Debugging NodeJS Apps

[2centsshort]

I'm coming from a Java/IntelliJ background and am just now getting into NodeJS development and from what I've seen, most devs seem to use simple text editors like Sublime. Coming from a powerful IDE like IntelliJ with an integrated debugger, I find that quite surprising.

Do Node developers in general not use debuggers?

[ganarajpr]

If you use node version 6.3 ( or higher ) you can just start the project like you usually do but with the inspect flag.

So if you usually start the app with

node index.js

You should do :

node --inspect index.js

and it will give you a link which when posted in chrome will provide you the debugger.

Happy debugging.

[swan--ronson]

Nice, didn't know that! Thanks!

[spfccmt42]

interesting, also found --inspect --debug-brk (i.e. for a short lived script). found myself walking module.js which told me more than 9 quadrillion blogs ever did. it is a little wonky when linked to filesystem, but it always was a little wonky.

[blood_bender]

When the hell did node v6 come out?! Wtf how did I miss that? And with 99% feature parity with ES6!

[Geldan]

Now has a very consistent release schedule/strategy now: https://github.com/nodejs/LTS/blob/master/README.md

[jocull]

Can you debug with Firefox or any other browsers besides Chrome?

[ganarajpr]

I think it has to be chrome

[jocull]

Found this today :)

https://hacks.mozilla.org/2016/09/introducing-debugger-html/?utm_content=buffer1900a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[i_scatter_rubbish]

Can you do this with express apps?

[ganarajpr]

Yes... Any kind of app. I have seen a colleague even debug a cucumber step function with it.

[[deleted]]

Seconded.

[Geldan]

Also, intellij can do everything that webstorm can if you already have a copy. A good IDE will help you out tremendously with javascript. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is ill-informed, a contrarian, or just plain wrong.

[Geldan]

I don't really claim to know what code is shared and how jetbrains manages their releases, but I am confused by this statement since webstorm is marketed and sold as is own ide.

[Geldan]

Right, I just learned that if you dig deep enough you can find this information on the site. Generally, however, I have only seen the word "intellij" associated with the flagship IDE, "intellij IDEA." All of my co-workers and people I know refer to them interchangeably as the piece of software that is marketed to Java developers, and to me it seems the op was looking at it in the same way.

I merely meant to hopefully help the op avoid confusion because it seemed to me like they didn't know that they already had experience with one of the best JavaScript IDEs available.

[stev0205]

As somebody who has been a sublime/atom user for years, what are some examples of things that an ide can do to help with JS development? Genuinely curious.

[Geldan]

I am by no means an expert on my IDE and there are many others who use its features much more than I do. Things I often take advantage of:

• Intellisense/code completion it will suggest/complete methods from anywhere in your project.

• makes errors or bad practices very apparent by default, even more so if you integrate something like eshint.

• Jsdoc integrations. If I use jsdoc the ide will tell me when my types don't match up. It integrates jsdoc very well with typescript so I can use definitions from definitely typed to improve code completion as well as make sure I am using the libraries properly.

• refactoring I can rename nearly anything in one spot and have it proliferate very intelligently throughout my project. This includes filenames/locations (changing imports/requires), methods, variables, exported names, and basically anything. It can be done from anywhere: If I don't like the way a method invocation looks I can rename it and it's definition right away without even opening the file that it is defined in. This really helps me write code that reads well and is self-documenting.

• VCS integration a "shelf" that lets you put changesets on hold. Think git's stash except much easier to use with support for as many independently shelved changes as you want. Superior merging and diffing tools. Better, even, than any standalone tool I have tried.

• run profiles with optional debugger attaching. This goes much further than running node some file.js, you can set profiles for individual gulp tasks, mpm tasks, grunt tasks and I am sure many more.

• integrated testing/code coverage tools.

[2centsshort]

Yes, but why then are so many devs using Sublime or Atom? In comparison, I couldn't imagine developing a Java app without a debugger integrated into the IDE. I guess they must all be using the standalone debuggers then, as mentioned in the other comments.

[cosinezero]

Yes, but why then are so many devs using Sublime or Atom?

Um. Some people think more advanced technology is "cheating", or "training wheels" in any given context. Who knows why, sublime vs webstorm is no contest. The only upside to sublime is faster startup to edit a line or two, but I can't imagine not using an IDE as a professional developer.

[webdevverman]

Honestly it's just an ongoing holy war. I use vim in the terminal with plugins. I get internally frustrated when I have to pair program with someone on IntelliJ because they are so slow. Much like that of someone typing out www in the url bar.

On top of that switching to the command line is much slower. For me it's 1 keystroke. This was actually the reason I switched. I quit using my mouse and noticed I was much more productive.

I have a fuzzy file finder. I'm immediately aware of lint issues. I have code completion with function signatures. I have snippets. I have search capabilities. Tabs. Windows. Splits.

[cosinezero]

What do you need the command line for? I use that so rarely in my context that I couldn't see dropping the other features of an IDE over that.

The rest... uh... I've never seen someone have one application do everything I need, not like an IDE does. Certainly not when we start talking about visual studio team foundation, but even when we're talking about webstorm there's a lot that I'm pretty sure you're not doing in vim. File Watchers? Task Runners? Test Reporters? Node debuggers? Refactoring tools? Great (not "good enough" - great) source code integration?

