---

Simple to use stand alone node HTTP and HTTPS Server you can spin up in seconds.

• TLDR; Quick start examples
• Server Class
• Config Class
• Basic use with cluster example

Support for building proxy servers has been added. Documentation coming in next release. For now see the node-http-server proxy examples.

npm i node-http-server

npm info : See npm trends and stats for node-http-server

GitHub info :

Package Quality :

See the code documentation on riaevangelist.github.io

cli use if you just want to test

Now you can also use the node-http-server cli if you just want to spin up a basic file server to test something out quickly or share on the local network.

$ sudo npm i -g node-http-server

//start a node-http-server from the current directory on the default port 8080
$ node-http-server

You can modify any of the config keys by passing their key value pairs as args.

//start a verbose node-http-server from the current directory on port 1942
$ node-http-server port=1942 verbose=true

quick npm script tests and examples

#node ./example/basic/basicApp.js
npm run basic

#node ./example/basic/https-ONLY-basicApp.js
npm run https

#node ./example/basic/https-basicApp.js
npm run both

#node ./example/advanced/basicTemplate.js
npm run template

#node ./example/basic/cluster-basicApp.js
npm run cluster

writing a node http or https server

The below table shows all of the methods available on the server when you require this module.

    const server=require('node-http-server');

    server.deploy();

If you want to create a custom Server or extend the Server Class you can require just the server class.

    const Server=require('node-http-server').Server;

    class MyCustomServer extends Server{
      constructor(){
        super();
      }
    }

    const server=new MyCustomServer;
    server.deploy();

Server Class

Server Method or member	params	returns / should return	description
deploy	userConfig obj (optional), readyCallback fn (optional)	returns void	Starts the server. if a config object is passed it will shallow merge it with a clean instantion of the Config class.
onRawRequest	request obj, response obj, serve fn	should return true,false or void	Called immediately upon reciept of http(s) request. Called before any request parsing, useful for proxy servers and request modification, high speed handling, or rejection. Mildly more complex to work with because the request object has not been parsed and decorated with helper members. If this function returns true, the servers response lifecycle will be exited and you must manually call serve. this allows manual immediate and manual async serving. use the serve argument, server.serve or server.serveFile to manually serve the response.
onRequest	request obj, response obj, serve fn	should return true,false or void	Called when request received. If this function returns true, the servers response lifecycle will be exited and you must manually call serve. this allows manual immediate and manual async serving. use the serve argument, server.serve or server.serveFile to manually serve the response.
beforeServe	request obj, response obj, body obj, encoding obj, serve fn	should return true,false or void	Called just before data is served to the client. If this function returns true, the servers response lifecycle will be exited and you must manually call serve. this allows manual immediate and manual async serving. use the serve argument, server.serve or server.serveFile to manually serve the response.
afterServe	request obj	void	Called once data has been fully sent to client.
Config	n/a	n/a	This is a reference to the Default Config class. Use it to generate a complete config file based off of the default values and arguments passed in when launching the app. Will perform a shallow merge of default values and passed values if a config object passed.
Server	n/a	n/a	This is a reference to the Server Class. Use it to start multiple servers on different ports or to extend the node-http-server.

Server Methods

deploy

server.deploy starts the server.

server.deploy(userConfig,readyCallback)

method	returns
deploy	void

parameter	required	description
userConfig	no	if a userConfig object is passed it will decorate the Config class
readyCallback	no	called once the server is started

const server=require('node-http-server');

server.deploy(
    {
        port:8000,
        root:'~/myApp/'
    },
    serverReady
);

server.deploy(
    {
        port:8888,
        root:'~/myOtherApp/'
    },
    serverReady
);

function serverReady(server){
   console.log( `Server on port ${server.config.port} is now up`);
}

onRawRequest

server.onRawRequest

server.onRawRequest(request,response,serve)

method	should return
onRawRequest	bool/void

parameter	description
request	http(s) request obj
response	http(s) response obj
serve	ref to server.serve

const server=require('node-http-server');
const config=new server.Config;

config.port=8000;

server.onRawRequest=gotRequest;

