restify-echo

A simple echo server made with restify to serve every url you request. It catches all urls and sends back headers, body and metadata in JSON format. It allows you to change response statusCode and delay response with querystring parameters.

It has a simple ngrok tunnels support built-in.

Installation

        [sudo] npm install [-g] restify-echo

Usage

        Usage: 
        restify-echo [OPTIONS]
        
        Options:
          -c, --config     config file
          -n, --name       server name
          -p, --port       port to listen
          --ng, --ngrok    start an ngrok tunnel
          -s, --subdomain  ngrok subdomain (only if you provide a token)
          -t, --token      ngrok auth token
          -h, --help       Show help
        
        Examples:
          restify-echo -p 4000    starts the server in port 3000
          restify-echo --ngrok    starts a server with a tunnel available to everyone through internet
                                  
        

Once you've started the server. Send requests to http://localhost:3000/any/path/you/like?with=any&parameter=imaginable with the client you prefer a browser, curl, Postman or httpie. You can make GET|POST|PUT|DELETE request.

Querystring parameters

• statusCode header status code to set in the response.
• delay amount of milliseconds to delay the response.
• throw type of restify error to throw. (ex: BadRequest, InternalError, etc)
• msg when throw parameter is present, the error message to use.
• json send the response body you want to receive in the response.
• meta boolean to get a full response or only the body payload. Defaults to true.

Global vs Local install

If you install it as a local dependency start the command like this:

$> ./node_modules/.bin/restify-echo 

Ngrok support

Ngrok is a wonderful tool during development. It provides you a public url with a tunnel directly to your machine, so you can share active development with anyone.

If you use ngrok options it would also start a server on port 4040 where you can inspect all request made through the public url. By default ngrok will give you a random subdomain name, you can only change it if you signup and get an authtoken (free).

Config file

You can use a custom config file to setup your echo server. Check the config_example.js included or create one like this:

// my_config.js file

var custom_name = 'my-echo-server';

module.exports = {
  name: custom_name,
  port: 5000,
  bunyan: {
    name: custom_name,
    stream: process.stdout,
    level: 'info'
  },
  ngrok: {
    enabled: false,
    authtoken: '<your-ngrok-authtoken>',
    subdomain: custom_name
  }
};

And use it on execution:

$>  restify-echo -c my_config.js

TODO

• Allow also a secure server
• throw in some tests