rtjscomp

easy to use http server that allows for using javascript just as php was used back in the days

[!NOTE]
this project has not reached v1.0.0 yet, so breaking changes may appear in the future

usage

go into the directory where you want to have your project and run

$ npx --yes rtjscomp@latest

or in case you prefer bun:

$ bunx --bun rtjscomp@latest

and now http://localhost:8080 offers a greeting!

for developing rtjscomp itself, clone this repository and run

$ npm start

rtjscomp.json (optional)

it is only needed if you want to change default settings. it has the following properties:

• compress: boolean, set to false to disable any compression
• gzip_level: compression level, 0-9, default is 9
• log_verbose: boolean, set true for more verbose logging or run with -v
• path_aliases: object where the key is the url path and the value is the file path
• path_ghosts: array of paths that are simply ignored, no response is sent
• path_hiddens: array of paths that give 404
• path_statics: array of paths in which nothing is transpiled, but the file is sent as is
• port_http: port for http server, default is 8080
• port_https: port for https server
• services: paths to (enabled) service files, prepend an entry with # to disable it
• type_dynamics: dynamic file types, see api
• type_mimes: file type to mime type map (most common are already set, only overrides)
• type_raws: array of file types that are sent uncompressed
• upload_limit: max upload size in mebibytes, default is 10
• zstd_level: compression level for zstd, 0-19, default is 3

here is an example for a customized setup:

{
  "path_aliases": {
    "": "index.html",
    "blog": "modules/blog/index.html",
    "blog/*id": "modules/blog/article.html"
  },
  "path_ghosts": [ "admin", "wp-admin" ],
  "path_hiddens": [ "secrets.html" ],
  "path_statics": [ "rawtruth.html" ],
  "port_http": 8080,
  "services": [
    "modules/blog/blog",
    "#modules/not/needed"
  ],
  "type_dynamics": [ "html", "js" ],
  "type_mimes": {
    "html": "text/html; charset=UTF-8",
    "js": "application/javascript; charset=UTF-8",
    "custom": "application/custom"
  },
  "type_raws": [ "png", "jpg", "pdf" ]
}

directories

on first run, they will be created with some defaults.

• data dir, services store their data or read custom config files here
• public dir, containing dynamic and static offerings and also services

files in public dir

• static files like .png in public dir are sent to requests 1:1, maybe compressed
• dynamic files like .html are internally transpiled/compiled and executed -> "rtjscomp"
• .service.js files are executed and their this can be accessed by other files, they are not accessible to outside

example:

public
├── index.html
├── modules
│   ├── blog
│   │   ├── article.html
│   │   ├── blog.service.js
│   │   └── index.html
│   └── not
│       └── needed.service.js
├── rawtruth.html
└── secrets.html

api

in every served dynamic file (like .html), you can insert <? and ?> tags to insert javascript code that is executed server-side. <?= ... ?> can be used to insert the result of an expression. request-independent services can be created using .service.js files referenced in services.txt. in both file types (dynamic served and services), you can use all node/bun methods including require, but also those:

• log(msg): logs the message to the console
• service_require(service path): returns the matching service object
• service_require_try(service path): returns the matching service object or null if not found or if disabled
• rtjscomp: has these properties/methods:
  • actions: an object with methods for server control (http[s]_[start|stop|kill], log_clear, halt, exit)
  • async data_load(path): reads the file in data directory and returns its content or null
  • async data_load_watch(path, callback(content)): executes callback first and on every change
  • async data_save(path, content): writes the content to the file in data directory

supported environments

• node 8.0.0 or higher
• bun

any os