import or require any library in browser console - javascript

While debugging application most of the time I feel like it would hve easier if I could include any library into browser console and try some of the function from that libraty.
Now in modern javascript/es6/es6/typescript world is there any thing short and quick available to to import a script instantly to the brower so that it can be used to directly
Example
While debugging, if I want Observable I should be able to do something like this
import {Observable} from 'rxjs/Observable'; //typescript way
const Observable= require('rxjs/Observable'); // require way
But these are not working.
already explored dynamic <script> tag
I already explore old way to dynamically using the <script> tag like below but its dificult for large number of libs and also not elegant
var jq = document.createElement('script');
jq.src = "https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.4/jquery.min.js";
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(jq);
// ... give time for script to load, then type (or see below for non wait option)
jQuery.noConflict();

Some browsers (including Chrome) can use snippets in console, either as built-in features or extensions.
One-liner script to do this is
document.head.appendChild(Object.assign(
document.createElement('script'),
{ src: '...' }
));
Considering that most websites already have jQuery loaded (even if they don't, this can be handled by browser extensions, such as Chrome jQuery Injector) it can be shortened to:
$.getScript('...');
Any piece of code that should be always available in console can also be exposed as global function with user scripts (Tampermonkey in Chrome, etc), with some limitations imposed by user script security.
This will probably will be possible with dynamic import(), which is currently stage 3 proposal and isn't implemented in browsers.
A suitable solution that works for most major libraries the one may be curious to quickly experiment with is to navigate to official library website and open the console. Due to the fact that the websites often provide live examples, relevant variables are exposed to global scope. Known examples are $ for jQuery, angular for AngularJS, ng for Angular, Rx for RxJS, moment for Moment.js...

Related

Check to see if dynamic import is a module in JavaScript/TypeScript

I am working on a ScriptManager class for a project that was created many years ago. The original code read scripts from a database, and these scripts are different depending on the customer and installation (the application is a desktop app that uses Chrome Embedded Framework to display web pages). The code would read custom JavaScript code and eval() it, which of course is highly undesirable.
I am replacing this code with a ScriptManager class that can support dynamically inserted code, and the ScriptManager is capable of loading code as a module using JavaScript's dynamic import() command, or loading code as pure script by creating a script tag dynamically in the document.
My problem is that there are many different possible custom code blocks in the database, and not all are modules; some will be pure script until those can be converted to modules at a later time. My code can handle this as described above, but I need a way to detect if the script code from the database is a module, so I can either use the import() command or insert a script tag if it is not.
I am solving this temporarily by making sure any module script code has "export const isModule = true", and checking this after calling import(). This works, but any code that is pure script still results in a module variable, but with no exports in it. If possible I don't want the other developers to have to remember to add isModule = true to any modules they develop in the future.
Is there a way to check that code is a module without having to do complex analysis of the code to check if there are exports in it? Since import() still returns an object and throws no errors if there are no exports, I don't know how to detect this.
UPDATE: Here are some examples of how this is intended to work:
// Not real code, pretend that function gets the string of the script.
let code = getSomeCodeFromTheDatabase();
// Save the code for later loading.
let filename = 'some-filename.js';
saveCodeToFile(code, filename);
// Attempt to dynamically import the script as a module.
let module = await import(filename);
// If it is NOT a module, load it instead as a script tag.
// This is where I need to be able to detect if the code is
// a module or pure script.
if (!module.isModule) {
let scriptTag = document.createElement('script');
scriptTag.src = filename;
document.head.appendChild(script);
}
So if you look here How can I tell if a particular module is a CommonJS module or an ES6 module? you will see I answered a similar question.
So the thing is Sarah, modules are defined by the way that they resolve. Module-types resolving differently is what, not only makes them incompatible with one another, but it is also why we name them differently. Originally Transpillers like Babel & TypeScript were invented because of differences in ECMA-262 Specifications, and the desire to support people who didn't have the updated specifications, as well as supporting the newer features for those who did.
Today transpilers are still being used, conceptually, much the same way. They still help us maintain a single code base while supporting older specifications, and features in newer specifications, at the same time, but the also have the added benefit of being able to generate multiple different builds from a single code base. They use this to support different module types. In node.js, the primary module-type is CJS, but the future lies in ESM modules, so package maintainers have opted to dual build the projects. The use the TypeScript Compiler (aka Transpiler) to emit a CJS build, and an ESM build.
Now this is where things get complicated, because you cannot tell just by looking at a module if it CJS or ESM in this situation, **you absolutely have to inspect its code, and check if it has more than one tsconfig.json file (because it would need at-least 2 to maintain a bi-modular build (which are becoming increasingly common with the turn of each day)
My Suggestion to You:
Use well documented packages. Good packages should be documented well, and those packages should state in their README.md document, what type of package/module they are, and if the package supports more than one module type. If in doubt you can either come and ask here, or better yet, you can ask the maintainer by creating an issue, asking them to add that information to their README.md document.
You can check that there are no export after import. In chrome import() added empty default for non module.
function isNotModule(module) {
return (!Object.keys(module).length) || (!!module.default && typeof module.default === 'object' && !Object.keys(module.default).length)
}
import('./test.js')
.then((module) => {
console.log('./test.js',isNotModule(module))
})
May be it's better to check source code via regex to check if it contains export
something like this
const reg = new RegExp('([^\w]|^)export((\s+)\w|(\s*{))')
reg.test(source)

