grunt-nodestatic

Start a node-static web server (perfect as a development server combined with watch of regarde).

Getting Started

This plugin requires Grunt ~0.4.1

If you haven't used Grunt before, be sure to check out the Getting Started guide, as it explains how to create a Gruntfile as well as install and use Grunt plugins. Once you're familiar with that process, you may install this plugin with this command:

npm install grunt-nodestatic --save-dev

Once the plugin has been installed, it may be enabled inside your Gruntfile with this line of JavaScript:

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-nodestatic');

static task

Run this task with the grunt nodestatic command.

Note that this server only runs as long as grunt is running. Once grunt's tasks have completed, the web server stops. This behavior can be changed with the keepalive option, and can be enabled ad-hoc by running the task like grunt nodestatic:keepalive.

This task was designed to be used in conjunction with another task that is run immediately afterwards, like the grunt-contrib-watch plugin watch task.

This plugin is perfect for development purpose combined with grunt watch.

Options

port

Type: Integer Default: 8080

The port on which the webserver will respond. The task will fail if the specified port is already in use. You can use the special values 0 or '?' to use a system-assigned port.

base

Type: String Default: '.'

The base (or root) directory from which files will be served. Defaults to the project Gruntfile's directory.

keepalive

Type: Boolean Default: false

Keep the server alive indefinitely. Note that if this option is enabled, any tasks specified after this task will never run. By default, once grunt's tasks have completed, the web server stops. This option changes that behavior.

This option can also be enabled ad-hoc by running the task like grunt nodestatic:targetname:keepalive

dev

Type: Boolean Default: true

If true, specify additional headers (this one is useful for development): '{"Cache-Control": "no-cache, must-revalidate"}'

verbose

Type: Boolean Default: false

If true, show each file requested on the server with differents colors following the status code

headers

Type: Object Default: {}

Sets response headers.

example: { 'X-Hello': 'World!' }

Usage examples

Basic Use

In this example, grunt nodestatic (or more verbosely, grunt nodestatic:server) will start a static web server at http://localhost:9001/, with its base path set to the www-root directory relative to the gruntfile, and any tasks run afterwards will be able to access it.

// Project configuration.
grunt.initConfig({
  nodestatic: {
    server: {
      options: {
        port: 8080,
        base: 'www-root'
      }
    }
  }
});

If you want your web server to use the default options, just omit the options object. You still need to specify a target (uses_defaults in this example), but the target's configuration object can otherwise be empty or nonexistent. In this example, grunt nodestatic (or more verbosely, grunt nodestatic:uses_defaults) will start a static web server using the default options.

// Project configuration.
grunt.initConfig({
  nodestatic: {
    uses_defaults: {}
  }
});

Multiple Servers

You can specify multiple servers to be run alone or simultaneously by creating a target for each server. In this example, running either grunt nodestatic:site1 or grunt nodestatic:site2 will start the appropriate web server, but running grunt nodestatic will run both. Note that any server for which the keepalive option is specified will prevent any task or target from running after it.

// Project configuration.
grunt.initConfig({
  nodestatic: {
    site1: {
      options: {
        port: 9000,
        base: 'www-roots/site1'
      }
    },
    site2: {
      options: {
        port: 9001,
        base: 'www-roots/site2'
      }
    }
  }
});

Release History

• 2013-04-11   v0.1.0   First working version
• 2013-04-14   v0.1.1   Fix dev mode and verbose option
• 2013-04-14   v0.1.2   add Windows compatibility

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This project is a fork form the official grunt-contrib-connect.

This project use node-static as static web server.

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Task submitted by "ia3andy" Andy Damevin