httpwatcher 0.1.3

Web server library and command-line utility for serving static files with live reload functionality

httpwatcher

===========



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Overview

--------



``httpwatcher`` is both a library and command-line utility for firing up

a simple HTTP server to serve static files from a specific root path.

Live reloading is triggered via web sockets.



**Note** that ``httpwatcher`` is intended for developers during testing

of their static web sites, and is not at all intended as a production

web server.



Requirements

------------



In order to install ``httpwatcher``, you will need:



- Python 2.7+ or Python 3.5+

- ``pip`` or ``easy_install``



Installation

------------



With your `virtual

environment <https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/stable/>`__ active, run the

following:



.. code:: bash



> pip install httpwatcher



To upgrade to the latest version of ``httpwatcher``, simply:



.. code:: bash



> pip install -U httpwatcher



Usage

-----



``httpwatcher`` can either be used from the command line, or as a

drop-in library within your own Python application.



Command-Line Usage

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



The quickest way to get up and running is to watch the current folder

and serve your content from http://localhost:5555 as follows:



.. code:: bash



> httpwatcher



# To get more help

> httpwatcher --help



With all possible options:



.. code:: bash



> httpwatcher --path /path/to/html \ # serve files from the folder /path/to/html

--host 127.0.0.1 \ # bind to 127.0.0.1

--port 5556 \ # bind to port 5556

--base-path /blog/ \ # serve static content from http://127.0.0.1:5556/blog/

--verbose # enable verbose debug logging



Library Usage

~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Make sure ``httpwatcher`` is installed as a dependency for your Python

project, and then:



.. code:: python



from httpwatcher import HttpWatcherServer

from tornado.ioloop import IOLoop



server = HttpWatcherServer(

"/path/to/html", # serve files from the folder /path/to/html

host="127.0.0.1", # bind to host 127.0.0.1

port=5556, # bind to port 5556

server_base_path="/blog/", # serve static content from http://127.0.0.1:5556/blog/

watcher_interval=1.0, # maximum reload frequency (seconds)

recursive=True # watch for changes in /path/to/html recursively

)

server.listen()



try:

# will keep serving until someone hits Ctrl+C

IOLoop.current().start()

except KeyboardInterrupt:

server.shutdown()



Inner Workings

--------------



``httpwatcher`` makes extensive use of the

`Tornado <http://www.tornadoweb.org>`__ asynchronous web framework to

facilitate a combined asynchronous HTTP and WebSocket server. All HTML

content served that contains a closing ``</body>`` tag will

automatically have two ``<script>`` tags injected to facilitate the

WebSockets connection back to the server.



The WebSockets endpoint is located at

``http://localhost:5555/livereload`` by default, and the JavaScript file

that facilitates the reloading is located at

``http://localhost:5555/livereload.js`` by default (depending on your

host and port settings).



Background

----------



The library came out of a need for a simple web server, capable of

serving static files with live reload capabilities, but also with the

ability to serve content from non-standard base paths (for example, from

``http://somesite.com/blog/`` as opposed to always just

``http://somesite.com``). More specifically, this was to be used in

`Statik <https://github.com/thanethomson/statik>`__ - the static web

site generator.



The `livereload <https://github.com/lepture/python-livereload>`__

library was great for a while, until the real need came up for modifying

it, where the wheels came off the bus. More functional unit tests were

needed to validate the basic functionality, and more flexibility was

needed in some respects, so ``httpwatcher`` was built.



Contributing

------------



Feel free to contribute! Fork the repository, make your changes in a

feature branch, and then submit a pull request.



License

-------



**The MIT License (MIT)**



Copyright (c) 2017 Thane Thomson



Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a

copy of this software and associated documentation files (the

"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including

without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,

distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to

permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to

the following conditions:



The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included

in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.



THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS

OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF

MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY

CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,

TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE

SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.



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