Termlog

Console log to terminal

What it does

termlog send the browser console log to your terminal

It also comes with a nodejs REPL so you can do some basic draft code

When to use it

• While you developing your front-end app and you have to switch back and forth between IDE and browser
• When you test app on mobile and need to check log. (See Debug on mobile)

How to use it?

There are 2 ways and it depends on your preferences

Recommended way

1. Install the termlog binary : npm install --save-dev termlog ( you also can install globally with npm install -g termlog )
2. Start server npx termlog or termlog if you install globally
3. Go to the entry file of your project (I.e: app.jsx for React or main.js for Vue)
4. Insert these two lines:

import termlog from "termlog"
termlog()

5. You should now see log being streamed to your terminal

Note: with this approach you might want to remove two lines above in production

By default termlog will not run if it detects production mode using NODE_ENV, but you shouldn't rely on that

I don't want to add dependencies to my project

1. Install the termlog binary : npm install -g termlog
2. Start server termlog
3. Go to your browser and open the console window
4. Copy code inside index.js file without the last export line into console
5. Enter termlog() into console
6. You should now see log being streamed to your terminal

Note: with this approach you have to do all steps 3-6 every-time you refresh your browser tab

Advanced options

With termlog command:

• --out path: Save log to file
• --port port: Change server port
• --addr addr: Change server address
• --show levels: Select log levels to display (info | warning | error | debug). Multiple levels are seperated by ,

use .show levels while the server running to select again

With termlog package:

termlog({ host: "localhost", port: 3456 })

Debug on mobile

To be able to stream log from your app running on mobile you need to:

• Start term log with 0.0.0.0 by running npx termlog --addr 0.0.0.0
• Find your private IP address
  • MacOS: run ipconfig getifaddr en0 if you're on wifi and
  • Linux: run hostname -I
  • Windows: run ipconfig and find in the printed result. It should be under 192.168.x.x
• Inside your project init tconfig with: termlog({host: "YOUR_PRIVATE_IP"})

How it works

Termlog have 2 components:

• server.js - a websocket server to receive log message and display on terminal.
• index.js - termlog function to override default behavior of console object by capture arguments and send to websocket server

Future release

• Install using <script/> tag
• (Maybe) An extension to start termlog on browser so we don't have to install dependencies
• (If possible) Browser console REPL instead of nodejs REPL