If you’ve wanted to code your next Node.js app in CoffeeScript then it ain’t that hard. Since coffeescript is just a little language that compiles down to javascript it is pretty much compatible with node.js. Let’s take a look at some of the ways in which you can execute your node.js script (written in coffeescript).
We’ll reuse the simple web server code found on nodejs.org.
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var http = require('http');
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
res.end('Hello World\n');
}).listen(1337, '127.0.0.1');
console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:1337/');
Converting the code to coffeescript and putting it in a file called server.coffee.
http = require 'http'
http.createServer (req, res) ->
res.writeHead 200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'}
res.end 'Hello World\n'
.listen 1337, '127.0.0.1'
console.log 'Server running at http://127.0.0.1:1337/'
Simple Usage
Now you can definitely compile the server.coffee to javascript and run it using the node command like this –
$ coffee -c server.coffee $ node server.js Server running at http://127.0.0.1:1337/
Even better, you can simple execute the script by executing coffee without any options –
$ coffee server.coffee Server running at http://127.0.0.1:1337/
Executable File
You may add the following shebang to your script (and make it an executable file) to use coffee as the interpreter –
#!/usr/bin/env coffee # coffee code follows ...
Then give your script executable permission and execute it.
$ chmod +x server.coffee $ ./server.coffee Server running at http://127.0.0.1:1337/
This approach of making your script an executable file is not something I usually pick.
Using nodemon or forever
If you’re using nodemon to watch files for changes and restart node server in your development then it works pretty well with coffee implicitly –
$ nodemon server.coffee 14 Mar 01:24:32 - [nodemon] v0.7.2 14 Mar 01:24:32 - [nodemon] watching: /var/www/dev/node 14 Mar 01:24:32 - [nodemon] starting `coffee server.coffee` Server running at http://127.0.0.1:1337/
Are you using forever to run your servers forever? Just use the -c option to pass a command to execute.
$ forever start -c coffee server.coffee info: Forever processing file: server.coffee $ forever list info: Forever processes running data: uid command script forever pid logfile uptime data: [0] iv2r coffee server.coffee 16710 16712 /home/codetheory/.forever/iv2r.log 0:0:0:2.508 $ cat ~/.forever/iv2r.log Server running at http://127.0.0.1:1337/
via JavaScript Code
There’s one more way, you can have a index.js file that loads your server.coffee (that in turn loads your entire web application).
require('coffee-script')
require('./server')
Obviously for this you’ll need to have coffeescript installed.
$ npm install coffee-script npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/coffee-script npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/coffee-script [email protected] node_modules/coffee-script
This method is helpful when your’re writing a node module in coffeescript that other people can install via npm and re-use no matter what they use for their own codebase (javascript or coffeescript).
Hope these tips help!
Thanks for this post! I’m a novice to node and being able to use coffeescript will definitely help :).
there is a project on github amqp-coffee, I want to use that project in my nodejs project, I know I can compile the project from coffee into nodejs file, but there is too much coffee files, I think compile one by one isnt the right way, but how can i use it anyway?