Five Server

A better live server

⚡️ Updates your files instantly while typing on your keyboard
⬢ Remote displays the logs of your browser/phone in your terminal
💡 Highlights the code you are working on in your browser
🚀 Navigates your browser automatically to the current editing file
🐘 Includes PHP Support for serving and live reload all your .php files
🗄️ Supports all Server Side Rendered Apps like express.js

Get Started

4 ways to start your live server.

Click Go Live in the Status Bar (bottom of VSCode)
Right-Click a Open File > Open with Five Server
Right-Click a File in the Explorer > Open with Five Server
Right-Click a Folder in the Explorer > Open with Five Server (root)
(will set the current folder as root until you stop the server)

Videos

Quick Test

Something is not working? Try the simple setup below:

make sure you have uninstalled the old Live Server
check if you have the latest version
make a new folder www on the desktop
add the index.html (see below)
open the folder www with VSCode
click on Go Live

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>HTML Test File</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>It works!</h1>
  </body>
</html>

The setup above works but your project not?

Maybe because your project is on another drive?
Or maybe on a USB Stick or remote folder like OneDrive or DropBox?
Make sure you open a folder in VSCode and NOT just a single file.
All these things can sometimes cause issues.

About PHP

Although Five Server can render, display and live reload PHP, it does not provide a full PHP server. If you want to develop a big PHP app, you manually have to link the client-side Five Server script with your PHP files. See five-server-with-php.

Features

💡 Most advanced features are disabled by default.
Turn them on in the settings or by configuring a fiveserver.config.js file in the root of your workspace.

Note:

Instant Update & Highlight works with .html and .php files.
All remote logs will be visible in a new Terminal called "Five Server".
The features highlight, injectBody and remoteLogs are disable by default.
To use the highlight feature, injectBody has to be activated.
injectBody performs some simple HTML Validation. When using injectBody, a message will be displayed if your HTML Page is invalid.
To temporarily disable highlight for a single HTML Tag, add a H.
Example: <div H>Don't highlight me</div>

Config File Example:

// fiveserver.config.js
module.exports = {
  highlight: true, // enable highlight feature
  injectBody: true, // enable instant update
  remoteLogs: true, // enable remoteLogs
  remoteLogs: "yellow", // enable remoteLogs and use the color yellow
  injectCss: false, // disable injecting css
  navigate: true, // enable auto-navigation
};

More Docs

Read Five Server - Documentation.
Read Five Server - Config File.
Check all available options for the Config File in /src/types.ts.
Check all available colors for the remoteLogs in /src/colors.ts.

Known Issues

Sometimes injectBody does not work well when using inline JavaScript inside <body>.
As a workaround, execute your inline scripts after Five Server is connected:

<script>
  const main = () => {
    console.log("Some JavaScript Code...");
  };

  // wait for five-server to connect
  const five = document.querySelector('[data-id="five-server"]');
  if (five) five.addEventListener("connected", main);
  else window.addEventListener("load", main);
</script>

Debug Mode

Need to debug something? Set debugVSCode to true.

// fiveserver.config.js
module.exports = {
  debugVSCode: true,
};

Release Notes

No release notes while < v1.0.0

Live Server (Five Server)

Yannick