nodelive

Dynamic interaction within nodejs programs.

Install

$ npm i -D nodelive

Why?

To inject code in live node executions.

To not have to open Chrome to debug nodejs.

To debug, in live, from the inside, with some tools already.

To hack other programs easily too, why not.

Features

• [✔] Live code injection and exploration.
• [✔] Memory usage printing.
• [✔] Advanced printing for debugging.
  • [✔] Functions source code.
  • [✔] Circular JSON structures.
• [✔] Easy command line interface input for:
  • [✔] Text
  • [✔] Confirm
  • [✔] Options

Get started

This package consists in 1 unique object that exposes the whole API.

To import it:

const nodelive = require("nodelive");

Demo

You will find examples of the usable API for the next topics:

• [✔] For general help
• [✔] For console
• [✔] For editor

---

For general help

Store and retrieve values from nodelive (a simple helper storage).

nodelive.set("a", "a").put({b:"b",c:"c"});
nodelive.get("b");   // >> "b"
nodelive.get();      // >> {a:"a",b:"b",c:"c"}

Stringify (supports circular JSON).

nodelive.stringify({some:"object"}, null, 2);

Print message.

nodelive.print("Some message");

Explore any type of data.

nodelive.explore(data => 500);

List all properties of an object.

nodelive.description(global);

Print the description of an object.

nodelive.describe(global);

Stringify and print data.

nodelive.view({a:"a",b:"b"});

Show memory usage.

nodelive.memory();

---

For console

Execute command for the native console synchronously

nodelive.cmd("npm run test")

Ask for user input (as string).

const name = await nodelive.ask("What is your name?");

Ask for user input (as boolean).

const isBusy = await nodelive.askif("Are you very busy right now?");

Ask for user input, as options election (of strings).

const optionSelected = await nodelive.askone(["option a", "option b", "option c"], "Choose an option:");

Enter into a command-line loop to inject code!

await nodelive.code()

Evaluate specific expression from console!

await nodelive.evaluate()

---

For editors

Open editor and inject code in live!

const parameterNames = ["name", "age"];
const parameters = ["Carlos", "50"];

nodelive.PREFERRED_EDITOR = "brackets"; // By default it is "subl" of Sublime Text!

await nodelive.editor(parameterNames, parameters);

To see some more examples, please go to the tests folder of the project at Github.

---

API

Here you can have an overview of the whole API.

Note: all the code injections support await expressions by default.

nodelive.get(name:String)

Gets a value from the nodelive internal memory.

nodelive.set(name:String, value:any)

Saves a value in the nodelive internal memory.

Chainable method.

nodelive.put(Object:values)

Saves a set of key-value pairs in the nodelive internal memory.

Chainable method.

nodelive.stringify(...args)

Returns a JSON representation, no matter about circular JSON or functions.

nodelive.print(...data)

Prints the data by console.

Chainable method.

nodelive.explore(...data)

A more exhaustive printing of objects, functions, etc.

Chainable method.

nodelive.description(data:any)

Returns a deep description of all the properties of an object. The description contains the index (sorted alphabetically), the type of property and the property name.

nodelive.describe(data:any)

Prints the description extracted of the passed object.

Chainable method.

nodelive.view(data:any)

Stringifies and prints any data.

Chainable method.

nodelive.memory()

Prints a memory usage summary.

Chainable method.

nodelive.cmd(command:String, options:Object)

Synchronous. Execute command-line commands in a nut.

nodelive.ask(message:String): Promise<String>

Asynchronous. Prints a question. Returns an answer as string.

nodelive.askif(message:String, defaultValue:boolean): Promise<Boolean>

Asynchronous. Prints a question. Returns an answer as boolean. By default, the answer is false.

nodelive.askone(options:Array<String>, message:String): Promise<String>

Asynchronous. Prints a question and a numbered list. Returns the value selected from the list as string.

nodelive.code(message:String): Promise

Asynchronous. Inject (multiline) code in live.

To get out, you must enter an empty line.

nodelive.evaluate(message:String): Promise

Asynchronous. Evaluate js expressions (one line, something) of code in live.

nodelive.live(message:String): Promise

Asynchronous. Inject (multiline) code in loop (so, a simple REPL) until you return "exit" (as a string).

To get out, you must return 'exit'.

nodelive.inspect(message:String): Promise

Asynchronous. Explore the data that nodelive has saved in memory (from selector).

nodelive.executeCode(code:String, isMultiline:Boolean, ok:Function, fail:Function)

Asynchronous callback. Executes js code, embeded in async environment already.

Under the hood, code, evaluate, live and editor functions use this method to inject code and output a standard response.

nodelive.editor(argsNames:Array<String>, args:Array<any>): Promise

Asynchronous. Opens a file on your preferred editor (set it at nodelive.PREFERRED_EDITOR) that when saved, it is injected.

It has the ability to pass parameters and rename them, for your code to receive them.

To get out, save an empty text.

nodelive.editor(args:Object): Promise

Asynchronous. Same as the one before, but accepting a key-value pairs object for arguments injection.

nodelive.$require(...args)

Allows to require files.

nodelive.$import(...args)

Allows to importFresh (like a require but without cache) files.

nodelive.$resolve(...args)

Allows to path.resolve files.

Additionals

When interaction in live inside your programs, you have a global API automatically injected to global object.

• $hasnodelive: boolean indicating if the library was loaded.
• $nodelive: master object of the API.
• $dirname: same as process.cwd().
• $require: same as using require but from process.cwd().
• $import: same as using uncached require but from process.cwd()
• $resolve: same as using path.resolve but from process.cwd()

License

This project is under WTFPL or What The Fuck Public License, which means 'do what you want'.