Auto reloading a Sails.js app on code changes?

Question

Currently is seems that for any code change in a sails.js app you have to manually stop the sails server and run sails lift again before you can see the changes.

I was wondering if there is any way when running in development mode to automatically restart the sails server when it detects a code change?

score 74 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 19 '16 at 09:12

74

You have to use a watcher like forever, nodemon, or something else...

Example

Install forever by running:

sudo npm install -g forever
Run it:

forever -w start app.js

To avoid infinite restart because Sails writes into .tmp folder, you can create a .foreverignore file into your project directory and put this content inside:

**/.tmp/**
**/views/**
**/assets/**

See the issue on GitHub: Forever restarting because of /.tmp.

edited Jan 19 '16 at 09:12

Iman Mohamadi

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answered Sep 08 '13 at 19:38

Sandro Munda

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7

You might also want to add views to `.foreverignore` as they do not require restarts to see changes immediately. e.g. `**/views/**` – Seth Malaki Feb 23 '14 at 03:59
but unfortunately these will lead to bootstrap code executed again and loss of sessions. – rahulserver Jul 28 '16 at 05:16
1

I used this but I receive the following warning: --minUptime not set. Defaulting to: 1000ms. How do I set this variable? – Golinmarq Aug 29 '16 at 15:58

score 48 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 23 '15 at 17:13

48

You can use sails-hook-autoreload

Just lift your app as normal, and when you add / change / remove a model or controller file, all controllers and models will be reloaded without having to lower / relift the app.

answered Feb 23 '15 at 17:13

Vitalii Maslianok

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This seems to be the simplest/easiest solution. Install the npm and add the sample autoreload.js into the config folder and you are basically done. – Braintapper Mar 19 '15 at 23:08
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Absolutely amazing. Simplest and most native to Sails. – Alexus May 13 '15 at 04:06
Im getting `Details: Error: ER_ROW_IS_REFERENCED: Cannot delete or update a parent row: a foreign key constraint fail` thrown by `5/lib/node_modules/sails/lib/hooks/orm/index.js:221` when I save (using sails 11.3) – Gab Dec 02 '15 at 21:16

score 45 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 13 '13 at 12:53

45

For example with nodemon to watch api and config directories

.nodemonignore contents

views/*
.tmp/*
.git/*

Run the command after creating .nodemonignore

$> nodemon -w api -w config

Example for supervisor to ignore 3 directories

$> supervisor -i .tmp,.git,views app.js

answered Dec 13 '13 at 12:53

woss

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I like the `nodemon` solution over the `forever` solution given how `nodemon` pipes output back to stdout w/o additional configuration. Makes development workflow easier. – Aaron Ransley Nov 20 '14 at 22:10
For the command I just used your `.nodemonignore` example and run `nodemon`. It works so far. – Michael J. Calkins Dec 12 '14 at 18:25
For anyone else confused about how running the above launches (the equivalent of) `sails lift`, nodemon knows to use `app.js`. – Tyler Collier Jan 25 '16 at 23:54

score 9 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 14 '15 at 04:32

9

If you're using Sails 0.11, you can install this hook to automatically reload when you change models or controllers (views do not require reloading):

npm install sails-hook-autoreload

https://www.npmjs.com/package/sails-hook-autoreload

answered Jul 14 '15 at 04:32

Ben Fried

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This was already mentioned by Vitalii Maslianok's earlier answer. – Tyler Collier Jan 25 '16 at 21:24

score 9 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 22 '17 at 06:57

install nodemon globally or locally.

npm install nodemon --save
npm install nodemon -g

install sails locally in you project as follows

npm install sails --save

then change package.json

from

"scripts": {
  "debug": "node debug app.js",
  "start": "node app.js"
},

to

"scripts": {
   "debug": "node debug app.js",
   "start": "node app.js",
   "dev": "export NODE_ENV=development && nodemon --ignore 'tmp/*' app.js && exit 0"
},

then

npm run dev

josec89 · Answer 6 · 2014-09-26T12:00:38.187

I had the same problem and I have solved it using grunt-watch and grunt-forever with sails@beta tasks. The result is 4 grunt commands:

UPDATE: tasks are available in the current sails version (it's no longer beta :>)

start Starts the server
stop Stops the server
restart Restarts the server
startWatch Starts the server and waits for changes to restart it (using grunt-watch). This is probably your solution, but the other commands are also useful.

Here's the code - I'm using sails@beta, which includes a tasks directory, I don't know if this is included in previous versions:

First of all you have to install forever in your sails directory:
```
npm install grunt-forever --save-dev
```

tasks/config/forever.js Configure forever task.

module.exports = function(grunt) {
  grunt.config.set('forever', {
    server: {
       options: {
          index: 'app.js',
          logDir: 'logs'
       }
    }
  });

  grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-forever');
};

tasks/config/watch.js (edit) Edit watch task in order to add a new rule

// api and assets default rules
,
server: {
    // Server files to watch:
    files: [
        'api/**/*',
        'config/**/*'
    ],

    // Restart server
    tasks: ['forever:server:restart']
}

tasks/register/watchForever.js Register your custom tasks (this file can be renamed to whatever you want)

module.exports = function(grunt) {
// Starts server
  grunt.registerTask('start', [
    'compileAssets',
    'linkAssetsBuild',
    'clean:build',
    'copy:build',
    'forever:server:start'
  ]);

  // Restarts the server (if necessary) and waits for changes
  grunt.registerTask('startWatch', [
    'restart',
    'watch:server'
  ]);

  // Restarts server
  grunt.registerTask('restart', [
    'forever:server:restart'
  ]);

  // Stops server
  grunt.registerTask('stop', [
    'forever:server:stop'
 ]);
};

With this you should be able to use

    grunt startWatch

and make your server wait for changes to be restarted :>

Hope this helped!

score 7 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 11 '17 at 18:03

7

Better you use

npm install -g nodemon

i am using this, and it will helps to improve my developing speed. no need to edit any files for this one!.

after installation

nodemon app.js

answered Jan 11 '17 at 18:03

BINFAS K

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Nodemon is good if you want to restart your server for each save. But if you are using webstorm or any ide with auto save it will continuesly restart your server. – Vishnu KR Mar 14 '17 at 02:30
Exactly Mr.Vishnu KR. – BINFAS K Mar 14 '17 at 02:35

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered May 06 '15 at 09:04

1

For anyone coming to this question now, it seems that this is no longer necessary - an application launched with sails lift will have a grunt watch task running, and code changes will be visible without a restart.

I didn't realise this was happening at first because there's nothing to indicate what's happening in the console, but it does seem to work without a restart (I'm using Sails 0.11)

answered May 06 '15 at 09:04

Nick F

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I don't think this is the case, I still have to restart sails after I change any controller – fengd Dec 08 '15 at 03:43
2

I also need to restart the app to see my changes. – user1007522 Nov 19 '18 at 11:13
This is only true for the files in `/assets` folder https://sailsjs.com/documentation/reference/command-line-interface/sails-lift – morgan9999 Oct 13 '20 at 08:59

Auto reloading a Sails.js app on code changes?

8 Answers8

Example

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