headers with your request. For example:

{
		"directory" : "./src/",
		"remote" : {"host": "remote-api-host.com", "port": 80},
		"headers": {
				"Host": "remote-api-host.com",
				"X-Secret-Header" : "awesome"
			},
		"bounces" : [
				"public/.*",
				"assets/.*"
			]
}

These will be added to every request made by remote.

Mappings

A mapping is like a bounce rule, only more specific. You define what you want served given a request URL. For example:

{
	"directory" : "./src/",
	"remote" : {"host": "remote-api-host.com", "port": 80},
	"headers": {
			"Host": "remote-api-host.com",
			"X-Secret-Header" : "awesome"
	},
	"bounces" : [
	    "public/.*",
	    "assets/.*"
	],
    "mapping": true,
    "mappings": {
        ".*/api/users/1/remove": {"result": "ok"},
        ".*/api/users/.*":"./test/mocks/users-mock.json",
        ".*/files/.*":"./test/files/",
        ".*/public/js/awesome.js":"./src/special/path/awesome-2.js"
    }
}

As you can see, mappings can be:

• A JSON object.
• A path to any file.
• A path to any directory (Remote will locate the requested file in the directory).

When any of these URL's are requested, remote will serve the given resource.

Note that mappings take precedence over bounce rules!

You can disable all mappings setting mapping to false.

Bounce to remote

If you like to keep things complicated, you may use the bounceToRemote: true option in your configuration file. This will invert the bounces rules, so they will actually bounce to the remote API. All other requests will be forwarded to the local server.

Other notes

Command line options take precedence over remote.json options. Also, any command line option may be specified in the json configuration file. Have fun!

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Note for Mac OS X users (or: what to do when I get EMFILE errors)

OS X has a arbitrarily low limit for the amount of files that a process can open of 256. Use the ulimit command to check your current limit. For sites with large amounts of files, or in any situation when encountering EMFILE errors, simply issue:

ulimit -n 2048

Or any such large value, before turning on remote.

---

Changelog:

v 0.2.6:

• Ignores query string on mapping.
• Starting unit tests with jasmine-node.

v 0.2.5:

• Serves images correctly. Really, this time.
• Accepts mapping with 'http://' to change to arbitrary host.

v 0.2.4:

• Serves images correctly (utf8 issue fix, thanks Augusto).

v 0.2.3:

• Accepts directory for mappings.

v 0.2.1:

• File update and options scope fix.
• Mappings should work now when applied in a file.

v 0.2.0:

• Breaking changes in API. Old remote.json files wont work.
• Better options syntax
• Bring you own local server. Now you can use remote as a reverse proxy, only.
• Many fixes.

v 0.1.0:

• Major rewrite. Nothing of note before this ;)
• Using nodejitsu's http-proxy
• Add the capability to map arbitrary url to arbitrary files or JSON
• Add the capability to add request headers