Data-viewer

Display Node.js data with live-reload in a web-based table viewer.

Motivation

When developing Node.js applications, it's often crucial to inspect and visualize data in a tabular format. While tools like console-table-printer or console.table are helpful, they may fall short when dealing with large datasets or multiple columns. This project aims to simplify the process of viewing tabular data by providing an easy-to-use and efficient web-based solution.

Features

Live Reload: Automatically updates the displayed data when the server is restarted.
Dynamic Table Support: Works seamlessly with Record<string, unknown>[] data type and straightforward headers.
Support Custom Server: Integrate with your existing server.
Custom Logger: Integrate with your existing log.

Demo

Installation

npm install @thaitype/data-viewer-server

Getting Started

Create a file named main.ts:

import dataViewer from '@thaitype/data-viewer-server';

const getUsers = async () => (await fetch('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users')).json();
const getPosts = async () => (await fetch('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts')).json();

async function main() {
  dataViewer.addHeader('User Table');
  dataViewer.addTable(await getUsers());
  dataViewer.addHeader('Post Table');
  dataViewer.addTable(await getPosts());
  dataViewer.start();
}

main();

Run in watch mode using your preferred tool:

tsx watch main.ts

The view is automatically updated when the server restarts.

Create Data Container

Sometimes, you may want to create a data container and add data to it later.

export function myReport(){
  const container = new Container();
  container.addHeader('My Header');
  return container.get();
}

dataViewer.addContainer(myReport());
dataViewer.start();

Support Custom Server

You can use the registerMiddleware method to integrate with your existing server.

  const getUsers = async () => (await fetch('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users')).json();

const dataViewer = new DataViewer({
  path: '/viewer',
});

dataViewer.addHeader('User Table');
dataViewer.addTable(await getUsers());

const app = express();
dataViewer.registerMiddleware(app);

app.listen(3000, async () => console.log(`Already servered on http://localhost:3000/viewer`));

Support Custom Logger

You can use the logger option to integrate with your existing log, this example uses pino log

import pino from 'pino';
const logger = pino();

const stringLogger = {
  log: (message: string) => logger.info(message),
  debug: (message: string) => logger.debug(message),
  info: (message: string) => logger.info(message),
  warn: (message: string) => logger.warn(message),
  error: (message: string) => logger.error(message),
};

const dataViewer = new DataViewer({
  path: '/viewer',
  logger: stringLogger,
}).start();

Idea Behind the Scene

Utilizes Express.js to run EJS Templates by taking data from the server-side (Node.js) and rendering it using DataTables jQuery to create the table.
Implements Socket.io for handling real-time events.

Manual

Disable Live Reload

By default, start method enables live reload automatically. You can disable live reload by setting the enableLiveReload option to false.

const dataViewer = new DataViewer({
  enableLiveReload: false,
})
dataViewer.start();

When use use the custom server by DataViewer.registerMiddleware method, you don't need to set enableLiveReload option. Because it's already disabled by default.

Custom Cell Formatter Function

You can define a custom cell formatting function to tailor the appearance of individual cells. This function takes a cell value as input and returns the formatted string to be displayed in the table.

Example:

dataViewer.setOption({
  cellFormatter: cell => {
    if (typeof cell === 'object') {
      return JSON.stringify(cell);
    }
    return String(cell);
  },
});

In this example, the cell formatter checks if the cell value is an object, and if so, it converts it to a JSON string. Otherwise, it converts the cell value to a string.

Setup Log Level

DataViewer.start method has built-in express server and uses the pino package internally. Example: set up debug log level.

dataViewer
  .start({
    loggerOption: {
      level: 'debug',
    }
  });

Setup Port

Example: Set up the server to run on port 5000.

dataViewer
  .start({
    port: 5000,
  });

Setup View (EJS Template) Directory

Example: Specify a custom directory for EJS templates.

dataViewer.setOption({ 
  viewDirectory: __dirname + '/views'
});

By default, the viewDirectory is set to __dirname + '/views'.

Create a New Instance

You can create a new instance.

import { DataViewer } from '@thaitype/data-viewer-server';

const myViewer = new DataViewer();

Acknowledgement

EJS Template: This project utilizes various packages, including jQuery, DataTables, Bulma, Socket.io, Toastify-JS, and UUID.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.