nodemon-ngrok-webpack-plugin

Inspired by lzhaki's nodemon-webpack-plugin, this plugin uses Nodemon to watch and automatically restart your Webpack output node server when Webpack is run in --watch mode. It then uses ngrok to create an online tunnel to your development server.

This enables you to access your live local Webpack build from any device for easier debugging. Need to test something on a phone or tablet? No problem! Someone else's machine has a bug that can't be reproduced anywhere else? Easy-peasy!

Installation

1npm install -D nodemon-ngrok-webpack plugin

Dependencies

nodemon-ngrok-webpack-plugin requires Webpack >=4 to work.

Usage

In your webpack config:

1const path = require('path');
2const NodeExternals = require('webpack-node-externals');
3const NodemonNgrokWebpackPlugin = require('nodemon-ngrok-webpack-plugin');
4
5module.exports = {
6    mode: 'development',
7    target: 'node',
8    externals: [NodeExternals()],
9    entry: './src/server.js',
10    output: {
11        path: path.resolve('./build'),
12        filename: 'server.js'
13    },
14    plugins: [
15        // Where the magic happens
16        new NodemonNgrokWebpackPlugin()
17    ],
18}

Run:

1webpack --watch

Output

1webpack is watching the files…
2   ╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
3   ║                                                        ║
4   ║   ngrok Tunnel Running at: https://b30a5d06.ngrok.io   ║
5   ║   ngrok Client: http://localhost:4040                  ║
6   ║                                                        ║
7   ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
8Hash: b977a3a88dc37e896883
9Version: webpack 4.20.2
10Time: 901ms
11Built at: 10/11/2018 11:43:44 AM
12    Asset      Size  Chunks             Chunk Names
13server.js  5.42 KiB    main  [emitted]  main
14Entrypoint main = server.js
15[./webpack.config.js] 433 bytes {main} [built]
16[nodemon-ngrok-webpack-plugin] external "nodemon-ngrok-webpack-plugin" 42 bytes {main} [built]
17[path] external "path" 42 bytes {main} [built]
18[webpack-node-externals] external "webpack-node-externals" 42 bytes {main} [built]
19[nodemon] 1.18.4
20[nodemon] to restart at any time, enter `rs`
21[nodemon] watching: build/server.js
22[nodemon] starting `node build/server.js`

Configuration and Defaults

Nodemon

By default, Nodemon has been configured to run and watch the first output file of your Webpack build. It has also been set to a 250ms delay to give Webpack a chance to finish its build before restarting the node server.

1{
2    script: defaultOutput,
3    watch: defaultOutput,
4    delay: '250'
5}

These settings can be overridden and any other Nodemon configuration properties can be added

1new NodemonNgrokWebpackPlugin({
2    nodemonConfig: {
3        script: './build/aux.js', // What to run
4        watch: path.resolve('./build'),  // What to watch
5        args: ['example'], // Arguments to pass to script
6        verbose: true, // Verbose
7        // etc...
8    },
9});

Ngrok

By default, Ngrok has been configured to tunnel to port 3000 over the http protocol

1{ addr: 3000 }

These settings can also be overridden and any other Ngrok configuration properties can be added

1new NodemonNgrokWebpackPlugin({
2    ngrokConfig: {
3        addr: 8080, // Port to tunnel to
4        authtoken: '4nq9771bPxe8ctg7LKr_2ClH7Y15Zqe4bWLWF9p', // Ngrok auth token
5        subdomain: 'example', // Reserved tunnel name
6        bind_tls: false, // Disable HTTPS
7        // etc...
8    },
9});