I had to use ngrok for testing our web app on an ipad today. ngrok is an amazing tool to have in your toolbox, but I can never remember the name, so thought I would use the occasion to put it here.
Demo without deploying
I use ngrok when I want to quickly show something to one of my colleagues without leaving my desk.
ngrok http -subdomain=project-name homestead.app:80
Boom slack the link to your colleague project-name.ngrok.com.
One nice benefit of this is that if you’re running BrowserSync for the project you can actually see people interact with your domain. Will cause troubles if you send the link to multiple people though.
Simplify mobile device testing
Today I needed to check some iOS specific javascript. Spin up ngrok, 5 seconds later I have my localhost on my iPad and my iPhone.
Build webhook integrations with ease
I used ngrok for this purpose at Kanler all the time. We had a lot of integrations that required webhooks — mainly Twilio services.
When you wanna play with a new API or Service that uses webhooks ngrok is simply invaluable. You can use the ngrok interface at http://127.0.0.1:4040/ to read what the webhook is sending you. If you’ve ever been in this situation you will know how big of a time saver that is. Don’t mind poorly worded documentation, just see what you’re getting.