How to install node.js "monitor" package

Question

I want to install the following node.js dashboard package but the instructions are confusing. I followed the instructions at the bottom of this link:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/monitor

...I used these two commands:

npm install monitor-dashboard
npm start monitor-dashboard

However, there are no instructions as to what is suppose to go into the start script. My application entry is app.js

Also, I am unclear if I need to install the monitor package before monitor-dashboard or if the monitor-dashboard package has everything I need.

Answer 1

Suggested action:

Try running node node_modules/monitor-dashboard/monitor.js in your terminal from the directory that contains your node_modules.

Explanation:

The instructions at http://lorenwest.github.io/monitor-dashboard/ say to run the following code:

$ npm install monitor-dashboard
$ npm start monitor-dashboard

I believe what it wants to happen is to run the npm start command for the monitor-dashboard dependency we installed. However, your project's package.json doesn't know HOW to run that start monitor-dashboard command.

So, I did a little digging and found that the package.json for monitor-dashboard wants to run node monitor.js. Instead of asking monitor-dashboard to run that command, we're just doing it manually from the root directory of our project.

Answer 2

Based on the package you need to include the Monitor package first within your application by running: npm install monitor and then include the package into your application: require('monitor').start(); this will allow the Monitor Dashboard to display your monitoring efforts.

You can then install the monitor package as you have outlined in your question.

npm install monitor-dashboard
npm start monitor-dashboard

This will then output all your monitors into the dashboard view.