server.deploy(config);


function gotRequest(request,response,serve){
    console.log(request.uri,request.headers);

    serve(
        request,
        response,
        JSON.stringify(
            {
                uri:request.uri,
                headers:request.headers
            }
        )
    );

    return true;
}

onRequest

server.onRequest

server.onRequest(request,response,serve)

method	should return
onRequest	bool/void

parameter	description
request	http(s) request obj
response	http(s) response obj
serve	ref to server.serve

const server=require('node-http-server');
const config=new server.Config;

config.port=8099;
config.verbose=true;

server.onRequest=gotRequest;

server.deploy(config);


function gotRequest(request,response,serve){
    //at this point the request is decorated with helper members lets take a look at the query params if there are any.
    console.log(request.query,request.uri,request.headers);

    //lets only let the requests with a query param of hello go through
    if(request.query.hello){
       // remember returning false means do not inturrupt the response lifecycle
       // and that you will not be manually serving
       return false;
    }

    serve(
        request,
        response,
        JSON.stringify(
            {
                success:false,
                message:'you must have a query param of hello to access the server i.e. /index.html?hello'
                uri:request.uri,
                query:request.query
            }
        )
    );

    //now we let the server know we want it to kill the normal request lifecycle
    //because we just completed it by serving above. we could also handle it async style
    //and request a meme or something from the web and put that on the page (or something...)
    return true;
}

beforeServe

server.beforeServe

server.beforeServe(request,response,body,encoding,serve)

method	should return
beforeServe	bool/void

parameter	description
request	http(s) request obj
response	http(s) response obj
body	response content body RefString
encoding	response body encoding RefString
serve	ref to server.serve

type RefString

type	keys	description
RefString	value	a way to allow modifying a string by refrence.

const server=require('node-http-server');

server.beforeServe=beforeServe;

function beforeServe(request,response,body,encoding){
    //only parsing html files for this example
    if(response.getHeader('Content-Type')!=server.config.contentType.html){
        //return void||false to allow response lifecycle to continue as normal
        return;
    }

    const someVariable='this is some variable value';

    body.value=body.value.replace('{{someVariable}}',someVariable);

    //return void||false to allow response lifecycle to continue as normal
    //with modified body content
    return;
}

server.deploy(
    {
        port:8000,
        root:`${__dirname}/appRoot/`
    }
);

afterServe

server.afterServe

server.afterServe(request)

method	should return
afterServe	n/a

parameter	description
request	decorated http(s) request obj

const server=require('node-http-server');

server.afterServe=afterServe;

function afterServe(request){
    console.log(`just served ${request.uri}`);
}

server.deploy(
    {
        port:8075,
        root:`${__dirname}/appRoot/`
    }
);

Examples

To see the node http server in action run npm start from the root of this repo and then visit localhost:8000.

To start only an https example server npm run https from the root of this repo and then visit localhost:4433.

To spin up both an http and an https server npm run both from the root of this repo and then visit localhost:4433 or localhost:8000.

Detailed examples can be found in the example folder or under the example folder on the node-http-server example docs The basic example directory is static http and https file servers and the advanced directory has dynamic server side rendering http and https examples including a benchmark example. The proxy examples show manual serving and response modification examples.

Basic http server example

    const server=require('node-http-server');

    server.deploy(
        {
            port:8000,
            root:'~/myApp/'
        }
    );

Basic https only server example

    const server=require('node-http-server');

    server.deploy(
        {
            port:8000,
            root:'~/myApp/',
            https:{
                privateKey:`/path/to/your/certs/private/server.key`,
                certificate:`/path/to/your/certs/server.pub`,
                port:4433,
                only:true
            }
        }
    );

Basic server running both http and https

    const server=require('node-http-server');

    server.deploy(
        {
            port:8000,
            root:'~/myApp/',
            https:{
                privateKey:`/path/to/your/certs/private/server.key`,
                certificate:`/path/to/your/certs/server.pub`,
                port:4433
            }
        }
    );

Basic cluster server

//import the `node-http-server` module
//` const server=require(‘node-http-server’); `
const server=require('../../server/Server.js');

