ServeThis: A Mac OS X Automator service that fires up your Node web server

Sometimes you just need the tiniest, simplest thing. Like a web server. But even getting to start them tends to be a bloated experience, and as a layman maybe you don't want to run a ton of scripts or installs or anything. Or you just get really intimidated by those things. Either way is fine!

If your code runs a Node server that can be started in the common npm start way, ServeThis has you covered. ServeThis will also always install any NPM dependencies you might have. Don't know what that means? Even better! "It just works", then.

Prerequisites

• You are running a Mac OS X system
• The service expects that the folder you provide it with contains a Node project
• The service expects you to have NPM/Node installed
• The service expects you to have a script in your package.json called start

Installation

• Double click the workflow file, ServeThis.workflow, to install it

Using it

• Right click a folder, and you should see ServeThis under the Services category

Usage demonstration

• Depending on project behavior, you should see your default web browser open up in a few seconds, with the URL to whatever the application is serving
• To shut down the webserver, click the gear in the upper right corner and then the small "X" icon

Shutting down the webserver

Source code

The tiny script that gets run is available under ServeThis.sh.

Automator configuration

How the service is configured in Automator