Setting Up Google Chrome for Node.js Debugging

Debugging a node application with Google Chrome feature was first introduced 0:00 in Node.js 6.3+ but wasn't recommended for years until Node.js 6.4+. 0:05 You'll also need at least Google Chrome 55+. 0:10 The great thing about using Google Chrome as a debugging tool is that you can 0:14 debug both your front end and back end java script with the same interface. 0:18 You'll see how familiar it looks in a minute. 0:24 Open up Google Chrome and visit the experimental dev tool settings panel 0:26 by visiting chrome//flags, 0:31 hit Enter, and then scroll down to developer tools experiments. 0:36 Click enable and then Chrome will ask to restart. 0:43 Then open up the developer tools. 0:52 Head over to the settings. 1:03 This settings menu is hidden under this menu here with the three 1:05 dots stacked above each other. 1:10 Then go to experiments. 1:14 Then the next step is a little strange. 1:16 Hit the shift key six times. 1:19 You should now see some other options appear. 1:24 Including debugging node.js, 1:27 check the box next to the text, and then close down the panels. 1:32 Chrome is now set up to debug node applications. 1:40 Now let's set up the node side. 1:44 To put node into debug mode and generate a URL for Chrome to use to inspect your 1:46 application you need to pass in the -- inspect flak for 1:51 example the command would look like node--Inspect. 1:55 App.js if our application was in a file called appjs. 2:00 Since we're using MPM to start our application, 2:05 we'll need to modify the package.JSON. 2:08 And add the inspect flag. 2:13 Save the file, And start the application again with MPM start. 2:20 You should see a message when the server starts. 2:27 To start debugging open up the following URL in Chrome then copy the URL. 2:30 And paste it into Google Chrome. 2:38 And now you should see a familiar dev tools interface. 2:43 I'll cover the debugging features next. 2:47