Modular Web Server

This web server was built to be modular, so that functionality can be easily added through plugins! If I have missed any useful features feel free to let me know, or make a pull request.

• Fully featured UI to manage all aspects of your MWS project
• Completely open source. Go ahead, break things!
• Built with web apps in mind.
• Comes with socket.io built in for websocket support through plugins.
• Completely configurable.

Installation and configuration

Modular Web Server requires Node.js v4+ to run.

• Download the server and extract.
• Install the dependencies.

  cd Modular-Web-Server
  npm install --save

• Start the server. This will also generate a config file if none exists.

  npm start

• Set Webroot path in config.json to point to your WebRoot

• "webRoot": "./Chillspace/Webroot"

• If you are using plugins, remember to set the path to your plugins folder in config.json

  "pluginsPath": "../Chillspace/Plugins"

• Other optional configuration can be done in the config file. The configuration is pretty straight forward so I'll skip documenting that here.

Installing plugins

• Drop you plugins .js file into the plugins folder.
• If the plugin has any dependencies, make sure to install them!

Creating plugins

Here comes the fun part!

• Adding new commands to the server's console.

  function init(plugins, settings, events, io, log, commands) {
      commands.testCommand = function () {
          console.log("you did a thing!");
      }
  }
  exports.init = init; //Make sure the init function is exported!!!

  console commands can also pass parameters.

  function init(plugins, settings, events, io, log, commands) {
      commands.testCommand = function (fullString, parameters) {
          log(fullString);
          parameters.forEach(function (string){
              log(string);
          });
      }
  }
  exports.init = init;

• Accessing the server's settings.json file

  function init(plugins, settings, events, io, log, commands) {
      console.log("The server is running on port '" + settings.port + "'.");
      console.log("The webroot is located at '" + settings.webRoot + "'.");
  }
  exports.init = init;

• Using the servers namespaces to filter and control logging

  function init(plugins, settings, events, io, log, commands) {
      // Logging.log(string, isError, Namespace)
      log("Hello strange world!");
      log("AHHHH AN ERROR", true);
      log("Ouch, an error occured in MyPlugin!", true, "MyPlugin");
  }
  exports.init = init;

• Accessing plugins from another plugin!

  //Plugin_1.js
  var users = {"someUser": {email:"[email protected]", password:"someEncryptedPassword"}, ...};
  function init(plugins, settings, events, io, log, commands) {
      commands.logSomething = function (){
          console.log("something");
      }
  }
  exports.init = init;
  exports.users = users; //Make sure the users structure is exported
  
  //Plugin_2.js
  
  function init(plugins, settings, events, io, log, commands) {
      //See, you can get the exported contents of Plugin_1 here
      console.log(plugins["Plugin_1"].users["someUser"].email);
      //You can even use its commands!
      commands.logSomething();
  }
  exports.init = init;

• Using socket.io in your plugin:

  function init(plugins, settings, events, io, log, commands) {
     //Someone connects.
     //Note that io.on("connection", ...); is not used. You must use the server event system.
     //Doing it this way will ensure all plugins can use socket.io.
     events.on("connection", function (socket){
         socket.emit("message", "hello client!");
         io.emit("message", "hey everyone, a client connected!");
     });
  }
  exports.init = init;
  exports.users = users; //Make sure the users structure is exported

Events and how to use them

• connection
• disconnect
• post
• get
• log