zhhz / brolink.vim

Live browser editing for Vim

Brolink.vim

Brolink is a live web editing plugin for Vim. I really can't explain it well, so here's a GIF:

How it works

Brolink is very simple. The plugin itself hooks autocommands for file changes (and a few other things) cURL calls. The calls are sent to a node.js backend, which your webpage connects to. The entire process happens extremely fast.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4_fkpVQbAQ

Installation and Setup

To install, either download the repo, or as I would recommend, use Pathogen.

git clone git://github.com/jaxbot/brolink.vim.git

Once installed, make sure you have Node installed, and run the server program like so:

node brolink.js

Feel free to move (or symlink) the brolink server to a more convenient location.

Once Brolink is running in a console, you need to include a reference to it in your web project. Two options:

1. Be lazy and add this to your page(s)

   <script src='http://127.0.0.1:9001/socket.js'></script>

2. Use GreaseMonkey or Tampermonkey to automatically embed in your local projects, e.g.

    // ==UserScript==
    // @name       Brolink Embed
    // @namespace  http://use.i.E.your.homepage/
    // @version    0.1
    // @description  enter something useful
    // @match      http://localhost/*
    // @copyright  2012+, You
    // ==/UserScript==
    
    var src = document.createElement("script");
    src.src = "http://127.0.0.1:9001/socket.js";
    src.async = true;
    document.head.appendChild(src);
   

I prefer the latter, as it's more universal and I don't have extra development junk in my projects. But it's totally up to you, bro.

Usage

Once set up, Vim should now call the Node server whenever you save a .html, .js, .php, or .css file. In addition:

BLReloadPage

will reload the current pages

BLReloadCSS

will reload the current stylesheets

BLEvaluateBuffer

will evaluate the current buffer

You can also use be to evaluate selections or buffers, br to reload, and bc to reload stylesheets manually.

Options

g:bl_no_autoupdate 

If set, Brolink won't try to reload pages/CSS when you save respective files.

g:bl_no_mappings 

If set, Brolink won't map be, br, and bc commands.

g:bl_serverpath 

Set if your server is not hosted on 127.0.0.1:9001. You will also need to change the socket.js file.

Notes

This is an experimental project, but it works really well for me, and I hope you enjoy it! I kept the source as simple as possible, and it's pretty easy to edit to your needs. I'm open to any suggestions, too, so let me know.