`gulp-connect` virtual folder

Question

Is it possible to get gulp-connect to add a non-existent folder into a URL?

To elaborate:

My project is in /Sites/mySite, in this folder I have a gulpfile.js and I cd into this folder, run gulp and get a http server on: http://localhost:8080/.

I would like to still be able to cd into /Sites/mySite run gulp but have the url for this content accessible from http://localhost:8080/igloo.

This feels like some sort of middleware but I cannot get my head around connect/gulp-connect.

Answer 1

I have a similar setup. The root of my app is at dist/, but I also need access to node_modules/ for my source maps:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/st

var st = require('st')

...

gulp.task('server', function() {
  connect.server({
    root: 'dist/',
    host: 'localhost',
    port: 3000,
    livereload: {
      port: 35929
    },
    middleware: function (connect, opt) {
      return [
        st({ path: 'node_modules', url: '/node_modules' })
      ];
    }
  })
})

Answer 2

Yes, it is possible. Use symlink.

Let say your app is in /Sites/mySite/app folder and you run server like this:

gulp.task('server', function () {
  connect.server({
    root: './app'
  });
});

Now create symlink igloo to ./app and run server like this:

var
  gulp = require('gulp'),
  connect = require('gulp-connect');

gulp.task('server', function () {
  connect.server({
    root: '.'
  });
});

That’s all. You’ll see your app at http://localhost:8080/igloo . Feel free to ask more.