Create ngrok tunnel to expose localhost to the web and notify by email with the ngrok URL
See my tutorial here for a complete walkthrough including the steps below.
Linux/macOS
$ sudo npm install --unsafe-perm -g ngrok-notify
We need to install with the --unsafe-perm
flag to enable the underlying ngrok
package to run its postinstall script as root to download and save the ngrok binary in the global node_modules
folder. This extra flag is not necessary for Windows installations.
Windows
C:\> npm install -g ngrok-notify
Create a directory to store the configuration files and navigate to it:
$ mkdir ngrok && cd ngrok
Copy the starter configuration files into this directory:
$ ngrok-notify init
Modify your Gmail account (or create a separate Gmail account for sending messages) and configure it for less secure apps. This is needed so the underlying npm module used by ngrok-notify for sending email (Nodemailer) can send email using Gmail. See also the Nodemailer notes on using Gmail.
Update the following configuration files:
config.yml
- Add Gmail account to use for sending messages and email recipients.env
- Add password for the Gmail account used to send messages
Host a web server on port 8080 (or port of your choice) using http-server, Express, etc.
Create an ngrok http tunnel to expose port 8080 running on the localhost to the world.
$ ngrok-notify http 8080 -e
An ngrok tunnel on the public Internet will be created and the ngrok URL will be printed to the console. Additionally, ngrok-notify
will send you an email with the ngrok URL.
The email can be especially handy if you use ngrok-notify in conjunction with a process manager such as pm2. After rebooting your system, you will receive an email with the new ngrok URL without needing to log into the system and start the tunnel manually.
You can also use it to trigger a webhook, along with or instead of sending an email, by configuring an URL and method in the config file and executing the following
$ ngrok-notify http 8080 -w
$ ngrok-notify --help
Create ngrok tunnel to expose localhost to the web and notify with ngrok URL
Usage: ngrok-notify PROTO PORT [-n]
ngrok-notify init [-f]
Positional arguments:
PROTO Protocol to use in the ngrok tunnel {http,tcp,tls}
PORT Port number of the localhost service to expose (e.g. 8080)
init Copy starter config files into directory for customizing
Optional arguments:
-e, --email Send an email providing the URL of the ngrok tunnel
-w, --webhook Call a webhook providing the URL of the ngrok tunnel as POST params
-h, --help Show help
-v, --version Display version information
-f, --force Overwrite config files in directory if they exist.
Notes
Email messages and webhook are sent using the settings in the config.yml file and the
Gmail password stored in the .env file.
Examples
Create ngrok tunnel to expose localhost web server running on port 8080.
Email is sent with the ngrok URL since "--email" is included.
$ ngrok-notify http 8080 --email
Create ngrok tunnel to expose localhost web server running on port 8080,
but don't send email and send url to webhook instead.
$ ngrok-notify http 8080 --webhook
This package leverages the excellent ngrok package and provides notification capabilities. If you don't have a need for the notify feature, you may want to consider using the ngrok package directly instead.
MIT © Dave Johnson (thisDaveJ)