Expose a local server to the world using Localtunnel

grunt-localtunnel-client exposes your localhost to the world for easy testing and sharing! No need to mess with DNS or deploy just to have others test out your changes.

Great for testing in physical mobile devices, working with browser testing tools or external api callback services which require a public url for callbacks.

This plugin requires Grunt.

If you haven't used Grunt before, be sure to check out the Getting Started guide, as it explains how to create a Gruntfile as well as install and use Grunt plugins. Once you're familiar with that process, you may install this plugin with this command:

npm install grunt-localtunnel-client --save-dev

Once the plugin has been installed, it may be enabled inside your Gruntfile with this line of JavaScript:

grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-localtunnel-client');

Note that this server only runs as long as grunt is running. Once grunt's tasks have completed, the web server stops. This behavior can be changed with the keepalive option, and can be enabled ad-hoc by running the task like grunt localtunnel_client:keepalive.

This task was designed to be used in conjunction with another task that is run immediately afterwards, like the grunt-contrib-watch plugin watch task.

In your project's Gruntfile, add a section named localtunnel_client to the data object passed into grunt.initConfig().

grunt.initConfig({
    localtunnel_client: {
        server: {
            options: {
                port: 8000,
                subdomain: 'mytestdomain'
            }
        }
    }
})

It will connect to the localtunnel server, setup the tunnel, and tell you what url to use for your testing. This url will remain active for the duration of your session; so feel free to share it with others.

Type: Integer
Default: 8000

Local server port. The server should already be listening to this port before attempting to tunnel.

Type: String Default: undefined

A string value requesting a specific subdomain on the proxy server. Subdomains must be lowercase and between 4 and 63 alphanumeric characters. Note You may not actually receive this name depending on availablily. If no specied a random subdomain will be assigned.

Type: String Default: localhost

The hostname where your local server is running. This will also cause the Host header to be re-written to this value in proxied requests.

Type: Boolean
Default: false

Keep the server alive indefinitely. Note that if this option is enabled, any tasks specified after this task will never run. By default, once grunt's tasks have completed, the web server stops. This option changes that behavior.

This option can also be enabled ad-hoc by running the task like grunt localtunnel_client:targetname:keepalive

Type: Function Default: function(tunnel){}

Custom callback for tunnel success. Receives the tunnel instance as its only argument.

Type: Function Default: function(err){}

Custom callback for tunnel errors. Receives the tunnel error as its only argument.

grunt.initConfig({
    localtunnel_client: {
        server: {
            options: {
                port: 8001,
                subdomain: 'myothertestdomain',
                local_host: 'myotherhost',
                keepalive: true,
                onSuccess: function(tunnel) {
                    grunt.log.ok('Connected at: ', tunnel.url);
                },
                onError: function(err) {
                    grunt.log.error('Not cool! ', err);
                }
            }
        }
    }
})

In lieu of a formal styleguide, take care to maintain the existing coding style. Add unit tests for any new or changed functionality. Lint and test your code using Grunt.

• 1.0.0 [30/04/2017]
  • Major code overhaul
  • Better error prevention
  • More intuitive messages
• 0.1.0 [24/04/2017]
  • Initial release

MIT © Renato Rodrigues