Hey, you've got LiveReload in my Rack! No need for browser extensions anymore! Just plug it in your middleware stack and go! Even supports browsers without WebSockets!
Use this with guard-livereload for maximum fun!
Add the gem to your Gemfile.
gem "rack-livereload", group: :development
Then add the middleware to your Rails middleware stack by editing your config/environments/development.rb
.
# config/environments/development.rb
MyApp::Application.configure do
# Add Rack::LiveReload to the bottom of the middleware stack with the default options:
config.middleware.insert_after ActionDispatch::Static, Rack::LiveReload
# or, if you're using better_errors:
config.middleware.insert_before Rack::Lock, Rack::LiveReload
# or, if you're using better_errors with rails 6.
config.middleware.insert_before Rack::Runtime, Rack::LiveReload
# ...
end
# Specifying Rack::LiveReload options.
config.middleware.use(Rack::LiveReload,
min_delay : 500, # default 1000
max_delay : 10_000, # default 60_000
live_reload_port : 56789, # default 35729
live_reload_scheme : 'ws', # default ws, use wss for ssl
host : 'myhost.cool.wow',
ignore : [ %r{dont/modify\.html$} ]
)
In addition, Rack::LiveReload's position within middleware stack can be
specified by inserting it relative to an existing middleware via
insert_before
or insert_after
. See the Rails on Rack: Adding a
Middleware
section for more detail.
require 'rack-livereload'
use Rack::LiveReload
# ...or...
use Rack::LiveReload, min_delay: 500, ...
The necessary script
tag to bring in a copy of livereload.js is
injected right after the opening head
tag in any text/html
pages that come through. The script
tag is built in
such a way that the HTTP_HOST
is used as the LiveReload host, so you can connect from external machines (say, to
mycomputer:3000
instead of localhost:3000
) and as long as the LiveReload port is accessible from the external machine,
you'll connect and be LiveReloading away!
- If you've got a LiveReload watcher running on the same machine as the app that responds
to
http://localhost:35729/livereload.js
, that gets used, with the hostname being changed when injected into the HTML page. - If you don't, the copy vendored with rack-livereload is used.
- You can force the use of either one (and save on the cost of checking to see if that file
is available) with the middleware option
:source => :vendored
or:source => :livereload
.
For browsers that don't support WebSockets, but do support Flash, web-socket-js is loaded. By default, this is done transparently, so you'll get a copy of swfobject.js and web_socket.js loaded even if your browser doesn't need it. The SWF WebSocket implementor won't be loaded unless your browser has no native WebSockets support or if you force it in the middleware stack:
use Rack::LiveReload, force_swf: true
If you don't want any of the web-sockets-js code included at all, use the no_swf
option:
use Rack::LiveReload, no_swf: true
Once more browsers support WebSockets than don't, this option will be reversed and you'll have to explicitly include the Flash shim.