🟢 Mini Live Server (Custom Dev Server with Node.js)

A lightweight, no-dependency development server built with pure Node.js — supports live-reloading in the browser on file changes.

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🚀 Features

• ✅ Serves static files: HTML, CSS, JS
• ✅ WebSocket-based auto reload
• ✅ File change detection with fs.watch
• ✅ Reloads browser without any plugin or browser extension
• ✅ No frameworks: built entirely with native http, fs, ws, and path

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📁 Project Structure

project-root/
├── server.js              # Main server file
├── package.json
├── README.md
├── LICENSE
└── public/                # Static files served
    ├── index.html
    ├── styles.css
    └── reload-client.js

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🛠 How It Works

1. server.js sets up a Node.js HTTP server
2. It uses fs.watch() to detect changes in files inside public/
3. A WebSocket server is created on the same port
4. When a file changes, a "reload" message is sent to all clients
5. reload-client.js on the browser listens for this message and calls location.reload()

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📦 Installation

npm install

Make sure ws and nodemon (optional for development) are listed in your package.json.

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▶️ Run the Server

node server.js

Or for development with auto-restart:

nodemon server.js

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🧠 Skills Demonstrated

• Low-level understanding of HTTP server behavior
• Manual routing and MIME type management
• Real-time communication via WebSocket
• File system monitoring with fs.watch
• Frontend-backend integration without frameworks

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🧪 Demo Use Case

1. Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser
2. Modify index.html or styles.css
3. The page reloads automatically on file change

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📍 Author

Custom-built by Shayan Sharifi as a personal project for understanding real-time development tooling.

Feel free to fork and expand it into your own dev server or tooling system.

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✅ License

MIT