nodejs-server-ssi

Install

$ npm i nodejs-server-ssi

Usage: include directive

Syntax

<!--#include file="./header.shtml" -->
<!--#include file="./components/header.shtml" -->

ps. The file path should be relative.

1. Create an NPM project folder and install the nodejs-server-ssi module.

   # bash
   $ mkdir <yourProject>
   $ cd <yourProject>
   $ npm init -y
   $ npm i nodejs-server-ssi

2. (Optional for testing) Clone this repo and copy the public folder inside the tests folder to your project folder.

   # bash
   $ git clone https://github.com/cv47522/nodejs-server-ssi.git
   $ cp -R path/to/nodejs-server-ssi/tests/public path/to/<yourProject>

3. (Optional) Or create your own HTML/SHTML files following the above include directive syntax.

4. Create an index.js and import the module. (ps. The server of the module can be started with or without specifying a port and a file directory since it has its default values.)

   # bash
   $ cd <yourProject>
   $ touch index.js

   index.js

   const path = require('path');
   const ssiServer = require('nodejs-server-ssi');
   
   const staticRoot = path.join(__dirname, 'public');
   const homepage = path.join(staticRoot, 'index.shtml');
   
   ssiServer();
   // or use specific homepage
   // ssiServer(staticRoot, homepage);
   // or use specific port
   // ssiServer(staticRoot, homepage, 5000);

5. Start the server by running the index.js.

   # bash
   $ node .

6. Go to (default) http://localhost:3000.

Implementation

Reference

• https://github.com/kidwm/node-ssi
• https://github.com/jiamao/jm-ssi

External Libraries and Tools

• express: for conveniently creating an http server
• serve-favicon: for serving a static favicon file
• nodemon: for automatically restarting a node.js server after modifying files
• VS Code Node.js Debugger: for tracing every parameter change

Workflow

First, I created an http server serving a simple webpage with the express framework inside index.js. Next, I referenced some ssi repositories given above to implement the <!--#include file="myFile.shtml" --> SSI directive inside the lib folder. Then, I imported the SSI functionality to the index.js and exported this file as a ssiServer module. Since the ssiServer module should have its default port and static files to serve, I added some HTML and SHTML files to the public folder.

Finally, I added an example file testInclude.js to the tests along with some other HTML and SHTML files to test my nodejs-server-ssi project, packaged the whole project as an NPM module, and published it to https://www.npmjs.com/package/nodejs-server-ssi.

During the development, I always used the nodemon module to automatically reload the server whenever changing a file and debugged my Node.js project inside VS Code.

Design Pattern

Factory

The project mostly uses the factory pattern to define a generic interface for creating objects since it is useful and easier to maintain when the creation process is complex.

ssiContentGenerator.js

const ssiDecoder = require('./ssiDecoder');

const ssiContentGenerator = (rawHtml, options) => {
    options = options || {};
    options.data = options.data || {};
    options.root = options.root || '';

    return new Promise(async (resolve, reject) => {
        try {
            const htmlToJs = await ssiDecoder.decode(rawHtml, options);
            const result = generateHtml(htmlToJs, options.data);
            resolve(result);
        } catch(err) {
            reject(err);
        }
    });
}

module.exports = ssiContentGenerator;