Debugging Node.js using Visual Studio Code

I’ve been coding on servers using Node.js for a few years, and the way I’ve been debugging my code was using console.log('>>> BLA: ', JSON.stringify(...)). How many times have you done that? 😤

Until more recently I came across a feature while using Microsoft Visual Studio Code: Debugging my code with breakpoints!! 🎉

As you can see in the video:

• I have my server running (inside a separate terminal window). An iOS app running on the side.
• First, I click that ▶️ button in Visual Studio Code to start the debugging session, and pick the process that my server is on. (more on that later)
• That attaches to the existing process, which is the separate terminal window where your server is running.
• When I trigger the api call from the iOS app, I hit my customer server endpoint.
• Voilà! The control is transferred to Visual Studio Code, where you can inspect all kinds of variables and step through the code! 🎉

Benefits

• No more console logging (OMG 😅)
• You can attach to the server at any point, without having to terminate it first and re-launch.
• Enjoy faster and happier coding 👨🏻‍💻

Setup

• Hold CMD + P to bring the file navigator.
• Type: `debug `, it will prompt you to select from the list of projects you have in the workspace.

• Pick your server project (in my case rest-api), which will create a launch.json file.
• I selected the “Attach to Process” option.

Content of my launch.json file:

{
 // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
 // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
 // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
 "version": "0.2.0",
 "configurations": [
   {
     "type": "node",
     "request": "attach",
     "name": "Attach by Process ID",
     "processId": "${command:PickProcess}",
     "skipFiles": [
       "/**"
     ],
     "port": 10000
   }
 ]
}

• Now you can click the ▶️ to attach to your existing server process.
• You can then detach, then reattach if needed.

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