Description

Testing a node.js script is considerably different than testing javascript in a browser. Debugging node.js can be fun and easy. This package provides additional functionality for debugging node.js via console messages. Only one function call is necessary at the entrance JavaScript file (ie. index.js) to override console functionality throughout the script.

Features

• Timestamp for console message
• File path, file name, and line number for console message call
• Automatic traversal to location of console.log command via CTRL + LEFT CLICK.
  • Caveat: This has only been confirmed to work with vscode, where the node.js script is executed in the terminal provided by vscode. (Open vscode terminal: CTRL + ` )
• Viewing Objects of all depth levels
• Filtering log messages by any of the following method types: ['debug', 'log', 'warn', 'error']
• Filtering console output.
  • Works exactly as you would expect if you used the browser filter functionality. Supported: JS Primitive Datatypes, Arrays, Objects, Functions (Function Name), Classes (Class Name)

Javascript Support

Fully Supported: CJS(CommonJS) and ESM(ECMAScript modules, ES6)

Usage

Basic and Intermediate Install

npm i nodejs-better-console

Basic

import { overrideConsole } from 'nodejs-better-console';
// CJS import example
// const {overrideConsole} = require('nodejs-better-console');

overrideConsole();

console.log('log test');
console.debug('debug test');
console.warn('warn test');
console.error('error test');

Intermediate

Additional configuration parameters can be passed in to unlock the full potential of this package (Filter Features) and/or limit other features

Default config if nothing is passed in

const config = {
    context: './',
    obj_depth: null,
    show_timestamp: true,
    filter_console_method: ['debug', 'log', 'warn', 'error'],
    filter_console_output: '',
};

Usage of config

Example 1 (Console Output Filter)

const config = {
    filter_console_output: 'cool',
};
overrideConsole(config);

console.log('amazing');
console.log('this is so cool');

Example 2 (Console Method Filter)

const config = {
    filter_console_method: ['debug'],
};
overrideConsole(config);

console.log('this is a log message');
console.debug('this is a debug message');

Example 3 (Console Output Filter and Method Filter)

const config = {
    filter_console_method: ['debug'],
    filter_console_output: 'cool',
};
overrideConsole(config);

console.log('this is a log message');
console.debug('this is a debug message');
console.debug('this is a cooler debug message');

Example 4 (Context)

const config = {
    context: './src',
};
overrideConsole(config);

console.log('this is a log message');

Example 5 (Object Depth)

const config = {
    obj_depth: 3,
};
const obj = {
    a: {
        b: {
            c: {
                d: {
                    e: 5,
                },
            },
        },
    },
};
overrideConsole(config);

console.log(obj);

Example 6 (Timestamp)

const config = {
    timestamp: false,
};
overrideConsole(config);

console.log('this is a log message');

Advanced

Install

npm i -D nodejs-better-console
npm i dotenv

Example

.env

NODE_ENV=development

index.js

import dotenv from 'dotenv';
// CJS import example
// const dotenv = require('dotenv')
dotenv.config();

if (process.env.NODE_ENV !== 'development') {
    console.log('test console message NOT from development');
}

if (process.env.NODE_ENV === 'development') {
    const { overrideConsole } = await import(
        'nodejs-better-console'
    );
    // CJS import example
    // const {overrideConsole} = require('nodejs-better-console')

    overrideConsole();

    console.log('test console message from development');
}

Recommendation and Warning

This package is a javascript console override, this means that the override itself is not isolated to this package only. For example, if this package was to be imported and used within your node.js script, if another package attempts a console message [i.e., console.log('some message')], this package's version of the console would be used to output the message.

This package should ONLY be used for development purposes and not for production.

See Advanced Usage for fix