Chrome Extension to debug and edit code in the browser - javascript

I am building a web based JS REPL (similar to http://jsfiddle.net/), but I find it really annoying to have to switch between the Chrome Developer Console and my own code to debug. I have a text area on the left (using the wonderful Ace Editor) and clicking a preview button loads another window into an iframe on the right with the code I was editing. It made me wonder, what if I was able to add breakpoints to my code editor in the browser window and when it hits the breakpoint I could see the state of variables, step through the code, and remove breakpoints all while still editing the code in the editor. Very similar to real debugging, but in the browser instead of an editor like Eclipse.
I think a Chrome Extension is the right way to go. I can make calls to the debugger using the debugger API, then add breakpoints, step over, step out, etc. using this protocol. This works great and I can even get the current state of variables when the breakpoint is hit using Runtime.getProperties.
The problem is... that once I pause the code to debug, everything on the entire page freezes (of course, because I'm debugging). Can anyone think of a way to get around this? The ideal solution would allow me to freeze and debug the result on the right in the iframe and still manipulate the code on the left.

Related

ContentVeil.js and Forced Synchronous Layout Issue

I have a php page that hangs for 3-10 seconds after the page loads, you can't even scroll up or down, or close the tab when this happens. (the chrome loading gif still loops tho) Happens in Chrome and IE.
Chrome Timeline: http://imgur.com/wF5Pioz,KRbnxIm#0
Shows ContentVeil.js repeating over and over. I think it is client side(?), I did a grepWIN to search for ContentVeil, with no luck, and it doesn't show up in Chrome Network tab.
Chrome Profile: Second image, from above link.
I think this shows the issue at the anonymous function from meta-boxes.min.js, ln 1.
meta-boxes.min.js: http://pastebin.com/yqtJyqB1
Unfortunately line one is a function that encapsulates the whole script. I don't know js very well, I tried to just remove each function one by one but that just created more errors.
Any ideas on how I could find the source of the problem would be much appreciated.
It's part of the Evernote web clipping extension, and it's hooks DOM events, causing massive slowdowns if you are doing large amount of dom changes.

In a web browser, how to find out what triggers a hidden CSS class to appear in javascript?

As a freelance Wordpress developer I find myself thrown into projects where things are just 'broken' - with the problems regularly ending up being some kind of path issue/syntax error/etc in javascript.
I am in the situation right now where I am trying to get something that works in Site A to work on Site B. Basically the problem involves a mouse over event that causes a div with class name 'overlay-ico' to appear.
I'm sure there must be some kind of debug tool in Chrome, Firefox, etc that allows me to easily do this without reviewing all the source code?
Update:
I am familiar with being able to inspect the HTML (at least in a basic way), but I don't see how this shows me what would trigger an event to occur.
I am also know that there is a console, which as I understand it, only outputs errors, or something that has been explicitly directed to console output.
There must be somewhere in the code that is waiting for a mouse over event, that triggers 'overlay-ico' to appear. I'm sure I could do it if I did a search for 'overlay-ico' through all the source code - but I'm thinking there must be a faster way to find it.
In Windows, F12 opens the debug panel in most browsers.
In Chrome, you can inspect an element and then click into the Event Listeners tab in the right pane. That may show what you're after. It's hard to say without seeing it.

Prevent chrome console from processing javascript until I'm finished writing it

Is there a way I can set up javascripting in Chrome's console so that it does not process my statement as soon as I hit return. If I'm trying to test something out by just writing some javascript there, it processes before I'm done writing.
//here I am writing in the console
if ($(el).size() === 0){
//now I hit return because I want to type some stuff if this evaluates to true
//but return submits it as a finished piece of javascript and of course
//I get SyntaxError: Unexpected end of input before I can have a chance
//to finish the logic
I know I can hit shift+return and get a line break, and though that's a small inconvenience, it's still a bit of an inconvenience. Is there anyway I can tell it to hold off processing until I hit a macro like shift+return?
It's the same way in Firebug. Maybe there's an option there. Or maybe someone knows of a good third party add-on. Thanks.
In the comments I posted the ticket for the request for support, but it has been there for awhile. Chrome does have snipplets, but you have to enable them.
In the address bar type about:flags
Enable Developer Tools experiments
Restart the browser
Open the Developer Tools open the settings menu [gear on bottom right corner]
Click the Experiments tab [on left], check Snippets support
Restart the browser
In the Scripts panel, there will be a Snippets tab, click on it.
Right click on the area below and from context menu select New
You can than Edit and Run the code like a file. Run it with the context menu or play button.
A multi-line console effectively lets you do what you want. Chrome has a request for this but is otherwise not really available.
Firebug Lite for Chrome does allow it. Just click the little red button at the bottom-right of the Javascript console.

