Interfake now

This week, newly-formed zeit released a new tool called now which allows NodeJS developers to deploy their applications to the Internet within seconds. The moment I saw it, I thought, “This would work really well with Interfake.”

So this is my quick little tutorial explaining how you can deploy a static JSON API to a server provided by now. I’m gonna start with the show-off/speedrun version. If you want the meat though, head to The Long Version.

The Short Version

Put this in your terminal in a new directory somewhere. At some point, you’ll be prompted to check your email inbox for a confirmation. Once you’ve confirmed, go to the URL that now gives you and put /s on the end of it. Instant API in 175 characters!

npm install now -g && echo "var i=new
(require('interfake'))();i.get('/s').body({'m':'ok'});i.listen(3000);" >>
server.js && npm init -y && npm install interfake --save && now

> Deploying "/Users/foo/Development/interfake-now"
# THIS THING BELOW IS THE URL YOU NEED!
> Ready! https://interfake-now-urbtyfvpxa.now.sh (copied to clipboard) [1s]
# When `npm` start completes, go to https://interfake-now-urbtyfvpxa.now.sh/s
> Upload [====================] 100% 0.0s
> Sync complete (140B) [2s] 
> Building

The Long Version

Let’s say you’ve got an Interfake project which you’re working on that you’d like to expose to the global Internet. You could ngrok it, or put it on Heroku, or whatever… or you could just type now and it works within a minute.

Steps

1. now should be installed globally using npm install -g
2. Make sure that the start script in your package.json file is correct, e.g. it might be "node server.js".
3. Make sure interfake is one of the dependencies in package.json. Ensure this using npm install interfake --save in your project.
4. Make sure there’s a .listen() call on your Interfake object somewhere.
5. Type now in your project.
6. Enjoy using your shiny new API.

Example

Start a new directory. No need to npm init yet. Put this file in it, called server.js:

var Interfake = require('interfake');

var interfake = new Interfake();

interfake.get('/status').status(200).body({
  message: 'ok!'
});

interfake.get(/\/star-wars-trailers\/?/).status(200).body({
  trailers: [
    {
      title: 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens Official US Trailer',
      url: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE',
      release_date: 'October 19, 2015'
    },
    {
      title: 'ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY Official Teaser Trailer',
      url: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wji-BZ0oCwg',
      release_date: 'April 7, 2016'
    },
    {
      title: 'Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope - Trailer',
      url: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ734NWnAHA',
      release_date: '???, 1977'
    }
  ]
});

interfake.listen(3000);

Now the following commands on the command line:

# make sure now is installed
npm install now -g
# make sure you've got a package.json
npm init -y
# make sure your dependencies include interfake
npm install interfake --save
# run now!
now
# it should prompt you to check your inbox for a confirmation message, 
# and when you see this you should click the link provided. Within a few seconds
# you should see output like this:
> Deploying "/Users/foo/Development/interfake-now"
> Ready! https://interfake-now-xyerbcnwdp.now.sh (copied to clipboard) [1s]
> Upload [====================] 100% 0.0s
> Sync complete (140B) [2s] 
> Building
# the usual npm installation stuff comes up next, and eventually this:
> ▲ npm start
> Deployment complete!
# You can now go to:
# - https://interfake-now-xyerbcnwdp.now.sh/status
# - https://interfake-now-xyerbcnwdp.now.sh/star-wars-trailers/
# Nice! Thanks zeit.

Note: If you do actually visit https://interfake-now-xyerbcnwdp.now.sh it’s a version of the example above that I’ve deployed today.

More about now

Source view! If you go to https://interfake-now-xyerbcnwdp.now.sh/_src you can see the source of the project that has been deployed, file-by-file.

HTTPS! now seems to put everything behind HTTPS, which is a nice bonus if you’re doing anything sensitive.

For more, go to zeit. They’re also on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zeithq

More about Interfake

I’ve written extensively about Interfake already as it’s my baby, but it could always do with some more love so check out the GitHub page at https://github.com/basicallydan/interfake. Let me know if you do anything cool with it and/or now!