ServerBase

A NodeJS server template for WebGL-based applications

Getting started

1. Install NodeJS

NodeJS is required to be installed for this application. If you haven't install NodeJS, Node Version Manager (nvm) is the easiest way you can try:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.1/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc
nvm install v10.13.0

2. Install requirements

The necessary packages for this application are listed in package.json and server/package.json (for server of course). Run the following commands to install and build those packages:

npm install
cd server && npm install

3. Configure the application watch list

There are two .sh scripts that runs and monitors the server and applications: server/run.sh and watch.sh, which corresponds to the application watch list in package.json. Before you start the server or customize any of your own applications, you need to make sure the applications are corrected listed in the package.json as the following example:

"scripts": {
    "build": "mkdir -p ./client/build && browserify ./client/js/apps/Demo/Demo.js ./client/js/apps/Common/Common.js --standalone Base -o ./client/build/Bundle.js -t [ babelify --presets [ es2015 react ] ]",
    "watch": "mkdir -p ./client/build && watchify ./client/js/apps/Demo/Demo.js ./client/js/apps/Common/Common.js --standalone Base -o ./client/build/Bundle.js -t [ babelify --presets [ es2015 react ] ] --debug --verbose"
  }

Note that ./client/js/apps/Common/Common.js must be included, because it handles basic communications between the server and the middleware.

Currently, there is only one ./client/js/apps/Demo/Demo.js as the available application. Once the configuration is finished, you can add your own applications into the list.

4. Start the server and monitor the application changes

Now we can start the server and let it host the applications:

cd server && bash run.sh

You can make changes to the application in client/js/apps. But in order to make the changes effective afterwards, run the monitoring script for the applications:

bash watch.sh

Applications

The applications can be reached in browser at localhost:8081/apps/