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.
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.
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.
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
You can change defaults of the start.jar by passing arguments to the program or by creating a configuration file.
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 is127.0.0.1
--port
-p
- port to bind. Default value is8888
--root
-r
- Document root for your server. Default value is the current working directory--frame
-w
-1
for enable showing the program window (default) or0
to run the program in background--config
-c
- Path of the configuration file. Default value isstart.config
in the current working directory--index
-i
- Default file to load if not specified (default value isindex.html
)--shutdown-after
or-S
- Determines the time in seconds to shutdown the server after the last request. Default value is300
(5 minutes)
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
orfalse
)ShutdownAfter
- Time is seconds after last request to shutdown the server (default value is300
or 5 minutes)DefaultFile
- Default file if not specified in path. Default value isindex.html
Java
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.