earlybird

A quick and easy to setup web server for earlybird development and even more.

Installation

npm install earlybird -g

Run

cd /path/to/my/sources
earlybird

Starting parameters overview

p		a standard port different from 80
www		a static assets path different from current directory

s		set a service method script
u		a service url prefix different from 'service' (http://localhost/service/demo)

ws		use WebSockets

ssl		start with ssl support (on port 443)
h		a host name different from localhost (for ssl)

Usage of a service

To integrate a service, place a service script like this in your working directory and name it, e.g. service.js:

var serviceCallback = function (serviceName, postData, callback) {
	var responseData = {};
	switch (serviceName) {
		// call with http://localhost/service/demo
		case 'demo':
			responseData = {demo: 'hello'};
			break;
	}
	return responseData;
};

exports.service = serviceCallback;

Refer to this script by starting with --s parameter. Services have a special path in your url (default is http://localhost/service). If you'd like to set a different path name, start with --u parameter:

earlybird --s=service --u=example/service		# run service with http://localhost/example/service

To call services from frontend you can copy jquery.service.js to your working directory. Adjust it to your needs and call it like that:

$(document).ready(function() {
	$.callService('demo', {}, function(response){
		// something inside the success callback..
	});
});

Or do something else.

WebSockets

To use WebSockets, install socket.io first (npm install socket.io -g). After that start earlybird server with --ws flag.

earlybird --ws

Calling services from frontend is shown in example as well.

$(document).ready(function() {
	$(document).initSocket(function(){
        $(document).callSocket('hello', {id: '123'}, function (response) {
        	// something inside the socket callback..
    	});
	});
});

SSL support

To run earlybird server with ssl, install http-proxy first (npm install http-proxy -g) and start with --ssl parameter. Optionally set another host name with --h. SSL needs a (self-signed) ssl certificate. It has to be placed inside a folder named ssl in your working directory. Place here both files localhost.key and localhost.cert. Actually SSL is only supported on port 443.

earlybird --ssl --h "abc.de"