previewsites.dev

previewsites.dev is a lightweight and efficient site preview solution built using Nginx + Lua and designed to provide a seamless way to preview websites on a temporary subdomain. This tool is perfect for hosting providers, developers, or anyone who needs to preview sites during migrations or development without modifying the live domain's DNS records.

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🚀 Features

• Domain & IP Preview:

  • Enter the domain name and target server IP to create a live preview of the site on a temporary subdomain.
  • Allows testing of sites hosted on new servers while the domain points to an old nameserver.

• Temporary Subdomains:

  • Automatically generate temporary subdomains for previews, expiring after a set time (default: 3 hours).
  • Configurable expiration time to control the preview duration.

• Efficient Storage with Lua Shared Dictionary:

  • Use Lua's shared memory for managing subdomain-to-IP mappings efficiently, avoiding the need for external databases.

• Fast and Scalable:

  • Built on OpenResty (Nginx + Lua), offering high performance and scalability.

• Dockerized Deployment:

  • Fully containerized setup for easy deployment using Docker.
  • Exposes the service on port 3019 for easy integration.

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🛠 Technical Details

1. Nginx + Lua:

   • Nginx handles HTTP requests, while Lua scripts dynamically generate and manage subdomains.
   • Shared memory (lua_shared_dict) stores temporary data like subdomain mappings.

2. HTML Form Interface:

   • A simple, responsive web form (index.html) allows users to input the domain and IP for preview creation.
   • The form integrates seamlessly with Lua to handle requests and set expiration timers.

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📦 How to Use

1. Deploy with Docker:

   • Build and run the Docker image provided in the repository:

     docker build -t previewsites .
     docker run -p 3019:3019 previewsites

2. Access the Web Interface:

   • Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:3019.
   • Use the form to input the domain name and server IP.

3. Temporary Subdomains:

   • A subdomain like yourdomain.previewsite.dev will be created and automatically point to the new IP.
   • The subdomain expires after 3 hours (default) unless configured otherwise.

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💡 Use Cases

• Web Hosting Providers:
  • Offer white-label previews to clients during server migrations or new deployments.
• Developers:
  • Test and debug sites on a new server without changing DNS records.
• Site Migrations:
  • Preview websites during migration to ensure functionality before updating the live DNS.

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📖 Contributing

We welcome contributions to improve previewsites.dev! Feel free to submit a pull request or open an issue with your suggestions.

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📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.