javascript, import array from js file

I am trying to import array from js file to another js file. link For example:
file1.js:
var array = ['one', 'two', 'three'];
file2.js:
import { array } from 'file1'
My idle says that "import declaration are not supported by current Javascript version." How can I import this array?
Thank You for any help
As mentioned by article you linked, import is available with ES6.
I think you're writing ES5 JavaScript, then you'll need a ES6 transpiler such as Babel.
https://codeburst.io/es5-vs-es6-with-example-code-9901fa0136fc
importing is only allowed in ES6, the newest version of javascript so to speak. Browsers are just now getting around to being able to "understand" ES6, and they won't be able to understand it completely for awhile. Currently, browsers understand the previous version of javascript, ES5, really well. So how can you write code that uses import since it's ES6?
Unfortunately, you need some special tools that change code that you write in ES6 to ES5 so that browsers can understand your code. This is called transpiling. A tool called Babel is by far the most popular transpiler used today. But that's not all. You'll need another tool to bundle the modules you write in ES6 syntax. Rollupjs and Webpack are the most popular tools for this task.
It can take a few weeks of reading and trying things out to learn these tools, so unfortunately I can't explain them well enough in one answer here for you to get a complete understanding. Basically what bundling does, using your example: file1.js and file2.js will be combined into one single final file bundle.js and this is the file that you will include <script src="bundle.js"> in your html. file2.js is called a module. How does this new help write better code? Well we can write most of our code in modules and then just import whatever modules I need on particuler pages. If I need a countdown timer on page1.html, I'll create a module which has the code needed for a countdown timer, and import the countdown timer module. If I need a countdown timer on a new page 6 months from now, I will just import the countdown timer module on this new page. Code reusability.
Webpack is more popular than Rollup, but I would recommend using Rollup to get a good overview of what a bundler actually does. We use Rollup in our enterprise application in fact, although Webpack is more widely used I think, as it does many many things beyond bundling.
Note: ES6 is not really the newest version of javascript; we already have ES7 and ES8 coming along. In fact, there are new features constantly being added to the official javascript language. The problem is that it takes time for browsers to implement (be able to "understand") these new features.
The best way I can think to replicate the behavior in ES5 is to create an iframe with a script tag to the file you want. Onload you can grab the desired variable and bring it into the parent window. Then destroy the iframe.
Usage would be something like this:
import('file-url', 'variable-name', function(imported){
});
Implementation would be something like this:
function import(filePath, varName, callback){
//create iframe
//create script tag
//add filepath and onload handler
script.onload = function(){
//retrieve variable and
//trigger callback in parent
};
}

Use content script to define global variables

I am creating a Firefox extension, and one feature of it that I would like is the ability for the user to inject a script or stylesheet into a specific website, rather like Greasemonkey (except that this will only be for one site). I am adding some functions for the scripts to make use of, which I intended to add from the Content Script into the main (unsafe) window. On the MDN blog, it says that they have made changes to how it should be implemented, so I have based my code on the new implementation as advised in the post, so this is what I have:
var $jq = jQuery.noConflict();//Yes, I am also injecting jQuery at the same time
console.log("created jquery object"); //This works
exportFunction($jq, unsafeWindow, {defineAs: "$jq"});
console.log("This will never be called");
But execution of the script just stops, and in the console it prints Message: TypeError: window is null.
I am testing in Firefox 28 predominantly (I can't seem to get Firefox for Ubuntu to update beyond that right now, and a whole load of issues are forcing me to use Ubuntu in a VM for this), but in Nightly 31a1 (Win7) nothing is ever injected, including a hardcoded style (that works on FF28) so I will have to figure that out at some point. (The PageMod code is here:
var lttWorker = sdk.pageMod.PageMod({
include:["*"],
/*contentScriptFile: [sdk.data.url("jquery.large.js"), sdk.data.url("scripts/bootstrapper.js")],
contentScriptWhen: "ready",*/ //This is commented to test whether it was an issue with the script. It's not.
contentStyle: "#header_bar{background-color:green;}", //This is injected in FF28 but not 31
attachTo: ["existing", "top"],
onAttach: function(){desktopNotifications({title:"attached content worker", text:"The content worker has been successfully attached"})} //This is called in FF28 but not 31
});
lttWorker.on("error", function(){callError("pageWorker failed");}); //This never gets called. Ever.
if anybody is interested)
EDIT: I have now tried it on Firefox 30b and there are still a load of issues, although they seem to be slightly different to both FF28 and 31...
First of all: These new functions are supported in Firefox 30 and later. See #canuckistani answer.
The exportFunction API is way too limited to actually inject something like jQuery with all the complex objects being or containing DOM nodes. That simply won't fly with the structured-clone algorithm that is applied to arguments.
The API is meant as a way for add-ons to communicate with pages bi-directionally, and not to inject complex libraries.
Your best bet is actually creating a script tag using the DOM APIs and putting jQuery there.

