Using node-inspector on windows

What is this?

Tool for getting node-inspector working on windows and for simplifying the proces of launching the debugger. It's not rocket science, but it is (I think) useful.

What it does

• Gets you up and running with a windows friendly version of node-inspector
• Provides a command line tool to launch for debugging.

Prerequisites for using

• Windows
• [Latest npm build for windows] (http://npmjs.org/doc/README.html#Installing-on-Windows-Experimental)

Installation

• From the command window launch install.cmd. This will install node-inspector via npm and apply the paperboy patch described [here] (node-inspector/node-inspector#62 (comment)) to get node-inspector working on windows.
• From the start menu right click on Computer->Properties->Advanced Computer Settings->Environment variables.
  • Create 2 system variables
    • set NODE_INSPECTOR to the folder where this repo is located i.e. "c:\node-inspector"
    • set NODE_INSPECTOR_BROWSER to the path of your webkit browser of choice i.e. Chrome, Safari. For example right clicking on Chrome on my machine gives me “C:\Users\gblock\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe”
• Add %NODE_INSPECTOR% to your path.

Using

• In the command window, go to the folder where the node app you want to debug is.
• Type node-debug [url] e.g. node-debug http://localhost:3000

Once you run it from the app folder it will:

• Launch node inspector
• Launch you app in debug mode.
• Open the browser you specified and launch the debugger ui.
• Launch the start url you specified.

Known issues I've seen some cases where running node-debug causes a socket error. This seems to happen periodically. Closing the command windows and starting again seems to clear it.

Acknowledgements

• [Danny Coates] (https://github.com/dannycoates) for the excellent work on node-inspector
• [Franček Prijatelj] (https://github.com/fprijate) for his paperboy patch

License

• node-inspector-windows is licensed under Apache 2.
• paperboy is licensed under the "Debuggable Limited license" (see LICENSE.PAPERBOY.txt)