How to serve your #html using localhost?

How to serve your webpage within a directory from localhost easily?

Python SimpleHTTPServer

Python simple server

To determine if your computer has python installed. you can open up your terminal or command prompt and type in the following command. Check out Google Open Online Education document for more information.

Python Homepage

Macbook

Type either one of the following command on terminal to check the version of installed python

python -V
OR

python --version  

Windows

Type this command on Command Prompt to retrieve the version of installed python

python

Commands

If you are using python version 2 simplehttpserver, run this command on your terminal or cmd:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer

If you are using python version 3 http.server, run this command on your terminal or cmd:

python3 -m http.server

Note

1) The entry point is the index.html within the directory.
2) It doesn't work if you have files from multiple directories.
3) Your current directory is the root of your webpage. Your relative links on the page should be based on this perspective.
4) If you wonder what the difference between serving your file from localhost and opening your index.html file on a browser? Check out this StackOverflow thread.
In short, serving your file from localhost is simulating serving your files from a real server.

Thanks for reading!

Jun