English | 简体中文

We recommend updating whistle and Node to ensure that you receive important features, bugfixes and performance improvements. Some versions of Node have bugs that may cause whistle to not work properly, for detail see the issue: #231

whistle

中文 README

whistle is a cross-platform web debugging tool based on Node.js.

It features the following:

1. offer HTTP proxying
2. capture, replay or compose requests of HTTP, HTTPS, WebSocket and TCP.
3. manipulate http request and response by configing hosts, or patterns like domain, path, regular expression, wildcard characters, wildcard path, etc.
4. offer build-in mobile debugging mode

If the aboves can't satisfy your requirements, you can also use plugins to extend its capabilities.

The specific functions are as follows：

Manipulations to http request and response in whistle can be achieved as a Rule looks like:

pattern operatorURI

Description：

1. pattern is an expression to match the target request url. You can write patterns in different forms including domain, path, reqular expression, wildcard, and so on.

    # matching domain
    www.example.com
    # domain with port
    www.example.com:6666
    # domain with protocol, supporting http, https, ws, wss, tunnel
    http://www.example.com
   
    # matching path, supporting protocol, port
    www.example.com/test
    https:/www.exapmle.com/test
    https:/www.exapmle.com:6666/test
   
    # matching regular expression
    /^https?://www\.example\.com\/test/(.*)/ referer://http://www.test.com/$1
   
    # matching wildcard
    ^www.example.com/test/*** referer://http://www.test.com/$1
   

   For more details, please visit Pattern Matching

2. operatorURI is the corresponding operation, made up of opProtocol and opValue：
   opProtocol represents the kind of operation, e.g.

    # host：setting requested server IP
    pattern host://opValue
   
    # file：using the local file to replace
    pattern file://opValue
   

   opValue represents the parameters of the specific operation, e.g.

    # host：setting requested server IP
    pattern host://127.0.0.1:6666 # or pattern 127.0.0.1:6666	
   
    # file：using the local file to replace
    pattern file:///User/test/dirOrFile # or pattern /User/test/dirOrFile
    pattern file://E:\test\dirOrFile # or pattern E:\test\dirOrFile
   

   For more details, please visit operation value

3. The position of pattern and operatorURI can be swapped in most situations while the combination mode is also supported. For more details, please visit configuration mode

Install & Setup

install Node

The latest LTS version of Node.js is recommended.

If none or low version of Node.js is installed, you need install the latest version of Node.js according to the following instructions：

1. For Windows: please visit https://nodejs.org/ to download the latest LTS version of Node.js and then, install it using the default options.

2. For Mac: the same as Windows.

3. For Linux: using source code to install is recommended, because in this way, you don't need to configure the path.  If you fail to install with source code, you can also use the binary version of Node.js directly.

   • with source package： visit Official website of Node to download the latest version of Source Code*(or using wget in shell), unzip(tar -xzvf node-xxx.tar.gz), switch to the root directory(cd node-xxx), execute ./configure, ./make and ./make install in order。
   • using binary version：visit Official website of Node to download the latest Linux Binaries(or using command wget to download), unzip(tar -xzvf node-xxx.tar.gz), add the absolute path of bin directory to system PATH after extracting。

You can execute node -v in shell to check if the expected version of Node.js is installed successfully：

$ node -v
v8.9.4

install whistle

After the Node.js is installed successfully, you can execute the following npm command to install whistle（In Mac or Linux, prefix sudo is needed if you are not root user, i.e. sudo npm install -g whistle）

npm install -g whistle

In China, you can install whistle using npm mirror of taobao to speed up installing progress and avoid failure：

npm install cnpm -g --registry=https://registry.npm.taobao.org
cnpm install -g whistle

or specify mirror install directly：
npm install whistle -g --registry=https://registry.npm.taobao.org

After installation, execute whistle help or w2 help to view help information:

$ w2 help
Usage: whistle <command> [options]


Commands:

	run       Start a front service
	start     Start a background service
	stop      Stop current background service
	restart   Restart current background service
	help      Display help information

Options:

	-h, --help                                      output usage information
	-D, --baseDir [baseDir]                         the base dir of config data
	-z, --certDir [directory]                       custom certificate path
	-l, --localUIHost [hostname]                    local ui host (local.whistlejs.com by default)
	-n, --username [username]                       the username of whistle
	-w, --password [password]                       the password of whistle
	-N, --guestName [username]                      the guest name
	-W, --guestPassword [password]                  the guest password
	-s, --sockets [number]                          max sockets (60 by default)
	-S, --storage [newStorageDir]                   the new local storage directory
	-C, --copy [storageDir]                         copy storageDir to newStorageDir
	-c, --dnsCache [time]                           the cache time of DNS (30000ms by default)
	-H, --host [host]                               whistle listening host(:: or 0.0.0.0 by default)
	-p, --port [port]                               whistle listening port (8899 by default)
	-P, --uiport [uiport]                           whistle ui port (8900 by default)
	-m, --middlewares [script path or module name]  express middlewares path (as: xx,yy/zz.js)
	-M, --mode [mode]                               the whistle mode (as: pureProxy|debug|multiEnv)
	-t, --timeout [ms]                              request timeout (66000 ms by default)
	-e, --extra [extraData]                         extra data for plugin
	-f, --secureFilter [secureFilter]               the script path of secure filter
	-R, --reqCacheSize [reqCacheSize]               the cache size of request data (512 by default)
	-F, --frameCacheSize [frameCacheSize]           the cache size of socket frames (512 by default)
	-V, --version                                   output the version number

Setup whistle

Start:

w2 start

Note: If you don't want others to visit the configuration page of whistle, just add username and password when start, i.e. -n yourusername -w yourpassword。

Restart:

w2 restart

Stop:

w2 stop

Debugging mode:

w2 run

For more details, please visit install and start

Proxing Settings

configuring server & port

1. proxying server：127.0.0.1(if whistle is deployed in remote server or virtual machine, change this address to corresponding IP address)
2. default port：8899(if port 8899 is used already, you can specify new port using -p when start. More details can be visited by executing whistle help or w2 help (only supported in v0.7.0 and higher version)

Make sure using the same proxying server for all protocol in system proxying setting is checked.