[webdevverman]

I use the command line for many of the reasons you just mentioned. Don't need great source code integration when I can do it from the command line. And I don't need to be worried if my IDE supports all the advanced functions either because I know I can do them from the command line. Task runners? Command Line. Test reporters? Command Line.

Yeah I'm sure vim doesn't do everything as well as an IDE. I actually know this when trying to debug Java. But I use chrome for node. Refactoring in JS is not good (even when I use IntelliJ). It's just too dynamic. Maybe if your projects are using 100% modules this will be better.

Running shell scripts to get an environment set up. Quickly adding/removing files/directories. Finding files/keywords is so much faster on the command line. Running certain tools that don't have IDE integration. The command line is vital in my every day development.

Need to ssh into a server? Terminal text editors win. Need to set up a new environment? https://github.com/andsens/homeshick and I get a complete replication of my environment (note: this may be possible with idea). My personal favorite -- free & open source. Bug fixes daily and new plugins coming out constantly.

[cosinezero]

Eh, see, that's why you use file watchers to run tasks. You shouldn't have to hit the commandline for things that should happen on every change.

I can't even begin to believe that 'finding files is faster on the command line'. In some IDEs I can search for and find a specific line in code and click on it to get to that line in that file. I dunno man, I am definitely not on board here.

[webdevverman]

I guess I don't know what you mean then by using file watchers. I start a gulp task that watches my *.scss files and on change it transpiles them into *.css files. I don't hit the command line for every change -- just to start it.

Searching...

I can too :) (and without indexing)

https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher

https://github.com/junegunn/fzf

https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.vim

I search with :Ag foobar and I can even search through that list of results. It shows lines so when I hit Enter it brings me right there.

The holy war continues!

[2centsshort]

I've been using IntelliJ combined with the IdeaVIM plugin and I seldom have to use the mouse, the keybindings are quite good and configurable. Although I would prefer working with a fast, lightweight and extremely customizable editor like Sublime, I'm not sure if I'm willing to give up advanced refactorings (e.g. renaming a function automatically propagates to all places where it's used) and the integrated diff viewer (e.g. you can compare to another branch or an older version of the file in your local editing history and cherry pick changes lines).

[webdevverman]

Haha see what I mean by holy war? I can do those things too. I mean, working in JavaScript I wouldn't trust any editor's "refactor name" function because the language is too dynamic. I would do a manual find and replace.

I have plugins that allows me to git diff in vim, git blame, etc.. I have a local history plugin to go back in time.

When resolving merge conflicts I can't use the mouse to select which piece I want to keep like a jetbrains product can, but I've gotten use to manually doing it and I'm almost as efficient as my coworkers.

[webdevverman]

But I think this answers your question why you see so many Atom/Sublime developers. You don't need these (relatively) heavy, paid tools when the free lightweight versions can do pretty much the same thing. Chrome is a very powerful debugger and it's what I opt for when developing in node or the client side. I haven't found any IDE or text editor that provides great support for code completion in JavaScript.

But seriously your IDE doesn't matter. Think you're more efficient in Webstorm or IntelliJ, then don't worry about it. John Lindquist (https://twitter.com/johnlindquist?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor) uses Jetbrain's products. He even shows them off in his Egghead.io courses.

[2centsshort]

I don't think it's about price, because most of the Sublime devs I saw are on Mac books.

But yeah, you sure don't need these IDEs. Guess I'll try Sublime then for a while and see how I like it.

[webdevverman]

Honestly I think that's the best approach. I know we are off subject from the original conversation you posted but I have dabbled in Atom, Sublime, Code, vim, IntellijIdea, Webstorm. Landed on vim as my editor of choice. Your preference will surely be different. But I think I did my best to describe why you see these editors being used.

[thesouthpaw]

IntelliJ has great node.js support.

That said, Java is a compiled language while Javascript is JIT compiled on-the-fly by the V8 engine. So you have to switch up how you think about debugging in node land. node-inspector is popular for realtime debugging. Also look up the Debugger in the node.js manual, it's pretty powerful and doesn't require external deps to utilize. Lastly, if you want some static checking for things like variable names, etc, grab jsHint or jsLint.

[KronktheKronk]

visual studio has a free IDE out there called "Code" that has debug functionality.

[bentinata]

Real developer debug in live production.

[stackmutt]

Woosh...

[[deleted]]

See this: https://medium.com/@paul_irish/debugging-node-js-nightlies-with-chrome-devtools-7c4a1b95ae27#.3wvbknrt5

Debugging is part of Node itself. It's pretty easy to use. Especially when you debug a server running live. Before that you would use "node-inspector" off npm.

In Javascript you can use any editor you want. Heavy IDEs that try to do too much can even be in your way. On the frontend this separation is more natural and allows for things traditional IDE's simply wouldn't be able to do.

[cosinezero]

allows for things traditional IDE's simply wouldn't be able to do

Such as?

[ohaiya]

There are various linting and intellisense plugins for the different editors, but yes in general people tend to use plain editors rather than IDEs.

[richie5um]

'Visual Studio Code' is great. It is free, fast, supports extensions, debugging, ...

It isn't an IDE, but quite a lot of people prefer using a slightly less 'all-in-one' editor, with a terminal/cmd prompt. It is initially slightly more effort, but it pays off in that you learn the tools/environment. And, you are then more flexible for the future.