torralbaalla / st-example

an example of serving static files easily in node using the st module

This is how to serve static files using Node.

It's really easy.

I'm going to use the st module.

First, install st:

$ npm install st -q
st@0.1.2 node_modules/st
├── async-cache@0.0.2
├── graceful-fs@1.1.14
├── lru-cache@2.0.4
├── mime@1.2.9
├── negotiator@0.2.5
└── fd@0.0.2

Then, we're going to create some files and folders in the static folder. You can name the folder something else, but this of course affects things later.

mkdir static
vim static/index.html
vim static/foo.css
vim static/foo.js

Or you can be lazy, and use the ones in this repo which are already made for you. They're kind of silly, though.

Next, let's create the actual server. Again, you can start with this one, or you can craft your own.

vim server.js

This is the code I put in it:

var st = require('st')

// a 'mount' is a function that mounts a folder on a url path
// you pass it a request object and and a response object
// if it handles them, then it will return true.  if not, false
var mount = st({ path: './static' })

// now create our server
var http = require('http')
var server = http.createServer(function(req, res) {
  if (mount(req, res)) {
    console.log('static file handled', req.url)
  } else {
    res.statusCode = 404
    res.end('what is this i dont even\n')
  }
})

// listen on a port, and then the action begins!
server.listen(1337)

Now we have only to start our ball rolling!

node server.js

Point your webitrix browseratron at http://localhost:1337/static/ and you'll see all manner of static files!

If you'd like to show the index.html file by default, instead of an auto-generated list of files, then you can set index: 'index.html' in the options to st().

If you want to not have to restart the server to see every change, you can set cache: false in the options to st().

You can have multiple mounts if you'd like. But if you call mount(req, res) and it returns true, then you must stop doing anything to the request and response, or else bad happens.

Enjoy your static!

OMG That's SOOO hard!! Typing! Gah!! Can't I be lazier? JEEZZZ!!!

Ok, fine, do this:

npm i st -g

Then cd into the folder you want to serve, and type:

st

It listens on port 1337, just like the example above.

I CANNOT MAKE IT ANY FEWER CHARACTERS, BECAUSE ALL THE ONE-LETTER npm NAMES ARE TAKEN.