Aral Balkan

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Site.js and Pi

Screenshot of the Site.js basic chat example running on a Raspberry Pi 4B.

Chatting about Pi, on a Pi, with a chat server running on Site.js on the same Pi.

Yesterday, I released Site.js 12.8.0 which brings initial ARM support for Linux.

What that means is that it’s now easier than ever to get a static or dynamic (Node.js) web server up and running on a Raspberry Pi.

Screenshot of Terminal on the same Raspberry Pi 4B as before, showing Site.js serving the basic chat app.

Site.js on my Raspberry Pi, serving the basic chat app in the first screenshot.

Have a play!

Do you have a Raspberry Pi 3B+ or 4B lying around?1 Well then, grab it, fire up a terminal window, and get your first static site up and running in the next 30 seconds:

# Install Site.js.
wget -qO- https://sitejs.org/install | bash

# Create the most basic web site ever.
echo 'Hello, world! > index.html

# Run Site.js
site

Now launch a browser2 on your Raspberry Pi and hit https://localhost in it.

Photo of the Raspberry Pi 4B running the chat example in the first screenshot.

My Raspberry Pi 4B, caught red-handed running the chat app in the first screenshot.

Please sir, may I have some more?

But, of course!

If this has whet your appetite, so to speak, head over to the Build a simple chat app with Site.js tutorial where you will learn lots more about making dynamic web sites with Site.js using DotJS (Node.js made simple, ala PHP) as you create the WebSocket-based chat example you see in the first screenshot.

Have fun and do let me know how you get on.

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  1. Those are the only ones I tested with so far. It might work on other ones too. Do let me know if you try it out. ↩︎

  2. For example, type epiphany in a terminal window to launch the Epiphany browser – aka GNOME Web – that comes with Raspbian but isn’t available from the raspberry menu under Internet for some inexplicable reason. ↩︎