devops/1410

[n8rzz]

Resolves #1412.

• removes server/index.js and express dependencies
• moves npm start to use npx http-server instead
• removes references to server in gulp scripts
• removes unused dependencies

[erikquinn]

This here nerd stuff is beyond the capabilities of my pea brain... You say it's done and it fixes the issue?

[n8rzz]

It should fix the issue, yes. But I’m on a Mac, so I have no way to test this on windows. It always worked for me 😉

Anyone willing and able to just checkout the branch, delete public run the build and then start the app?

[JPmAn24]

Just took a look at this, and things are looking good. I'm currently on vacation so can't check if it actually fixes the deletion of index.js until I get back late on Thursday.

Thanks for doing this @n8rzz!

[erikquinn]

Still trying to look for a solution here. It initially seems like this doesn't solve it, but that doesn't mean it might not still be the better approach-- it's just that the same issue of files not being copied correctly still persists. Here's a step-by-step process below which I followed to reliably see some behaviors.

When you have further input/advise/changes, it'll be easy for me to go back through them and see if we are then getting the correct result here. For now, I can't find a way to get this PR to load on localhost, while with some manual copying, I can get develop to do so. Anyway, the processes are below:

---

Process on develop:

1. Manually delete node_modules, and run npm cache verify, then npm install.
2. Delete ./public folder.
3. Do npm run build and npm run start.
4. Observe the failure, stating "Error: Cannot find module './public/assets/scripts/server/index.js'"`.
5. Manually copy ./src/assets/scripts/server/index.js to ./public/assets/scripts/server/.
6. Do npm run start.
7. Observe the server running and the page being served.
8. Stop the server (Ctrl+C), re-run npm run build and npm run start.
9. Observe the failure message again.

Process on devops/1410:

1. Manually delete node_modules, and run npm cache verify, then npm install.
2. Delete ./public folder.
3. Do npm run build and npm run start.
4. Observe the server start, but no page be served at localhost:3003. The public folder contains no file named index.js, including in any subfolders.
5. Observe that navigating to ./public/index.html and opening the file shows the loading screen but never finishes load.
6. Copying ./src/assets/scripts/client/index.js to ./public/assets/scripts/client/ or ./public/assets/scripts/server/ do not yield a page which loads any more fully.
7. Unsure how to proceed from here.

[n8rzz]

Hmm 🤔

Previous state

• A small Express server was used to serve all assets during development
• a gulp task existed to simply copy that simple server from src to public

New state

• we use an npm package called http-server which does, essentially, the same thing: acts a simple server to server up assets during development
• we never actually install this dep, instead we use npx. this means we can run a thing without having to actually install it
  * http-server defaults to serving a public dir, so you should be able to go to localhost:3003 and be done
• on a mac, this fires up right away just like it did before.

This whole issue stemmed from a windows issue in the first place. I wonder if this introduces a new, different windows issue? What sort of output do you see after npm run start?

[wrksx]

I just tried it here on windows 8.1 + cygwin and it didn't work as expected.
It starts the server, and I can see HTTP requests logged on the server output.

Error using Chrome browser:

ERR_INVALID_REDIRECT

Error using Firefox browser:

Corrupted Content Error

The site at http://127.0.0.1:3003/ has experienced a network protocol violation that cannot be repaired.

The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because an error in the data transmission was detected.

Error using wget command:

$ wget http://127.0.0.1:3003/
--2019-08-06 15:02:02--  http://127.0.0.1:3003/
Connecting to 127.0.0.1:3003... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: // [following]
http://: Invalid host name.

[wrksx]

So this issue is known and referenced here: http-party/http-server#525
If i understand correctly, the temporarily recommended fix is to revert back to http-server@0.9.0.

I tested manually by running npx http-server@0.9.0 -p 3003 -c-1 and it worked.

I believe it's not a good idea to use npx http-server without explicitly depending on it. I think it's a
better practice to use the devDependencies to specify we depend on http-server@0.9.0 that way the version is fixed. The npm start script would still work fine and use the locally installed version.

I tested with "http-server": "0.9.0" in the devDependencies by running npm run start and it worked.

[n8rzz]

In most cases I would agree with you, this should live in devDependencies. However, in this case, I think it makes sense to use npx for these reasons:

• this server is only needed to run the app locally
• it's a convenience, a developer could use any local server to run the app
• it reduces additional dependencies (because npx) and speeds up installs
• one of my goals here is to remove the local server (and it's dependencies) entirely

I like calling out a specific version, that's generally a good practice anyway. I'd lean towards updating the command in this PR like you posted above referencing the version.

[erikquinn]

The initial suggestion from @wrksx seems to resolve the issue. Recommend we go with that (posted PR #1415), and close this or otherwise update it once that fix goes in.

[erikquinn]

Seems to no longer be needed. Closing.