#198
Creating publically-accessible URLs for services running locally.
Notes
When developing software it is often really convenient to be able to run a publically-accessible URL for the code when it is still in development or testing. A common scenario is when developing intergrations with commercial cloud services.
One could deploy the software to a cloud instance, or jump through the hoops of setting up a publically accessible server. These invove the hassle of deploying software, setting up servers and making sure on stays safe and secure.
In many cases, ngrok.com provides a much more convenient solution: It essentially sets up a personal proxy service with unique publically accessible URLs (HTTP and HTTPS) that routes traffic to a local port. It does this without needing to change any firewall or NAT settings
Installation
Installation is a simple exeutable download:
- download a zip file
- unpack it and put the ngrok executable somewhere convenient
It runs:
$ ngrok version
ngrok version 2.3.40
Configuration
Requires an account
$ ngrok authtoken <token>
Simple Example
Running HTTP Mock Responses on http://localhost:4567. Here’s an example response when called directly on localhost:
$ curl http://localhost:4567/200.json
{
"message": "Returning code 200 in json format"
}
Now starting up ngrok for this port
$ ngrok http 4567
Now can access vai HTTP over the open net using the auto-generated URL:
$ curl http://d7ee-2406-3003-2060-3754-935-f710-c2cc-d2fb.ngrok.io/200.json
{
"message": "Returning code 200 in json format"
}
Or HTTPS/TLS:
$ curl https://d7ee-2406-3003-2060-3754-935-f710-c2cc-d2fb.ngrok.io/200.json
{
"message": "Returning code 200 in json format"
}
The assigned URLs will recycle on every restart of ngrok, however a paid account can get persistent domain names and other features