- If brew ls -versions myformula /dev/null; then # The package is installed: brew cask install ngrok: else # The package is not installed: if hash npm 2 /dev/null; then: npm i -g ngrok: else: echo ' no brew or npm to work with.
- Get code examples like 'brew install ngrok' instantly right from your google search results with the Grepper Chrome Extension.
Ngrok is a software where it allows other people to access your local machine's environment through an internet connection. For example, if I host my localhost:3000 server on my machine and use ngrok, ngrok gives me a url where I can share to other people so that they can visit and view my localhost:3000. It is saying “command not found”, after I try to run brew install ngrok. Leave a Reply Cancel reply. Your email address will not be published. ' ngrok exposes local servers behind NATs and firewalls to the public internet over secure tunnels.' In plain (beginner friendly) English: ngrok is a small piece of software that lets you run a web application on your local computer and (securely) share it with the world on a public address ('URL').
Webhooks provide a powerful way toreceive callbacks from an API service. Instead of needing to poll for changes,you can setup an endpoint to react to specific events. For example, when usingTwilio, webhooks allow you to respond to incoming textmessages. When using Stripe, webhooks allow you torespond to a successful or failed subscription payment. Or, when usingPlaid, webhooks allow you to receive new transactionhistories.
One of the biggest challenges when getting started with webhooks is setting upyour development environment. Because a development server is typically onlyavailable on localhost you need to add some additional configuration to makeyour local web application addressable by the API you are working with.
There are many tools you can use to create a reverse proxy for localhost. I’mmost familiar with ngrok, but in the past I’ve also usedserveo. In this tutorial, I’m going to walkthrough how Isetup my Ruby on Rails applications to work withngrok.
Sign up for ngrok
First, you need to sign up for an ngrokaccount. There is a free tier that you can experiment with. The downside of thefree version is that each time you start ngrok you are assigned a newsubdomain. This means that you have to change your configuration with each APIprovider whenever you start ngrok locally. There are also paid subscriptionsthat will allow you to customize the domains that you can use. This tutorialworks for both the free and paid plans.
Once you have an auth token, install the ngrok client locally and register yourauth token.
Integrating ngrok into your Rails development environment
Brew Cask Ngrok
Install the following gems:
Add the following at the end of your puma.rb:
Now, whenever you start your local development server ngrok will startautomatically.
Accepting requests from outside localhost
Brew Tap Ngrok
New in Rails 6 you need to specifically whitelist hosts to defend againstDNS rebinding attacks. If you don’t add this configuration, you will receive aBlocked host error.
Alternative approach
In the code above, I wrote out the specifics of how to integrate Puma and ngrokso that this functionality would continue to work without adding an extradependency. But, if you have a basic Rails + Puma setup, then you may wantconsider usingpuma-ngrok-tunnel instead.
Conclusion
Ngrok Is Not Recognized
Hopefully this helps you start building web applications that rely on webhooksa little faster. Happy hacking.