//import cluster
const cluster = require('cluster');
const numCPUs = require('os').cpus().length;

if (cluster.isMaster) {
  console.log(`Master ${process.pid} is running`);

  // Fork node-http-server cluster workers.
  for (let i = 0; i < numCPUs; i++) {
    cluster.fork();
  }

  cluster.on(
    'exit',
    (worker, code, signal) => {
      console.log(`worker ${worker.process.pid} died`);
    }
  );
} else {
  server.afterServe=(request)=>{
    console.log(`${process.pid} served ${request.uri.path}`);
  }

  //start server in clustered children
  server.deploy(
      {
          verbose: false,
          port: 8000,
          root:__dirname+'/appRoot/'
      }
  );

  console.log(`Worker ${process.pid} started listening on ${server.config.port}`);
}

Template filling

    const server=require('node-http-server');

    server.beforeServe=beforeServe;

    function beforeServe(request,response,body,encoding){
        //only parsing html files for this example
        if(response.getHeader('Content-Type')!=server.config.contentType.html){
            return;
        }

        const someVariable='this is some variable value';

        body.value=body.value.replace('{{someVariable}}',someVariable);
    }

    server.deploy(
        {
            port:8000,
            root:`${__dirname}/appRoot/`
        }
    );

---

Custom configuration

for http :

    const server=require('node-http-server');

    const config=new server.Config;
    config.errors['404']    = 'These are not the files you are looking for...';
    config.contentType.mp4  = 'video/mp4';
    config.port             = 8005;
    config.verbose          = true;
    config.root             = '~/myApp/'

    server.deploy(config);

for https :

    const server=require('node-http-server');

    const config=new server.Config;
    config.errors['404']    = 'These are not the files you are looking for...';
    config.contentType.mp4  = 'video/mp4';
    config.port             = 8005;
    config.verbose          = true;
    config.root             = '~/myApp/'
    config.https.privateKey = `/path/to/your/certs/private/server.key`;
    config.https.certificate= `/path/to/your/certs/server.pub`;
    config.https.port       = 4433;
    config.https.only       = true;

    server.deploy(config);

---

Multiple domains or subdomains

    const server=require('node-http-server');

    const config={
        port:8010,
        root:__dirname + '/www/myApp/',
        domain:'myapp.com',
        domains:{
            'a.myapp.com':__dirname+'/www/a-myApp/',
            'yourapp.com':__dirname+'/someFolder/yourApp/'
        }
    }

    server.deploy(config);

Config Class

Default node HTTP server configuration

All of these can be modified and passed into new server.Server(myConfigs) or server.deploy(myConfigs)

const myConfig=new server.Config;
myConfig.verbose=true;
myConfig.port=9922;

const myServer=new server.Server(config);
myServer.deploy();

//or more basically
server.deploy({port:9922,verbose:true});

defaults description

    {
        verbose     : (args.verbose=='true')||false,
        port        : args.port||defaults.port,
        root        : args.root||defaults.root,
        domain      : args.domain||defaults.domain,
        https       :{
            ca:'',
            privateKey:'',
            certificate:'',
            port:443,
            only:false
        },
        log         : false,
        logFunction : serverLogging,
        domains   : {
            /*******************\
             * domain  : /that/domains/root/dir
             *
             * for sub domains, specify the whole host i.e. "my.sub.domain"
             * you may need to edit your hosts file, cnames or iptable
             * domain or my.domain etc. goes to 127.0.0.1 for local development
             * *****************/
        },
        server      : {
            index   : args.index||defaults.index,
            noCache : args.noCache=='false' ? false : true,
            timeout : 30000 //30 second timeout
        },
        contentType : {
            html    : 'text/html',
            css     : 'text/css',
            js      : 'text/javascript',
            json    : 'application/json',
            txt     : 'text/plain',
            jpeg    : 'image/jpeg',
            jpg     : 'image/jpeg',
            png     : 'image/png',
            gif     : 'image/gif',
            ico     : 'image/x-icon',
            appcache: 'text/cache-manifest'
        },
        restrictedType: {

