ExtMongo is a web-based admin interface for mongodb using nodeJS.

Getting Started

Requirements

• nodeJS
  • versions: 0.4.0 or later
• npm

Install

• With npm

    $ npm install -g extmongo
  

Run

1. start the inspector. I usually put it in the background

    $ extmongo &
   

2. open http://127.0.0.1:5000/ in your favorite web browser

3. you should now see the mongodb databases listed.

4. select a script and set some breakpoints (far left line numbers)

5. then watch the screencasts

For more information on getting started see the wiki

node-inspector works almost exactly like the web inspector in Safari and Chrome. Here's a good overview of the UI

FAQ / WTF

1. I don't see one of my script files in the file list.

   try refreshing the browser (F5 or command-r)

2. My script runs too fast to attach the debugger.

   use --debug-brk to pause the script on the first line

3. I got the ui in a weird state.

   when in doubt, refresh

4. Can I debug remotely?

   Yes. node-inspector must be running on the same machine, but your browser can be anywhere. Just make sure port 8080 is accessible

ExtMongo options

--port=[port]     port to host the extmongo (default 5000)

Cool stuff

• the WebKit Web Inspector debugger is a great js debugger interface, it works just as well for node
• uses WebSockets, so no polling for breaks
• remote debugging
• javascript top to bottom :)
• edit running code

Known Issues

This is beta quality code, so use at your own risk:

• be careful about viewing the contents of Buffer objects, each byte is displayed as an individual array element, for anything but tiny Buffers this will take too long to render
• while not stopped at a breakpoint the console doesn't always behave as you might expect

Profiling

VERY EXPERIMENTAL I don't recommend using this yet

To use the profiles panel, install the v8-profiler module:

npm install v8-profiler

To use it do something like:

var profiler = require('v8-profiler');

profiler.startProfiling('startup');
slowStartupFoo();
profiler.stopProfiling('startup');

profiler.takeSnapshot('beforeLeak');
leakyFoo();
profiler.takeSnapshot('afterLeak');

Then view the profiling results with the profiles panel in node-inspector. You can also take heap snapshots on demand from the profiles panel.

Thanks

This project respectfully uses code from and thanks the authors of:

• node
• mongodb
• mongoose
• express
• ExtJS

and ICONs of:

• FAMFAMFAM