Configuration

Primate is a zero-configuration framework and can be used without a custom configuration. In most cases the defaults can be left as is.

primate.config.js

If Primate doesn't find a primate.config.js in your project root directory (the directory where your package.json resides) or this file does not export a default object, Primate will fall back to its default configuration file.

export default {
  base: "/",
  modules: [],
  pages: {
    app: "app.html",
    error: "error.html",
  },
  log: {
    level: "warn",
  },
  http: {
    host: "localhost",
    port: 6161,
    csp: {},
    static: {
      root: "/",
    },
  },
  request:
    body: {
      parse: true,
    },
  },
  location: {
    components: "components",
    pages: "pages",
    routes: "routes",
    static: "static",
    types: "types",
    build: "build",
    client: "client",
    server: "server",
  },
  build: {
    name: "app",
    includes: [],
    excludes: [],
    define: {},
  },
};

In case you want to override the defaults, create a primate.config.js file in your project root. Primate will read it and merge any overrides with the default configuration.

To illustrate this, if you wanted to change the default logging level to Info instead of Warn and the HTTP port to 6262 you would create a primate.config.js in your project root with the following overrides.

export default {
  log: {
    level: "info",
  },
  http: {
    port: 6262,
  },
};

Primate will merge your custom configuration with its default, resulting in effectively the following configuration.

export default {
  base: "/",
  modules: [],
  pages: {
    app: "app.html",
    error: "error.html",
  },
  log: {
    level: "info",
  },
  http: {
    host: "localhost",
    port: 6262,
    csp: {},
    static: {
      root: "/",
    },
  },
  request:
    body: {
      parse: true,
    },
  },
  location: {
    components: "components",
    pages: "pages",
    routes: "routes",
    static: "static",
    types: "types",
    build: "build",
    client: "client",
    server: "server",
  },
  build: {
    name: "app",
    includes: [],
    excludes: [],
  },
};

General options

base

Default "/"

Your app's base path. If your app is running from a domain's root path, leave the default as is. If your app is running from a subpath, adjust accordingly.

modules

Default []

Instantiated modules. The order of loading modules affects the order in which their hooks will be evaluated, and modules can depend on each using load hooks.

Page options

app

Default: app.html

Name of the default HTML page located in location.pages. If location.pages does not exist or contain this file, Primate will use its default app.html.

error

Default: error.html

Name of the default error HTML page located in location.pages. If location.pages does not exist or contain this file, Primate will use its default error.html.

Logging options

For more info on logging, refer to the Logging section.

log.level

Default "warn"

The logging level to be used. Primate has three logging levels, Error, Warn and Info.

HTTP options

http.host

Default "localhost"

The HTTP host to be used. This value is directly passed to the runtime.

http.port

Default 6161

The HTTP port to be used. This value is directly passed to the runtime.

http.csp

Default {}

The Content Security Policy (CSP) to be used. Empty by default.

If you wanted a fairly restrictive policy, you would use something like this.

{
// all content must come from own origin, excluding subdomains
"default-src": ["'self'"],
// styles must come from own origin, excluding subdomains
"style-src": ["'self'"],
// disallow <object>, <embed> and <applet> elements
"object-src": ["'none'"],
// disallow embedding
"frame-ancestors": ["'none'"],
// all form submissions must be to own origin
"form-action": ["'self'"],
// allow only own origin in <base>
"base-uri": ["'self'"],
}

If existing, script-src and style-src will be concatenated with hashes of scripts and styles picked up by Primate (either through the components or the static directory).

http.static.root

Default "/"

The path at which to serve static assets (those located in the static directory and copied during runtime to the build/client/static directory). Static assets take precedence over routes. This option allows you to have all static assets served at a subpath, like /public.

http.ssl.{ key, cert }

Default: undefined

The path to an SSL key and certificate pair. If both these properties are set and point to a valid key/certificate pair, Primate will switch to https. If specified as a relative path, will be relative to project root.

Request options

request.body.parse

Default: true

Whether the body should be parsed according to the content type. Turning this off is useful if you're using Primate as a programmable reverse proxy and forwarding the requests to another app. The headers, the querystring and cookies will be still parsed and available to request, and request.original will contain the untouched original request.

Location options

Locations of Primate standard directories. If any of these locations are relative, they will be relative to project root.

location.components

Default "components"

The directory where components are located. Components are used as HTML files or by frontend frameworks. The view handler will try to load any referenced component filename from this directory.

location.pages

Default "pages"

The directory where pages are loaded from. If this directory doesn't exist and you use the view or html handler, Primate will use its default app.html as the default page.

location.routes

Default "routes"

The directory where the hierarchy of route files resides.

location.static

Default "static"

The directory from which static assets are copied to the build directory at {location.build}/{location.static}, where location.build and location.static are configuration options.

location.types

Default "types"

The directory where types are located. Types can be used to limit the range of possible values that a variable can have in runtime.

location.build

Default "build"

The directory where the app is to be built in and served from. This directory is recreated during every run.

location.client

The directory into which client files (compiled components and dependencies) are copied and from which they are served at runtime.

location.server

The directory into which server files (compiled components) are copied and from which they are server-rendered at runtime.

Build options

build.name

Default "app"

The name of the build, as reflect in the resulting JavaScript and CSS files.

build.includes

Default []

A list of directories to be included in the server and client build. Must not be any known Primate location.

The directories are specified relative to project root. A services directory would be denoted with ["services"].

build.excludes

Default []

A list of files to be excluded from bundling. Wildcards can be used.

build.define

Default {}

A map of identifier substitutions during build-time. For example, you could replace APP_NAME with your actual application name, loading from an .env file, by specifying

export default {
  build: {
    define: {
      APP_NAME: "'my-app'",
    },
  },
};

Note that subtitutions take place as in -- if you want a string to be substituted in, you need to quote it properly, as in the example.

pages/app.html

If you use the view or html handler, Primate will embed the generated HTML from the handler into this file. If an app.html doesn't exist in the pages directory, Primate will fall back to its default app page.

<!doctype html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Primate app</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    %head%
  </head>
  <body>%body%</body>
</html>

If you create an app.html file inside the pages directory, Primate will use it instead. When creating your own file, remember to include the %head% and %body% placeholders.

%head%

This placeholder is replaced by the JavaScript and CSS files Primate finds inside the static directory. You don't need to explicitly include any of those in the <head> and doing so might make your index file drift out of sync with the http.static.root setting.

%body%

This placeholder is replaced by whatever HTML code the view or html handler generates.