        },
        errors:{
            headers : {
                'Content-Type' : 'text/plain'
            },
            404: '404 MIA',
            415: '415 File type not supported',
            403: '403 Access Denied',
            500: '500 {{err}}'
        }
    };

key	description
verbose	display detailed info about what server is doing via terminal.
port	the port on which the server should run
root	the absolute path to the root dir for the domain
domain	the server domain. To accept incoming requests for ANY Applicable Domain use 0.0.0.0 this will allow any request that is pointed at this machine on the specified port to use this server config.
https	settings for https, these wil only take effect if both a privateKey and a certificate are specified. Setting only to be true means the instance will only serve over https
https.privateKey	path to your servers private key like ./local-certs/private/server.key or similar
https.certificate	path to your servers public cert like ./local-certs/client.pub or similar
https.ca	path to your officially signed CA’s certificate authority file servers public cert like ./local-certs/ca-bundle.crt or similar. This is often needed for officially signed and generated certs, but not for self signed certs so it is optional.
log	full path to log file, if specified and the file is not present, it will be created, however the dir must be there. Example path : /tmp/server.log It is recommended that you timestamp this file name with a time stamp like : '~/serverLogs/domain-'+new Date().getTime()+'.log' this will create a new log file each time the server is started/restarted/reboot etc…
logFunction	the default function appends timestamps to the headers object and logs as JSON in the log file. You can assign your own function here as well. It should accepts a javascript Object as the first argument.
domains.*	this is a mapping of hostname to path. It can be used for multiple different domains, or for subdomains.
server.index	the default file to look for in a dir. if not found a 404 will be displayed
server.noCache	should the server prevent caching
server.timeout	the amount of time allowed for no activity on a connection before it is closed.
contentType.*	mapping of file extension to header Content-Type value.
restrictedType.*	extensions to which access will be denied.
errors.headers	these are the headers that will automatically be applied to all error responses. You can add custom headers per error in the beforeServe function
errors.*	error headers and error strings, these can be anything you like from html to text etc. The 500 error will replace {{err}} in the specified value with the actual error message from the server.

config.domains.*

Use this object for sub domains, or hosting multiple domains on the same port. Specify the whole host i.e. “my.sub.domain.com” or “amazing-domain.com”.

You may need to edit your hosts file, cnames, iptable to get this to work on your server or development environment.

You can add the below example to your hosts file to run some of the examples from the /example/basic directory which use multiple domains on occasion.

#node-http-server examples
127.0.0.1 myapp
127.0.0.1 a.myapp
127.0.0.1 yourapp.com

    const server=require('node-http-server');

    const config={
        port:8000,
        root:__dirna\me+'/appRoot/',
        domain:'myapp',
        domains:{
             //subdomain
             'a.myapp':`${__dirname}/appSubDomainRoot/`,
             //totally different domain, but also on port 8000
             'yourapp.com':`${__dirname}/appOtherDomainRoot/`
        }
    }

    server.deploy(config);

---

Extending the Server

If you wish to make a reusable Server Class of your own to share or for some internal use you can always extend the server class and make your own module too.

    const os=require('os');
    const Server=require('node-http-server').Server;

    class MyAwesomeServer extends Server(){
        constructor(){
            super();
        }

        IP(){
            const networkInterfaces = os.networkInterfaces();
            const serverIPs={};
            const interfaceKeys=Object.keys(networkInterfaces);
            for(let i in interfaceKeys){
                serverIPs[
                    interfaceKeys[i]
                ]={};

                const interface=networkInterfaces[
                    interfaceKeys[i]
                ];

                for(let j in interface){
                    serverIPs[
                        interfaceKeys[i]
                    ][
                        interface[j].family
                    ]=interface[j].address;
                }
            }

            return serverIPs;
        }
    }

    module.exports=MyAwesomeServer;

    const AwesomeServer=require('MyAwesomeServer');

    const server=new AwesomeServer;

    server.deploy(
        {
            port:8000,
            root:'~/myAwesomeApp'
        }
    );

    console.log(server.IP);