http-server-pwa

http-server alike but for serving and rendering PWA. Built on top of ExpressJS

Usage no npm install needed!

<script type="module">
  import httpServerPwa from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/http-server-pwa';
</script>

README

http-server-pwa aka pwa-server

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http-server alike but for serving and rendering PWA: pwa-server

What

This is a different version (btw inspired by) of the insta-ready http-server, but with some key features to render Progressive Web Apps (or also SPA) correctly for bots like googlebot or Facebook crawlers, so your application can be crawled with its content already loaded. This should avoid the killing problem of the SEO for PWAs.

The server will render as normal, static ExpressJS server for your normal users.

Worth noting is that the server supports the history-fallback behavior. You maybe can avoid that # (hash) for your PWA navigation ✌️.

Features

The server is not "dependecies-free" like the original http-server and instead is powered by ExpressJS under the hood and Puppeter for render the pages to bots.

  • pupperender - Puppeter middleware to render correctly the PWA content for the crawlers.
  • express-history-api-fallback - to fallback correctly to the index.html.
  • express-http-to-https - automatically redirect http requests to https.
  • devcert - Create development certificate on the fly for local https. NOTE: you could be prompted to insert your password before starting the server. This is necessary of using OpenSSL. More info on devcert repository.

Production usage

The server will not create any SSL certificate on the fly when you set process.env.NODE_ENV = production even if --ssl flag is passed down. You have two alternatives here:

  • use a reverse proxy like CloudFlare and get free certification for your domain - easy peasy
  • use a custom reverse proxy like Nginx and load your certification from there

I currently don't want to support a custom certificate load. PR are always welcome.

Deploy on Heroku

In order to make the server work as expected on Heroku services (even on free tier) you must add the puppeteer-heroku-buildpack.

Since recent changes on the platform it is strongly suggested to add it from source rather than the buildpack's catalogs.

$ heroku buildpacks:set https://github.com/jontewks/puppeteer-heroku-buildpack.git

Usage

You can use it programmatically or as a CLI tool (global or local).

Install

$ yarn add http-server-pwa

Usage

const httpServerPwa = require('http-server-pwa');

const server = await httpServerPwa('./dist', {p: 3000});
//=> Server started -> ./dist localhost:3000

API

httpServerPwa(path, [options])

path

Type: string

Path to serve.

options

Name CLI flag Type Default Description
port p number 8080 Port to use for running the server.
host h string localhost Host to use for running the server.
fallback f string index.html Fallback HTML file name.
https s boolean false Enable HTTPS redirect on localhost.
ssl boolean false Enable devcert auto-generation of SSL certification for development.
cache c boolean false Enable cache for Puppeteer rendering
cacheTTL number 3600 (s) Seconds until cached content is disregarded and puppeterized again. Only considered when cache is true.
debug d boolean false If or not show some logs.
gzip g boolean false Enable serving of gzipped files if available
brotli b boolean false Enable serving of brotli compressed files if available

Note: If the gzip and brotli option are both toggled, brotli compressed files will get precedence over gzipped files.

CLI

$ yarn add --global http-server-pwa

$ http-server-pwa --help # or pwa-server --help

  Usage
      $ http-server-pwa [path] [options]

    Options
        -p --port       Port to use [Default: 8080]
        -h --host       Host to use [Default: localhost | Windows: 127.0.0.1]
        -f --fallback   Fallback HTML file name [Default: index.html]
        -s --https      Enable HTTPS redirect on localhost [Default: false]
        --ssl           Auto-generation SSL certificate during development [Default: false]
        -c --cache      Enable cache for Puppeteer rendering [Default: false]
        --cacheTTL      Seconds until cached content is disregarded and puppeterized again [Default: 3600 (s)].
        -d --debug      Be more verbose [Default: false]
        -g --gzip	Enable serving of gzipped files if available [Default: false]
        -b --brotli	Enable serving of brotli compressed files if available [Default: false]
        -h --help       Show this message

    Examples
      $ http-server-pwa
      Server started -> ./ localhost:8080
      $ http-server-pwa dist -p 3000
      Server started -> ./dist localhost:3000

License

MIT © LasaleFamine