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Node.js debug logging (HttpPlatform)

Capture the output of a Node.js, Angular SSR or Next.js application.

2 min read Updated October 5, 2026

A Node.js application on your website is started by the web server through the HttpPlatform handler. When such an application — Node.js, Angular SSR, Next.js and similar — fails to start or returns a 500 error, the default error page shows no details. The HttpPlatform debug log captures the full output of the process, including exceptions and startup errors.

Turn it on and read the log

  1. Open the logs

    Sign in to the Control Panel, go to Websites, select your website and choose Logs in the left menu.

  2. Open the HttpPlatform debug tab

    Click HttpPlatform debug.

  3. Enable logging

    Switch Status to Enabled. This turns on stdout logging and restarts your application.

  4. Read the log

    Wait a moment. Everything the process writes to its standard output — including console.log output and error messages — appears below, with the newest lines at the bottom. If the log is empty, click Restart application & reload log to force a new capture.

  5. Disable logging

    When you are done, switch Status back to Disabled. Logging is turned off and the application restarts cleanly.

The HttpPlatform debug tab on the Logs page

Warning

Debug logging is performance and disk intensive: it slows the application down and the log files keep growing. Always disable it once you finish debugging.

Working with the log

  • Reload log reads the current log file again.
  • Restart application & reload log restarts the application and creates a new log file for a fresh capture.
  • Copy log copies the whole log to the clipboard.

The log files are written to .\logs\stdout_*.log inside your website. You can also download them over FTP from the /wwwroot/logs directory, or open them in the browser: click Open next to WebFTP on the Deploy page, go to /wwwroot/logs/ and view a log file with the edit option.

Before you turn debug logging on, check the regular website logs first — each entry there has a detail that often already explains why the application is not working.

The page says the application was not detected

The message HttpPlatform application was not detected on your website means that /wwwroot does not contain a web.config with the httpPlatform handler. Without it the web server does not start a Node.js process at all.

  • If you deploy with Git deploy and the Node.js SSR app type, the web.config is generated for you on every Build & publish.
  • If you upload the application yourself, the web.config must be part of the upload.

For .NET applications use ASP.NET Core debug logging instead.

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