gulp-live-server

A handy, light-weight server you're going to love.

• Install
• Usage
• API
  • static
  • new
  • gls
  • start
  • stop
  • notify
• livereload.js
• Debug

Install

Usage

• serve a static folder

  var gulp = require('gulp');
  var gls = require('gulp-live-server');
  gulp.task('serve', function() {
      var server = gls.static();
      server.start();
      //live reload changed resource(s)
      gulp.watch(['static/**/*.css', 'static/**/*.html'], server.notify);
  });

• fire up your own server

  gulp.task('serve', function() {
      var server = gls.new('myapp.js');
      server.start();
      gulp.watch(['static/**/*.css', 'static/**/*.html'], server.notify);
      //restart my server
      gulp.watch('myapp.js', server.start);
  });

More examples

API

static([folder][, port])

• folder - String|Array The folder(s) to serve. Use array of strings if there're multi folders to serve. If omitted, defaults to public/.
• port - Number The port to listen on. Defaults to 3000.
• return gls.

Config new server using the default server script, to serve the given folder on the specified port.

new(script)

• script - String The script file to run.
• return gls.

Config new server using the given script.

gls(args[, options][, livereload])

• args - String|Array The 2nd param for ChildProcess.spawn.

• options - Object The 3rd param for ChildProcess.spawn, will be mixin into the default value:

      options = {
          cwd: undefined
      }
      options.env = process.env;
      options.env.NODE_ENV = 'development';

• livereload - Boolean|Number|Object The option for tiny-lr server. The default value is 35729.

  • false - will disable tiny-lr livereload server.
  • number - treated as port number of livereload server.
  • object - used to create tiny-lr server new tinylr.Server(livereload);

gls here is a reference of var gls = require('gulp-live-server'). It aims to assemble configuration for the server child process as well as the tiny-lr server. static and new are just shortcuts for this. Usually, static and new will serve you well, but you can get more customized server with gls.

start()

• return promise from Q

Spawn a new child process based on the configuration.

• use ChildProcess.spawn to start a node process;
• use tiny-lr provide livereload ability;

stop()

• return promise from Q

Stop the server.

notify([event])

• event - Event Event object passed along with gulp.watch. Optional when used with pipe.

Tell livereload.js to reload the changed resource(s)

livereload.js

glup-live-server comes with tiny-lr built in, which works as a livereload server, In order to make livereload work with your pages, you still need livereload.js loaded with your page, there're 3 options to achieve this:

• LiveReload for Chrome;
• Use connect-livereload middleware;
• Add livereload.js in your page mannully;

Usually, you can check http://livereload:35729/livereload.js to see if livereload.js is loaded with your page.

DEBUG

If you want more output, set the DEBUG environment variables to * or gulp-live-server.