Demeteorizer

CLI tool to convert a Meteor app into a "standard" Node.js application. The resulting app contains a package.json file with all required dependencies and can be easily ported to your own servers or Node.js PAAS providers.

Note that version 3 of Demteorizer changes the output structure, which may cause issues depending on how/where you are deploying your application. With the new structure, the generated node application is available in bundle/programs/server.

How Demeteorizer Works

Demeteorizer bundles your Meteor application using meteor build then updates the generated package.json to include all of the necessary properties for running the application on a PaaS provider.

Installing

Install Demeteorizer globally using npm

$ npm install -g demeteorizer

Usage

$ cd /path/to/meteor/app
$ demeteorizer [options]

-h, --help                 output usage information
-V, --version              output the version number
-o, --output <path>        Output folder for converted application [.demeteorized]
-a, --architecture <arch>  Build architecture to be generated
-d, --debug                Build the application in debug mode (don't minify, etc)
-j, --json <json>          JSON data to be merged into the generated package.json

Windows Support

Demeteorizer works on Windows; however, errors will occur when repeatedly running demeteorizer in Node.js versions prior to 0.12.4.

The workaround on earlier versions on Node.js is to delete to generated .demeteorized directory before rerunning demeteorizer.

Meteor 0.8.1 and Below

Meteor version 0.8.1 and below are only supported in Demeteorizer version v0.9.0 and Modulus CLI v1.1.0. For all other versions, use the latest version of Demeteorizer.

This is because the bundle command changed in 0.9 which makes backward compatibility impossible. :(

Running Resulting Application

Meteor applications make use of the following environment variables:

1. MONGO_URL='mongodb://user:password@host:port/databasename?autoReconnect=true'
2. ROOT_URL='http://example.com'
3. MAIL_URL='smtp://user:password@mailhost:port/' (optional)
4. PORT=8080 (optional, defaults to 80)

Note that demeteorized applications still require a MongoDB connection in order to correctly run. To run your demeteorized application locally, you will need MongoDB installed and running.

Run the app:

$ cd /your/output/directory/bundle/programs/server
$ npm install
$ MONGO_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/test PORT=8080 ROOT_URL=http://localhost:8080 npm start

Examples

Convert the Meteor app in the current directory and output to ./.demeteorized

$ demeteorizer

Convert the Meteor app in the current directory and output to ~/meteor-app/converted

$ demeteorizer -o ~/meteor-app/converted

The following steps will create a Meteor example app, convert it, and run it.

$ git clone https://github.com/meteor/leaderboard
$ cd leaderboard
$ demeteorizer
$ cd .demeteorized/bundle/programs/server
$ npm install
$ MONGO_URL=mongodb://localhost:27017/test PORT=8080 ROOT_URL=http://localhost:8080 npm start

Visit http://localhost:8080 in your browser.

Modifying the Generated package.json

The --json option will allow you to pass arbitrary JSON data that will be added to the generated package.json. You can use this to override settings in package.json or to add arbitrary data.

settings.json

{
  "key": "some-key-data",
  "services": {
    "some-service": {
      "key": "another-key"
    }
  }
}

Add settings.json data to the generated package.json

$ demeteorizer --json "{ \"settings\": $(cat settings.json) }"

The resulting package.json will have a settings property that includes the JSON from settings.json.

You can also use this to override settings

$ demeteorizer --json "{ \"engines\": { \"node\": \"0.12.x\" } }"

This will result in a package.json with the node engine set to 0.12.x.

Debug

The --debug option is passed to the meteor build command indicating to meteor that the application should not be minified.

$ demeteorizer --debug

Support

Demeteorizer has been tested with the current Meteor example apps. If you find an app that doesn't convert correctly, throw an issue in Github - https://github.com/onmodulus/demeteorizer/issues

Release History

See releases.