how can i use this plugin to restart express

[dionsaur84]

im using express routes + this package and i set this package to watch my route module folder

it does seem to work, but i think the express server has to actually restart as well because the changes in my routes files are not actually showing up on the web app after a reload

is there a way to trigger an express server restart using vite + ssr + this plugin?

for example, heres my server code:

import express from 'express'
import fs from 'fs'
import { globbySync } from 'globby'
import path from 'path'
import { app, env } from 'skele'
import { createServer } from 'vite'

const vite = await createServer({
    server: { middlewareMode: true },
    appType: 'custom'
})

app.use(vite.middlewares)

app.use((req, res, next) => {
    res.locals.originalUrl = req.originalUrl

    next()
})

app.use(express.static('public'))

const routeEntries = globbySync('app/routes/**/*.js')

for (const routeEntry of routeEntries) {
    await import(path.resolve(routeEntry))
}

const viewsDirectory = 'app/components/pages'

app.engine('jsx', async (filePath, options, callback) => {
    const indexHtml = fs.readFileSync('node_modules/skele/src/entries/index.html', 'utf-8')

    const transformedHtml = await vite.transformIndexHtml(options._locals.originalUrl, indexHtml)

    const { render } = await vite.ssrLoadModule('node_modules/skele/src/entries/ssr.jsx')

    const page = filePath.replace(`${path.resolve(viewsDirectory)}/`, '').replace('.jsx', '')

    const props = encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify(options))

    const appHtml = await render(page, options)

    const rendered = transformedHtml.replace(
        '<div id="app"></div>',
        `<div id="app" data-page="${page}" data-props="${props}">${appHtml}</div>`,
    )

    return callback(null, rendered)
})

app.set('views', viewsDirectory)

app.set('view engine', 'jsx')

app.listen(env.APP_PORT, () => {
    console.log(`app listening on http://localhost:${env.APP_PORT}`)
})

when i edit a react component HMR shows the changes. however, when i edit a backend route, though vite triggers a reload using this plugin, i don't actually see the changes i made inside the route methods.

like i said i think i need to restart express for those changes to show up, but im struggling to figure this out without using something like nodemon.

[ElMassimo]

Based on your use case, it seems that you want to restart the Vite dev server.

Try using vite-plugin-restart instead, which was created for a similar use case 😃