Simple Dev Server

This is a simple dev server that works with webpack apps or without webpack. It is meant to make development easier and aims to end the prickly practice of running two servers in development.

Usage

Create devserver.config.js.

module.exports = {
	proxy: {
		'/api/*': 'http://url.of.prod.api/'
	},
	publicPaths: {
		'/assets': 'assets'
	},
	mockPath: 'mock',
	app: '/index.html', // this can also be an express app
	serverConfig: {}, // config for webpack-hot-server-middleware
	port: 5450, // 3000 by default
};

All options are optional.

If you'd like to start more than one server with the same build (useful when making multiple apps) use an array of config objects instead of a single one.

If you're rendering on the server it will use webpack-hot-server-middleware to recompile your server side code. Just be sure to have a server entry in your webpack config.

Options

• proxy - key/value pairs of URLs to servers to proxy requests. This allows you to work with an external API and/or image server.
• publicPaths - a key/value pair of URLs to the static file directories in which they are contained.
• mockPath - You can make a folder on your project that contains sample responses from your API calls. Paths that exist in this directory structure will be used instead of making HTTP calls.
• app - An express app or a string that will be used to server your single page app.
• apps - an array of apps, end with a string to serve a single page app. Ignored if app is present.
• serverConfig - used for webpack-hot-server-middleware if there's a server entry in your webpack config.
• port - the port number that will be used.

2. Running it

As a Project Dependency (recommended)

The recommended way is to install it as a devDependency to your project, then save it as your npm start or npm run dev script.

yarn add --dev simple-dev-server

Then add this to the "scripts" section of your package.json:

{
  "name": "YourApp",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "simple-dev-server"
  }
}

and run yarn start

As a global command

yarn global add simple-dev-server

Then you may simply run simple-dev-server

Simple Config Examples

Just Webpack (even with isomoriphic)

// Nothing. It'll default to port 3000

Serve a static directory and proxy your API and content images

module.exports = {
	proxy: {
		'/api/*': 'http://url.of.prod/',
		'/usercontent/*': 'http://url.of.prod/'
	},
	publicPaths: {
		'/assets': 'assets'
	}
};

A Webpack single page app

module.exports = {
	proxy: {
		'/api/*': 'http://url.of.prod.api/',
	},
	app: '/index.html'
};

You can have webpack serve index.html using the webpack-html-plugin, if it doesn't exist in the build it will be served statically.

Using a node app plus an index.html from the build

var app = require('./back-end-express-app');

module.exports = {
	proxy: {
		'/api/*': 'http://url.of.prod.api/',
	},
	apps: [app, '/index.html']
};