Django-livereload-notifier

About

Django-livereload-notifier is an application that substitutes Django runserver command with the one that keeps track of template files changes, and sends a request to a livereload server when files in those directories are modified or when development server is restarted.

There is also a convenient middleweare that injects livereload <script> tag into all pages.

The client-side script should be provided by a livereload server (it usually is).

Features

• Livereload server notification on template files changes
• Livereload server notification on development server restart
• Middleware for injecting livereload <script> tags

Alternatives

• https://github.com/tjwalch/django-livereload-server
• https://github.com/Fantomas42/django-livereload

Reasoning

Before making my own thing, I tried similar solutions, but they didn't work exactly as I expected:

• specified in settings livereload server host and port weren't used in script injecting middleware making it impossible to connect from a different device
• static file changes weren't registered by livereload server sometimes
• directories specified in command-line options weren't watched by livereload server
• template changes weren't watched

Tired of tinkering with existing solutions to no avail, I looked into the source code of Fantomas42's solution, and ended up rewriting the entire thing to my liking.

Installation

Requirements

• Python 3.6+ (mostly because of f-strings). Open an issue if you think an older version should really be supported
• Django 2+

Package installation

pip install git+https://github.com/n4bz0r/django-livereload-notifier.git

Or if you want to specify the exact version (commit):

pip install git+https://github.com/n4bz0r/django-livereload-notifier.git@83a163b7e48eaf94e44b8851bd1a8b0398d3da1d

requirements.txt string:

git+https://github.com/n4bz0r/django-livereload-notifier.git@83a163b7e48eaf94e44b8851bd1a8b0398d3da1d

The package is not yet available on PyPi.

Registering the application

Add 'livereload.django' application to Django INSTALLED_APPS setting.

Registering the script injecting middleware

Add 'livereload.django.middleware.LiveReloadScriptInjector' to Django MIDDLEWARE setting before the 'django.contrib.staticfiles' (if used).

Running

Simply use manage.py runserver like you usually would. List of available options you can find in the following section.

Configuration

Settings

• LIVERELOAD_HOST — livereload server host. Default: 'localhost'
• LIVERELOAD_PORT — livereload server port. Default: 35729

Command-line options

• --livereload-host — livereload server host. Overrides LIVERELOAD_HOST setting if specified
• --livereload-port — livereload server port. Overrides LIVERELOAD_PORT setting if specified

Links

Livereload server implementations

• Node.js https://github.com/mklabs/tiny-lr
• Node.js (Gulp): https://github.com/vohof/gulp-livereload
• Python: https://github.com/lepture/python-livereload

Thanks

• Fantomas42 for providing a solid point of reference