Firebug Lite on Chrome causes Footer Issue, is there a fix?

I'm a Chrome user and would be lost without Firebug, but one issue has always annoyed me. Namely, the fact that the Firebug console doesn't appear below the site you're viewing (ie the way it behaves in Firefox). Instead, the console sits above the site, obscuring the footer and content. It's a little thing but annoying all the same.
I understand that this is because of the way Google restricts Chrome extensions but is there a way around this particular issue?
I haven't found a solution anywhere. So, with some help from other stack overflow threads, I came up with a very simple function and as I couldn't find much about this, I thought I'd post it here for anyone with the issue.
I'm not a JavaScript programmer, but I do use jQuery. As such, I run this inside jQuery's ready method. Once the site has loaded, it'll check to see if Fire bug is open, if so, it simply adds a 400px bottom margin to the body. Obviously, if your console is bigger/small than that, just change the size inside the jQuery code.
It won't however change anything if you open the site and then open Firebug. It's nothing major, just open Firebug then refresh the page an it'll work.
// add body margin if firebug is open
if (console.log.toString().indexOf('apply') != -1 && navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase().indexOf('chrome') > -1) {
$('body').css('margin-bottom', '400px');
}
Hopefully this will be of use to somebody.
EDIT:
WARNING: This can possibly cause your jQuery to stop working in Internet Explorer. So, just remove this if you find that your jQuery doesn't work.
Instead of modifying your webpage's CSS code which may have adverse effects, you should just detach Firebug Lite in Chrome, then position that popup window under the resized Chrome browser window.
To perform this, just press the center button in the Firebug Lite window located at the top right corner.
Right-click the image below and view in full size if that helps:
Open Image in New Tab / View Image
This way, you'll have two separate areas that don't overlap yet play nicely together.
Per Stan's comment above... about what does Firebug Lite provide extra when compared to native Chrome's Developer Tools, I would have to say it provides familiarity and a great DOM Tab that Chrome lacks.
More importantly thought, you can actually use BOTH consoles at the same time.
This allows easier monitoring of two different panes and with a multi-monitor setup this can be a useful scenario. Even with a large monitor things look good.
Right-click the image below and view in full size if that helps:
Open Image in New Tab / View Image

Can I log somehow currently running javascript functions into Chrome developer console?

I have really complex page with a lot of javascript to fix. It involves a lot of functions and I need to find out one specific function, which triggers on dragging Raphael JS object. I can't figure out which one that is.
Is there some possibility to log whatever runs "right now" to console?
I know, that the output would be messy, but I would get a chance to see, what happens, whan I grab the object with my mouse.
If JavaScript is executing at that precise moment, pressing the Pause icon in the Sources tab of the Developer Tools will stop the script and show you the call stack.
If you want to debug what happens when particular event listeners happen (for instance on a drag-and-drop script), you may be able to do this by right clicking the page element, selecting Inspect Element, then in the right column of the Elements tab, scroll to the bottom and view the Event Listeners attached to that element. Clicking on a particular listener will show you the script source of that listener, and you may be able to add a breakpoint at that point. (Beware that compiled scripts can make this difficult to comprehend)
When investigating problems with a page, either my own or a third party page, one trick is to sprinkle breakpoints liberally on scripts I suspect that fire on button press etc. Then I manipulate the page with the Developer Tools open so that the breakpoints will cause debugging to halt when a breakpoint is hit.
Other tricks if it's your own code is to use console.log statements logging activity to the console, or debugger (which are like software breakpoints). And of course the old-school alert dialog box generating statements can still be useful too.
I might be wrong but you should manually use console.log() to write to browser console.
Have you tried :
console.log(yourObject)
Where yourObject is the draggable element ?
In the new chrome console, there is in depth object browsing, maybe you can find what you want in your object prototyppe.

Categories

Resources