Documentation
Inspector Component

Inspector Component

This page is the Part.1 of configuration, we will add the Inspector UI component in your project that provider interaction on browser, like this:

Setup

At first install the package:

npm i -D react-dev-inspector

Then import the react-dev-inspector in your project entry file, like one of main.tsx, App.tsx or index.tsx:

main.tsx
import { createRoot } from 'react-dom/client'
import { Inspector } from 'react-dev-inspector'
import { App } from './App'
import './index.css'
 
createRoot(document.getElementById('root') as HTMLDivElement)
  .render(
    <React.StrictMode>
      <Inspector />
      <App />
    </React.StrictMode>,
  )

Open in StackBlitz (opens in a new tab)

Now, we've completed the simplest setup way in this Part.1 🎉.

To begin developing your project, you'll gain access to the Inspector UI in the browser via default keyboard shortcuts:

  • Ctrl + Shift + Command + C on macOS
  • Ctrl + Shift + Alt + C on Windows / Linux

By default, clicking inspected element in the browser will trigger the <Inspector> to send an API network request to dev-server, that will call your local IDE/editor to open the source file.

For the next Part.2, you'll need to do set up a Middleware on Server-Side to handle these API requests.

Certainly, you also have the option to override these shortcuts by configuring the props of the <Inspector> component. For more advanced controls, refer to the Props section below.

Props

This section refers to the interface of InspectorProps (opens in a new tab) for <Inspector> component.

<Inspector
  keys={...}
  onInspectElement={...}
  onHoverElement={...}
  onClickElement={...}
  active={...}
  onActiveChange={...}
  disable={...}
/>

keys

  • Type: keys?: string[] | null
  • Default:
    ['Ctrl', 'Shift', 'Command', 'C'] on macOS
    ['Ctrl', 'Shift', 'Alt', 'C'] on other platforms

Activity toggle hotkeys for <Inspector> component, supported keys see: https://github.com/jaywcjlove/hotkeys#supported-keys (opens in a new tab)

Setting keys={null} explicitly means that disable use hotkeys to trigger it.


active

Added in: v2.0.0

Type: active?: boolean

If setting active prop, the Inspector will be a Controlled React Component, you need to control the true / false state to active the Inspector.

If not setting active prop, this only a Uncontrolled component that will activate/deactivate by hotkeys.


onActiveChange

Added in: v2.0.0

Type: onActiveChange?: (active: boolean) => void

Callback trigger by active state change, includes:

  • hotkeys toggle, before activate/deactivate Inspector
  • Escape / Click, before deactivate Inspector

Note: onActiveChange will NOT trigger by change of active prop key.


disable

Added in: v2.0.0

Type: disable?: boolean

Whether to disable all behavior include hotkeys listening or trigger.

💡

Note: react-dev-inspector will automatically disable in production environment by default.


inspectAgents

Added in: v2.1.0

Agent for get inspection info in different React renderer with user interaction.


onInspectElement

Added in: v2.0.0

Callback when left-clicking on an element, with ensuring the source code info is found, the default gotoServerEditor callback will request the dev-server to open local IDE/editor from server-side.

💡

Note: By override the onInspectElement prop, the default gotoServerEditor will be removed, that means you want to manually handle the source info, or handle how to goto editor by yourself.

You can also use the built-in gotoServerEditor util funtion in onInspectElement to get origin behavior (open local IDE on server-side), it looks like:

import { Inspector, gotoServerEditor } from 'react-dev-inspector'
 
<Inspector
  onInspectElement={({ codeInfo }) => {
    ... // your processing
 
    gotoServerEditor(codeInfo)
  }}
/>

Or simply use other built-in utils likes gotoVSCode, gotoVSCodeInsiders, gotoWebStorm to open IDE/editor by URL-scheme, which not need any server side configuration:

import { gotoVSCode, gotoVSCodeInsiders, gotoWebStorm } from 'react-dev-inspector'
 
<Inspector
  onInspectElement={gotoVSCode}
  // onInspectElement={gotoVSCodeInsiders}
  // onInspectElement={gotoWebStorm}
/>

onHoverElement

Type: onHoverElement?: (params: InspectParams) => void

Callback when hovering on an element


onClickElement

Type: onClickElement?: (params: InspectParams) => void

Callback when left-clicking on an element.


children

Type: children?: ReactNode

Any children of react nodes, to support usages like both of:

<Layout>
  <Inspector />
  <App />
</Layout>

and

<Layout>
  <Inspector>
    <App />
  </Inspector>
</Layout>

disableLaunchEditor

Deprecated after: v2.0.0

  • Type: disableLaunchEditor?: boolean
  • Default: true if setting onInspectElement callback, otherwise is false.

Whether to disable default behavior: "open local IDE when click on component".

⚠️

Deprecated
disableLaunchEditor is deprecated after v2, please use onInspectElement callback instead for fully custom controlling.