Steckling - Flexible Front End Dev Server
Features
- one file for configuration and invokation
- has a extendible static file server
- has a extendible asset pipeline
- can execute tasks, write your own tasks
- can fetch files from the web
- can create files from templates via prompt
- can deploy files from the asset pipeline
Install
npm install steckling
The package.json file
If there are no files in the current directory except steckling.js then this readme will be
served on localhost. Nicely formated.
Static file server
The whole directory you started steckling.js on will be served as a static file server.
Let's create a file: docs/index.html
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Docs</title>
</head>
<body>
...
</body>
</html>
Now this file now can be served on localhost:7777/docs/index.html. And since its a
index.html also on localhost:7777/docs.
Asset pipeline
The Steckling directory is not only a file server but also a asset pipeline which will be served on
localhost:7777/assets.
Let's create another file: src/home.js
console.log('home file');
You already know that you could serve that file with the file server on localhost:7777/src/home.js.
But we can access JS files with the asset pipeline too on localhost:7777/assets/src/home.js.
Compile CoffeeScript
Hey, you want to write your code in CoffeeScript? Let's create another file: src/nav.coffee
console.log 'nav file'
Now that uncompiled file can be accessed on the file server localhost:7777/src/nav.coffee.
The compiled JavaScript is accessible on the asset pipeline. localhost:7777/assets/src/nav.coffee
and localhost:7777/assets/src/nav.js.
Asset bundles
We want to merge our two JS files together. No problem with the asset pipeline.
Let's create bundle: src/bundle.js
//= require ./home
//= require ./nav
Now you can access that compiled and merged bundle of home.js and nav.coffee on
localhost:7777/src/bundle.js. Simple as that to structure your JS and CSS projects.
Configuration
A configuration object can be passed to Steckling. Let's update steckling.js:
var config = {};
require('steckling')(config);
Add custom paths to static file server
You easily can add custom paths to the default static file server.
var config = {
routes: {
'/' : 'docs', // map docs folder to root url
'/test': ['spec', 'specs'] // map spec and specs folder to /test path
}
};
This would result in the following urls:
localhost:777/docs/index.html
localhost:777/docs/
localhost:777/index.html
localhost:777/
localhost:777/test/index.html
localhost:777/test
Add custom paths to the asset pipeline
You can map folders to the root url of the asset pipeline.
var config = {
assets: ['src', 'vendor']
};
Would result in these urls:
localhost:7777/assets/src/nav.coffee
localhost:7777/assets/src/nav.js
localhost:7777/assets/nav.coffee
localhost:7777/assets/nav.js
Tasks
Global tasks
Templates
Global templates
Fetch
Deploy
Custo Node.js server
You could include your own Node.js server. Just have a index.js or index.coffee in the
directory server/:
module.exports =
initialize: (app, env, express) ->
app.get '/custom', (req, res) ->
res.send 'route'
To-Do
-
finish readme
-
write binary wrapper
-
public/
module.exports = # port to run the development server on port: 7777
# directories to be exposed to the static server # by default all files of the root folder are served as public # # '/' : 'docs' # map docs folder to / # '/test': ['spec', 'oth'] # map spec and test folder to /test # # /docs/docs.html # /docs.html # # /test/spec.html # /spec/spec.html # /oth/oth.html # /test/oth.html routes: {} # directories to be compiled and served on /assets # by default all files of the root folder are assets # ['src', 'vendor', 'vendor/js'] # # /assets/src/plugin.coffee # /assets/plugin.coffee # /asssts/plugin.js # # /assets/vendor/js/jquery.js # /assets/vendor/jquery.js # /assets/jquery.js assets: [] # compile files from the asset pipeline to disk # 'src/plugin.coffee' : 'dest/plugin.js' # 'vendor/js/jquery.js': ['dest/jquery.js', 'docs/js/jquery.js'] deploy: {} # fetch files from url and write them to disk # 'http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.9.1.min.js': 'vendor/js/jquery.js' # 'http://imperavi.com/css/kube.min.css' : 'vendor/css/kube.css' fetch: {}