A localhost tunnel comes in handy when you want to share an application running in your local development environment via a publicly-accessible URL. In this quick 2 minute video we will learn how the localhost tunneling tool Ngrok works then download and run it on Mac OS X:
Now you’re ready to share your local in-progress applications with others before you perform a full-blown deployment.
Links & More Resources
We used a couple of resources in the above video:
- Ngrok, the localhost tunneling tool by Alan Shreve
- Python 2.7 SimpleHTTPServer built into stdlib (Python 3 replaces SimpleHTTPServer with http.server)
Learn more about how to configure and use Ngrok with these tutorials:
- Test Your Webhooks Locally with Ngrok
- 6 awesome reasons to use ngrok when testing locally
- How to set up your Python and Flask development environment, including Ngrok
Now that you have Ngrok running on your Mac, here are several more links to build projects that are much easier with Ngrok:
- How to Receive and Respond to a Text Message with Python, Flask and Twilio
- Create a Standalone Voicemail using Java and Twilio
- EmoPhone: How to Build A Twilio-Powered IVR Using PHP and Ngrok
Questions? Contact me via
- Twitter: @mattmakai
- GitHub: mattmakai
- Email: makai@twilio.com