Pro Inspector

A JavaScript utility improving inspection of objects on Node.js.

Introduction

Let's suppose that we have this declaration.

class Person {
    constructor (firstName, lastName) {
        this.firstName = firstName;
        this.lastName = lastName;
    }
    
    get fullName () {
        return `${this.firstName} ${this.lastName}`;
    }
    
    drink () {
        // ...
    }
    
    async read () {
        // ...
    }
}

Now let's create an instance of this class and log it using our beloved console.log.

console.log(new Person("John", "Chen"));

This is the log in our console.

Person { firstName: 'John', lastName: 'Chen' }

Where is the problem? The getter is not visible and the methods are not visible. This is because by default certain class properties are not enumerable. This would happen also with a literal object (only for getters).

Pro Inspector solves this issues by reading the descriptors of the logged entities and presenting them with a nice syntax highlighted format.

This is the log with Pro Inspector.

Installation

npm i @reiryoku/pro-inspector

Usage

Pro Inspector can be activated globally for every log by using activateGlobally() in the program entry point.

import { ProInspector, } from "@reiryoku/pro-inspector";

ProInspector.activateGlobally();

In alternative you can use Pro Inspector only on certain objects/classes.

import { ProInspector, } from "@reiryoku/pro-inspector";

const myObject = {
    fullName: "Jessica Chen",
    
    get age () {
        return 22;
    },
    
    async destroy () {
        // ...
    },
    
    [ProInspector.inspector] () {
        return ProInspector.inspect(this);
    }
};

In this way Pro Inspector will be enabled only for the object above when logged with console.

Options

Few options are available since the project is new and not in a stable phase.

spaces

Determines the tab size, default is 4.

import { ProInspector, } from "@reiryoku/pro-inspector";

// Set tab size to 2
ProInspector.globalOptions.spaces = 2;

A list of tasks for the future.

• Create a format for arrays
• Show functions/methods named parameters
• Create a format for maps, weak maps and sets
• Allow using custom syntax highlight colors

Create an issue to suggest improvements and/or report a bug.