Start.jar

Minimal Java HTTP server to start html5 games. Start.jar has zero dependencies besides java and it works on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Why?

To be able to distribute a HTML5 game/application to the users without hosting the game. Start.jar will act as an HTTP server/launcher for your game. It will open your the main file of your game in the default browser immediately after starting.

Testing tool

Start.jar can be used as a testing tool while developing an HTML5 game. Instead of wasting your time trying to install and configure Apache/Nginx just use simple and straightforward start.jar. You can add start.jar to your PATH and run any HTML5 game just by executing a command under the game's directory.

How?

Put start.jar in the directory with your game:

+- [My Game]
   |
   +- [js]
   +- [css]
   +- index.html
   +- start.jar

Actually this is it for default configuration. Start.jar will deploy a HTTP server at 127.0.0.1:8888 and open index.html the default browser.

*.jar files should be runnable with double click in MS Windows if Java is installed properly. But also you can create a BAT file with necessary java -jar command and optional start.jar arguments:

java -jar start.jar

Similarly you can create bash/shell script for UNIX-like OS:

#!/bin/sh
java -jar start.jar

And don't forget to set execution rights for your script file:

chmod +x start.sh

More configuration

You can change defaults of the start.jar by passing arguments to the program or by creating a configuration file.

Arguments

You can specify program arguments like this:

$ java -jar start.jar --host game.localhost --port 1234

• --host -h - host to be bound for your HTTP server. Default value is 127.0.0.1
• --port -p - port to bind. Default value is 8888
• --root -r - Document root for your server. Default value is the current working directory
• --frame -w - 1 for enable showing the program window (default) or 0 to run the program in background
• --config -c - Path of the configuration file. Default value is start.config in the current working directory
• --index -i - Default file to load if not specified (default value is index.html)
• --shutdown-after or -S - Determines the time in seconds to shutdown the server after the last request. Default value is 300 (5 minutes)

Configuration file

By default start.jar is looking for start.config in the current directory, but you can change this by passing -config argument to the program.

Configuration file has format like this:

DocumentRoot=C:\My Documents\Game
Host=127.0.0.1
Port=8888
ShowFrame=true
ShutdownAfter=300
DefaultFile=index.html

Each option should be placed on it's own line. Parameters and values are separated with = sign. No spaced allowed.

Available parameters:

• DocumentRoot - Path to the root directory for your server.
• Host - Host to bind your server at.
• Port - Port to bind your server at.
• ShowFrame - Enable or disable showing the program window (true or false)
• ShutdownAfter - Time is seconds after last request to shutdown the server (default value is 300 or 5 minutes)
• DefaultFile - Default file if not specified in path. Default value is index.html

Requirements

Java

How to build

Easy.

All you need is JDK and installed Ant. Just run

ant

under root directory of the project. It will create start.jar file under ./dist directory.