Motivation

Pow, which I like very much, is out of date, doesn't support HTTPS and is only for rack-based applications. I've used Invoker for some time but was not happy with it. And looks like it's abandoned too.

Install

Clone repo:

$ git clone https://github.com/shir/frontier.git && cd frontier

Install required packages:

$ yarn install

Build project:

$ npm yarn build && npm yarn templates

Install resolver and firewall rules

$ sudo bin/frontier install

Generate certificate for HTTPS

If you want to use HTTPS and don't have warning in browsers about invalid certificate you have to generate and install self signed certificate.

To generate certificate run command:

$ bin/frontier gencert

This command will generate certificate files in ~/.frontier folder. Run:

$ open ~/.frontier/frontier.crt

to open generated certificate in Keychain application. Certificate with name "Frontier" will appear in "Certificates" category. Double click on it and in appeared window expand "Trust" and change "Secure Socket Layer (SSL)" option to "Always Trust". Now close certificate window. You will be asked for your password to make changes. After you confirm changes certificate will be valid in all browsers.

Configure

Link your development application in ~/.frontier/ folder. For example:

$ cd ~/.frontier
$ ln -s ~/projects/my-favorite-project

Create .frontier.json file in project folder

Rails with RVM

{
  "command":   "rvm",
  "args":      ["in", "$DIR", "do", "bundle", "exec", "rails", "server", "-p", "$PORT", "-b", "$HOST"],
  "watchFile": "tmp/restart.txt"
}

Node.js

{
  "command":   "npm",
  "args":      ["run", "start"],
  "watchFile": "tmp/restart.txt"
}

Node.js with NVM

{
  "command":   "~/.nvm/nvm-exec",
  "args":      ["npm", "run", "start"],
  "watchFile": "tmp/restart.txt"
}

All available options:

command - command to run. If not set then you have to start application manually. Frontier will work just as usual proxy. In this case you have to pass port option.
args - arguments passed to the command.
- $HOST will be replaced with the hostname.
- $PORT will be replaced with the port.
- $DIR will be replaced with the directory.
hostname - (optional) a hostname by which you want to access the application. by default is the symlink name.
port - (optional) a port on which the application will listen. By default auto assigned from the interval 5000-6000.
directory - (optional) a directory in which the command will be run. By default is the directory to which the symlink is created.
env - (optional) hash of additional environment variables. All current environment variables will be also available. Also $HOST, $PORT and $DIR will be set.
watchFile - (optional) touch this file and the application will be restarted on a next request. Relative to the directory.
logFile - all stdout and stderr output will be redirect to this file. Relative to the directory.
idleTimeout - (optional) number of seconds after which the application will be stopped after last request. By default - 10. If you want not to stop server set it to 0.

Run

Start server:

$ bin/frontier start

The application will be available by address http://my-favorite-project.dev.test