React Dev Inspector

Introduction

react-dev-inspector is the tool for seamlessly code navigation from browser to IDE.

With just a simple click, you can jump from a React component on the browser to its source code in your local IDE instantly. Think of it as a more advanced version of Chrome's Inspector.

See the document on: https://react-dev-inspector.zthxxx.me

Why React Dev Inspector

Have you ever run into any of these issues 🤔:

You've got to fix some bugs in your team's project, but you have no idea where the heck page/component's code is located.
You're eager to dive into an open-source project that interests you, but it's hard to find where the code for the page/component is implemented.
You may thinking about a component and want to quickly peek at its code, but don't want to memorize or manually expand those never-ending deep file paths.

That's exactly why react-dev-inspector was created.

Quick Look

Just check out this demo below and you'll get it in a snap.

screen record gif (8M size):

Showcase: https://react-dev-inspector.zthxxx.me/showcase

Wanna try out the demo right now? Sure, here is the online demo:

How to Use and Configure

According to the working pipeline below, the Part.1 and Part.2 are what you need configure to use.

Basically, it's includes:

Check the Documentation Site for more details

How It Works

Here is the working pipeline of react-dev-inspector:

0. Inject JSX Source

The compiler's plugin records source path info into React components during development stage.

Note: The 0 of Part.0 implies that this section is generally OPTIONAL. Most React frameworks offer this feature out-of-the-box, which means you usually don't need to manually configure it additionally.

1. Inspector Component

The react-dev-inspector provide a <Inspector/> component to reads the source info, and sends it to the dev-server when you inspect elements on browser.

2. Dev Server Middleware

The react-dev-inspector provide some middlewares for dev-server in most frameworks to receives source path info from API, then call your local IDE/Editor to open the source file.