Note: The meteor package frozeman:build-client is only a placeholder package, don't install.
This tool builds and bundles the client part of a Meteor app with a simple index.html,
so it can be hosted on any server or even loaded via the file:// protocol.
$ [sudo] npm install -g meteor-build-client
// cd into your meteor app
$ cd myApp
// run meteor-build-client
$ meteor-build-client ../myOutputFolder
Warning the content of the output folder will be deleted before building the new output! So dont do things like
$ meteor-build-client /home!
The content of the output folder could look as follows:
index.htmla28817fe16898311635fa73b959979157e830a31.cssaeca2a21c383327235a08d55994243a9f478ed57.js...(other files from your "public" folder)
For a list of options see:
$ meteor-build-client --help
You can pass an additional settings file using the --settings or -s option:
$ meteor-build-client ../myOutputFolder -s ../settings.json
Note Only the public property of that JSON file will be add to the Meteor.settings property.
Additionally you can set the ROOT_URL of your app using the --url or -u option:
$ meteor-build-client ../myOutputFolder -u http://myserver.com
If you pass "default", your app will try to connect to the server where the application was served from.
If this option was not set, it will set the server to "" (empty string) and will add a Meteor.disconnect() after Meteor was loaded.
If you want to be able to start you app by simply opening the index.html (using the file:// protocol),
you need to link your files relative. You can do this by setting the --path or -p option:
$ meteor-build-client ../myOutputFolder -p ""
The default path value is "/".
Note When set a path value, it will also replace this path in you Meteor CSS file, so that fonts etc link correctly.
If you want to provide a custom template for the initial HTML provide an HTML file with the --template or -t option:
$ meteor-build-client ../myOutputFolder -t ../myTemplate.html
The template file need to contain the following placholders: {{> head}}, {{> css}} and {{> scripts}}.
The following example adds a simple loading text to the initial HTML file (Your app should later take care of removing the loading text):
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
{{> head}}
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/loadingScreen.css">
</head>
<body>
<h1>Loading...</h1>
{{> css}}
{{> scripts}}
</body>
</html>By linking a file from your public folder (e.g. loadingScreen.css) and moving the {{> css}} and {{> scripts}} placeholder to the end of the <body> tag,
you can simply style your loading screen.
Because the small CSS file (loadingScreen.css) and the body content will be loaded before the Meteor app script, the the user sees the nice Loading text.
In order to connect to a Meteor servers, create DDP connection by using DDP.connect(), as seen in the following example:
// This Should be in both server and client in a lib folder
DDPConnection = (Meteor.isClient) ? DDP.connect("http://localhost:3000/") : {};
// When creating a new collection on the client use:
if(Meteor.isClient) {
posts = new Mongo.Collection("posts", DDPConnection);
// set the new DDP connection to all internal packages, which require one
Meteor.connection = DDPConnection;
Accounts.connection = Meteor.connection;
Meteor.users = new Mongo.Collection('users');
Meteor.connection.subscribe('users');
// And then you subscribe like this:
DDPConnection.subscribe("mySubscription");
}To be able to open URLs and let them be handled by the client side JavaScript, you need to rewrite URLs on the server side, so they point always to your index.html.
For apache a .htaccess with mod_rewrite could look as follow:
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
# Always pass through requests for files that exist
# Per http://stackoverflow.com/a/7090026/223225
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule . - [L]
# Send all other requests to index.html where the JavaScript router can take over
# and render the requested route
RewriteRule ^.*$ index.html [L]
</IfModule>