How to publish a website made by Node.js to Github Pages?

Question

I made a website using Node.js as the server. As I know, the node.js file should start working by typing commands in terminal, so I'm not sure if Github Pages supports node.js-hosting. So what should I do?

Answer 1

GitHub pages host only static HTML pages. No server side technology is supported, so Node.js applications won't run on GitHub pages. There are lots of hosting providers, as listed on the Node.js wiki.

App fog seems to be the most economical as it provides free hosting for projects with 2GB of RAM (which is pretty good if you ask me).
As stated here, AppFog removed their free plan for new users.

If you want to host static pages on GitHub, then read this guide. If you plan on using Jekyll, then this guide will be very helpful.

Answer 2

We, the Javascript lovers, don't have to use Ruby (Jekyll or Octopress) to generate static pages in Github pages, we can use Node.js and Harp, for example:

These are the steps. Abstract:

1. Create a New Repository

2. Clone the Repository

   git clone https://github.com/your-github-user-name/your-github-user-name.github.io.git
   

3. Initialize a Harp app (locally):

   harp init _harp
   

make sure to name the folder with an underscore at the beginning; when you deploy to GitHub Pages, you don’t want your source files to be served.

4. Compile your Harp app

   harp compile _harp ./
   

5. Deploy to Gihub

   git add -A
   git commit -a -m "First Harp + Pages commit"
   git push origin master
   

And this is a cool tutorial with details about nice stuff like layouts, partials, Jade and Less.