Using connect-livereload in an Express node app - node.js

Question

Following this great article on how to use npm as a build tool, I would like to implement it when building a nodejs express web app.
My node app is created on port 8080, this is a simplified version of my server.js file:
var env = process.env.NODE_ENV
var path = require('path');
var express = require('express');
var logger = require('morgan');
var routes = require('./routes');
var app = express();
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 8080);
app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
app.set('view engine', 'jade');
app.engine('jade', require('jade').__express)
var Oneday = 86400000;
app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/www', {
maxAge: env == 'development' ? 0 : Oneday
}));
app.use(logger('dev'));
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, '/public'), {
maxAge: env == 'development' ? 0 : Oneday
}))
if (env == 'development') {
// var liveReloadPort = 9091;
app.use(require('connect-livereload')({
port: 8080
// src: "js/"
// port: liveReloadPort
}));
}
routes.blog(app);
routes.frontend(app, passport);
app.use(function(err, req, res, next) {
console.log(err.stack);
res.status(500).send({
message: err.message
})
});
app.listen(app.get('port'));
console.log('Server starting on port: ' + app.get('port'));
The file that I'm watching before needing to reload is in www/js.
I am using npm as a build tool and before launching server.js with npm I launch a separate process that does watchify source/js/app.js -v -o wwww/js/bundle.js
I did checked that watchify works correctly, updating as I save my files. But there is no livereload once a file is changed.
The error I get in the console is:
Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token <
and I can see that connect-livereload inserted this script in the html:
<script>
//<![CDATA[
document.write('<script src="//' + (location.hostname || 'localhost') + ':8080/livereload.js?snipver=1"><\/script>')
//]]>
</script>
<script src="//localhost:8080/livereload.js?snipver=1"> </script>
I tried also to use live-reload as mentionned in the original article but without success and I am not sure it's the right plugin to use as live-reload launches a server, when I already start one with express.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

connect-livereload only inserts the script into the html (so that you don't need a browser plugin).
you still need a separate livereload server, try node-livereload, grunt-contrib-connect or grunt-contrib-watch ... since you want to use npm as build tool, the first one should be recommendable.
then you would have to change the livereload port to the running live-reload server port (default port is 35729):
app.use(require('connect-livereload')({
port: 35729
}));
The server you tried: live-reload should work as well.
Can you try and start it with:
live-reload [<path>...] --port=35729 --delay=someDelay
and change the connect-livereload option to:
app.use(require('connect-livereload')({
src: "localhost:35729"
}));

Answer 2

This answer shows how to set up livereload to refresh changes to both front and backend files to browser. It might be of help to you. https://stackoverflow.com/a/60542132/5032692