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

npm install -D nodemon-ngrok-webpack plugin

Dependencies

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

Usage

In your webpack config:

const path = require('path');
const NodeExternals = require('webpack-node-externals');
const NodemonNgrokWebpackPlugin = require('nodemon-ngrok-webpack-plugin');

module.exports = {
    mode: 'development',
    target: 'node',
    externals: [NodeExternals()],
    entry: './src/server.js',
    output: {
        path: path.resolve('./build'),
        filename: 'server.js'
    },
    plugins: [
        // Where the magic happens
        new NodemonNgrokWebpackPlugin()
    ],
}

Run:

webpack --watch

Output

webpack is watching the files…
   ╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
   ║                                                        ║
   ║   ngrok Tunnel Running at: https://b30a5d06.ngrok.io   ║
   ║   ngrok Client: http://localhost:4040                  ║
   ║                                                        ║
   ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Hash: b977a3a88dc37e896883
Version: webpack 4.20.2
Time: 901ms
Built at: 10/11/2018 11:43:44 AM
    Asset      Size  Chunks             Chunk Names
server.js  5.42 KiB    main  [emitted]  main
Entrypoint main = server.js
[./webpack.config.js] 433 bytes {main} [built]
[nodemon-ngrok-webpack-plugin] external "nodemon-ngrok-webpack-plugin" 42 bytes {main} [built]
[path] external "path" 42 bytes {main} [built]
[webpack-node-externals] external "webpack-node-externals" 42 bytes {main} [built]
[nodemon] 1.18.4
[nodemon] to restart at any time, enter `rs`
[nodemon] watching: build/server.js
[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.

{
    script: defaultOutput,
    watch: defaultOutput,
    delay: '250'
}

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

new NodemonNgrokWebpackPlugin({
    nodemonConfig: {
        script: './build/aux.js', // What to run
        watch: path.resolve('./build'),  // What to watch
        args: ['example'], // Arguments to pass to script
        verbose: true, // Verbose
        // etc...
    },
});

Ngrok

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

{ addr: 3000 }

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

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