Introducing the cakephp-instaweb webserver

By lamby aka "lamby"
Save time and effort developing with this zero-configuration CakePHP-oriented webserver.
cakephp-instaweb is tiny Python-based webserver suitable for quick development of CakePHP applications, similar to Django's 'runserver' and the "script/server" script in Ruby on Rails.

It requires zero configuration for running CakePHP applications, allowing you to:

  • delay webserver configuration to deployment time
  • develop multiple applications simultaneously with ease
  • just get on building your application


Usage is simple. Simply type:

Download code  % cakephp-instaweb

somewhere inside a CakePHP application. The server will then start and start serving requests at http://localhost:3000/. It will additionally respond with some logging information:

Download code       CakePHP development server is running at http://localhost:3000/
      Quit the server with CONTROL-C.
        
[04/Jan/2008 11:58:06] "GET /"
...


You do not need be in the root directory of the CakePHP application - cakephp-instaweb will perform a fuzzy search both up and down the filesystem to locate your application. Alternatively, you can request a specific directory as a command-line parameter.

Multiple applications can be developed simultaneously by running additional instances of cakephp-instaweb - just specify a specific port to run the additional servers on:

Download code  % cakephp-instaweb -p 3001


cakephp-instaweb has some other options, including disabling rewrites and specifying the listening interface.

Download code $ cakephp-instaweb --help
usage: cakephp-instaweb [webroot]

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -p PORT, --port=PORT  serve on port PORT (default: 3000)
  -i INTERFACE, --interface=INTERFACE
                        interface to serve from (default: 127.0.0.1)
  -r, --disable-rewrite
                        disable URL rewriting
  -q, --quiet           quiet mode


cakephp-instaweb does not ship with CakePHP. However, it is available in Debian and Ubuntu, or can be downloaded straight from Git: http://git.chris-lamb.co.uk/?p=cakephp-instaweb.git. It is released under the terms of the MIT license, the same license as CakePHP itself.

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