Ok,so this might be an odd question for this forum, but I can't find anything on it anywhere. I am new to web development, I've been at it for about 6 months and I'm slowly getting better. I create localhosts on my comp to view the look of my development for any website I'm building, this way I can see how the site reacts in a real-world setting. I'm positive that most developers do this. What I would like to know is if there is a way to connect an iPad or iPhone to that particular localhost so I can view how responsive my website is before I deploy it? There's got to be some way to view your developing website on a mobile device, I just have no clue on how to do that. So, if anyone is familiar with this, I would really appreciate some advice. Thanks, guys!!
3 Answers
I created a bash function in my .bashrc (or .zshrc) file to do just that:
##
# Bind local server to port to view on mobile device!
# usage (from root location): `railsipserver 3100` (any preferred port)
##
railsipserver() {
REQUIRED_ARGS_NUMBER="1"
if [ "$#" -lt "$REQUIRED_ARGS_NUMBER" ]; then
echo 1>&2 "$0: not enough arguments"
return
elif [ "$#" -gt "$REQUIRED_ARGS_NUMBER" ]; then
echo 1>&2 "$0: too many arguments"
return
fi
PORT=$1
IP_ADDRESS=$(ifconfig | grep "inet " | grep -v 127.0.0.1 | cut -d\ -f2)
PID="1$PORT" # needs to be unique to run multiple servers from same location
echo ""
echo "~~~~~"
echo "Your server is starting now!"
echo "View on external device (phone or iPad) at..."
echo "http://$IP_ADDRESS/$PORT"
echo "~~~~~"
echo ""
rails server --port $PORT --binding "$IP_ADDRESS" --pid $PID
}
I also created these aliases to run so i can view the same site on my local machine (with localhost:3000) AND simultaneously on my iPad (with http://192.168.X.X:3100).
alias mydir="path/to/my-site-directory"
alias myserver="cd mydir && rails server --port 3000
alias myipserver="cd mydir && railsipserver 3100
So I simply open two tabs in Terminal (or iTerm) and type
Tab 1: myserver
Tab 2: myipserver
Voila! I can view all my local changes on my computer AND on my iPad!
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