Paperboy

Purpose

A node.js module for delivering static files.

Features

• Configurable callbacks on most events
• ETag / 304 Support
• Custom HTTP headers

Example

Example from example/basic.js:

var
  path = require('path'),
  http = require('http'),
  paperboy = require('../lib/paperboy'),

  PORT = 8003,
  WEBROOT = path.join(path.dirname(__filename), 'webroot');

http.createServer(function(req, res) {
  var ip = req.connection.remoteAddress;
  paperboy
    .deliver(WEBROOT, req, res)
    .addHeader('Expires', 300)
    .addHeader('X-PaperRoute', 'Node')
    .before(function() {
      console.log('Received Request');
    })
    .after(function(statCode) {
      log(statCode, req.url, ip);
    })
    .error(function(statCode, msg) {
      res.writeHead(statCode, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
      res.end("Error " + statCode);
      log(statCode, req.url, ip, msg);
    })
    .otherwise(function(err) {
      res.writeHead(404, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
      res.end("Error 404: File not found");
      log(404, req.url, ip, err);
    });
}).listen(PORT);

function log(statCode, url, ip, err) {
  var logStr = statCode + ' - ' + url + ' - ' + ip;
  if (err)
    logStr += ' - ' + err;
  console.log(logStr);
}

API Docs

paperboy.deliver(webroot, req, res, opts, callbacks)

Checks the webroot folder if it has a file that matches the req.url and streams it to the client. If req.url ends with a '/' (slash), 'index.html' is appended automatically.

Parameters:

• webroot: Absolute path where too look for static files to serve
• req: A http.ServerRequest object
• res: A http.ServerResponse object
• opts: An object containing optional config parameters (only 'Expires' at the moment (in seconds))
• callbacks: An object containing all callbacks described below:

before()

Fires if a matching file was found in the webroot and is about to be delivered. The delivery can be canceled by returning false from within the callback.

after(statCode)

Fires after a file has been successfully delivered from the webroot. statCode contains the numeric HTTP status code that was sent to the client. You must close the connection yourself if the error callback fires!

error(statCode, msg)

Fires if there was an error delivering a file from the webroot. statCode contains the numeric HTTP status code that was sent to the client. msg contains the error message. You must close the connection yourself if the error callback fires!

otherwise(err)

Fires if no matching file was found in the webroot. Also fires if false was returned in the delegate.before() callback. If there was a problem stating the file, err is set to the contents of that error message.

addHeader(name, value)

Sets an arbitrary HTTP header. The header name Expires is special and expects the number of seconds till expiry, from which it will calculate the proper HTTP date.

License

Paperboy is licensed under the MIT license.

Credits

• Jan Lehnardt for coming up with the name "Paperboy"