rtjscomp

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

Warning

as the issues indicate, a lot of breaking changes are ahead. make sure to check for these in future until version 1.0.0 is relessed.

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 install
$ npm start

rtjscomp.json (optional)

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

• 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

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