Browser & System configuration

1. proxy setting in OS：　

• Windows
• Mac

2. proxy setting in browser(recommended)

   • for Chrome：intall chrome plugin whistle-for-chrome or Proxy SwitchySharp

   • for Firefox： Open Options page in Firefox, then switch to General -> Network Proxy, then set Manual proxy configuration to whistle.

3. in mobiles, configure the proxy of current Wi-Fi in Setting

PS: The mobile may failed to use network after configuration because the fireworks of the PC has forbidden remote visit to the whistle's port. you can try to close the fireworks or configure white list ： http://jingyan.baidu.com/article/870c6fc317cae7b03ee4be48.html

For more details, please vsit install and start

Visit whistle's operation page

After the above steps are completed, open the whistle page in browserhttp://local.whistlejs.com：

There are five main tabs in the navigation bar:

1. Network

• check and compose the http request
• show the console print and javascript errors thrown in pages

2. Rules：configure rules for manipulating
3. Plugins

• show the list of installed plugins
• enable or disable installed plugins

4. Weinre：configure Weinre list
5. HTTPS：
   • configure whether or not to intercept the HTTPS and download the root certificate for whistle

Certificate Installment

Please install root certificate and enable HTTPS interception before using whislte.

For more details, please vsit Certificate Installment

Quick start

Open Rules tab in whistle, and create a group named test by context menu or Create button in menu bar. Then follow the next steps to write rules and save.

1. cofigure hosts

   Specify the ip of www.ifeng.com:

    www.ifeng.com 127.0.0.1
    # or
    127.0.0.1 www.ifeng.com
   

   Specify the ip and port of www.ifeng.com to forward http request to local port 8080. In this way, we can visit the local website just as online when the developing port is not 80:

    # www.ifeng.com 127.0.0.1
    www.ifeng.com 127.0.0.1:8080
    # or
    127.0.0.1:8080 www.ifeng.com
   

   We can also replace the real IP (or domain) and port with any domain without port:

    www.ifeng.com host://www.qq.com:8080
    # or
    host://www.qq.com:8080 www.ifeng.com
   

   For more details, please visit Pattern Matching

2. local files replacing

Replace the response with content in local file system, which is frequently used during web developing.

# Mac or Linux
www.ifeng.com file:///User/username/test
# or www.ifeng.com file:///User/username/test/index.html
	
# Both '\' and '/' can be used as path separator for Widows
www.ifeng.com file://E:\xx\test
# or www.ifeng.com file://E:\xx\test\index.html

http://www.ifeng.com/ will try to load /User/username/test first. If the former dosen't exist, the file /User/username/test/index.html will be loaded. For neither exists, it returns 404.

To replace jsonp request, you can refer to tpl

For more details, please vsit Pattern Matching

3. Request Forward

   To forward all the requests from domain www.ifeng.com to domain www.aliexpress.com

    www.ifeng.com www.aliexpress.com
   

   For more details, Pattern Matching

4. Inject html、js、css

   whistle will decide whether injecting corresponding text and how to inject, like whether wrapping the text with HTML label, automatically according to response type.

    # Mac、Linux
    www.ifeng.com html:///User/xxx/test/test.html
    www.ifeng.com js:///User/xxx/test/test.js
    www.ifeng.com css:///User/xxx/test/test.css
    
    # Both '\' and '/' can be used as path separator for Widows
    www.ifeng.com html://E:\xx\test\test.html
    www.ifeng.com js://E:\xx\test\test.js
    www.ifeng.com css://E:\xx\test\test.css
   

   For all the requests for domain www.ifeng.com, whistle will inject the processed text to response body according to response type. If the type is HTML, the js content will be wrapped within script, and the css content be wrapped within style to be injected to response body。

   For more details, Pattern Matching

5. Debug for remote page

   With the protocol weinre and protocol log provided by whistle, you can modify the DOM structure, capture the javascript errors and view the console print easily. Moreover, you can inject specified script to debug the remote page.

   Before using whistle to debug remote page, you need to set the proxy for OS or browser to whistle. Please refers Install and start to know how to set the proxy.

   For weinre：

    www.ifeng.com weinre://test
   

   Add the following rule in group named test and save, open the www.ifeng.com with a new tab in browser. Then you can see a list when you hover over the button weinre, click the item test to open a weinre debug page. For example, you can see the DOM structure when swich to Elements tab after selected a target.

   For log:

    www.ifeng.com log://{test.js}
   

   Add the following rule in group named test and save. Then you can see a list when you hover over the button Values, whistle will create a group named test.js in Values when you click it. Input the text console.log(1, 2, 3, {a: 123}) in the group editor, open the Network -> Log -> Console, open the www.ifeng.com, you can see the output '1, 2, 3, {a: 123}' in Console panel.

   For more details, Pattern Matching and Rules

Documentation

1. Install and start
2. CLI operation
3. How to update
4. Quickly start
5. Configuration mode
6. Pattern Matching
7. Operation value
8. Frequent functions
9. How to develop plugins
10. Attentions
11. Common questions
12. Web UI
13. Rules
14. Feedback

License

MIT