express-hotmods

Automatically reload your express modules with a keyword parameter in url.

One thing i enjoyed about PHP was the ability to edit a .php script and just reload the web page to see changes. Now with express-hotmods you can reload your modules and their child modules by adding a keyword parameter to your urls while you are developing.

http://my_express_server.com/path/to/module?some_param=value&_reload

Installation:

$ npm install express-hotmods

Use:

in your express router e.g app.js

var app = express();
app.use('/api', require('express-hotmods')(__dirname + '/api', '__reload'));

Constructor:

 require('express-hotmods')('path', 'keyword'));

• path: full path to folder with express modules.
• keyword: parameter to reload modules. e.g '_debug'

Modules

example express app

.
+-- app.js
+-- views/
+-- routes/
+-- api/
    +-- my_module.js
    +-- another_module.js

app.use('/api', require('express-hotmods')(__dirname + '/api', '_reload'));

http://my_express_server.com/api/my_module?_reload

The module name is called directly in url (- .js)

Call function endpoints in modules:

http://my_express_server.com/api/another_module/_function1?_reload

If the last path item starts with '_' express-hotmods will attempt to call function name.

in another_module.js

module.exports = {
    function1: function1,
    function2: function2,    
};
...
function function1(req,res){
  ...
}
...
function function2(req,res){
  ...
}

Child modules

express-hotmods will also try reload all child modules required by your module.

Note

Use of setInterval in a module gets loaded in the global space and does not get destroyed on reload, so you will end up with multiple setInterval running after each reloading, so not recommended at the moment, unless I can figure out how to control them.

TODO

• Finish rendering a module usage viewer if you hit http://my_express_server.com/folder/
• Node does not seem to list child modules correctly in Modules object if another module has already loaded same child module
  This is my first published npm module, so any pointers or improvements would be appreciated.