Access Add-On SDK 'main' from XUL

In my add-on, I'm using XUL to display dialog windows because I can customize their appearance to suit the add-on's general style (like a custom titlebar).
Using the migration guide, I'm able to do this easily. The thing is, I would like to call certain functions in the add-on's main module from the XUL dialog.
After a bit of searching I found the loader module, which seems to be able to do exactly what I want. But, I'm experiencing trouble in using it to access the main module.
First, I tried the obvious approach as mentioned in the documentation;
xul_dialog.js:
let {Loader} = Components.utils.import('resource://gre/modules/commonjs/toolkit/loader.js');
let loader = Loader.Loader({
paths: {
'toolkit/': 'resource://gre/modules/commonjs/toolkit/',
'': 'resource:///modules/',
'./': 'resource://<my-addon-name>/root/'
}
});
let main = Loader.main(loader, './main');
I got an error that './main' was not found at resource://<my-addon-name>/root/. Figuring that I was using the incorrect paths, I experimented a bit until I could remove all path associated errors.
xul_dialog.js:
let {Loader} = Components.utils.import('resource://gre/modules/commonjs/toolkit/loader.js');
let loader = Loader.Loader({
paths: {
'toolkit/': 'resource://gre/modules/commonjs/toolkit/',
'': 'resource://gre/modules/commonjs/',
'./': 'resource://<my-addon-id>-at-jetpack/<my-addon-name>/lib/'
}
});
let main = Loader.main(loader, './main');
This time I got a rather confusing error at loader.js, line 279.
Components is not available in this context.
Functionality provided by Components may be available in an SDK
module: https://jetpack.mozillalabs.com/sdk/latest/docs/
However, if you still need to import Components, you may use the
`chrome` module's properties for shortcuts to Component properties:
Shortcuts:
Cc = Components.classes
Ci = Components.interfaces
Cu = Components.utils
CC = Components.Constructor
Example:
let { Cc, Ci } = require('chrome');
I get the same error when I use Loader.Require(loader, {id: './main'}) instead of Loader.main. I even tried passing Components as globals when instantiating the loader, but without much luck.
I'm fairly certain that I'm doing a lot of things wrong. I don't understand why I'm getting the error, even after spending quite a bit of time in loader.js. Plus, I also think that there would be a better alternative than having to use the add-on id for the path to main.js; hard-coding it like that doesn't seem right.
Any help would be really appreciated.
What you have to do is to find a specific instance of Loader, not create a new one.
At main.js
const { id, name, prefixURI } = require("#loader/options");
//pass these to the XUL dialog
At xul.js (or whatever is the name of the xul dialog script)
Components.utils.import("resource://gre/modules/addons/XPIProvider.jsm");
var extensionscope = XPIProvider.bootstrapScopes[id];
var mainjssandbox = extensionscope.loader.sandboxes[prefixURI + name + "/lib/main.js"];
Assuming there is a foo function at main.js, you can call it like
mainjssandbox.foo();
Of course don't expect things to work as if XUL and Add-on SDK actually blended into one thing.
If it is your XUL dialog that should interact with your add-on, then please don't use the Loader stuff and in particular do not go the XPIProvider.bootstrapScopes #paa suggested. While this might work (for now), it should be noted that it relies on tons of implementation details that are subject to change at any point making this solution extremely fragile.
Instead there are a couple of other options (not an exhaustive list):
If the SDK part opens the windows, you may use .openDialog which supports passing arguments to the created window, and these arguments can even be objects and functions. Also, you can have the window dispatch (custom) events, and which your SDK part can listen to by calling addEventListener on the window the .openDialog call returns.
If the window is created from somewhere else (e.g. from the AddonManager because of em:optionsURL) then the nsIObserverService is another way to communicate. The window could e.g. .notifyObservers on DOMContentLoaded containing a reference to itself. The SDK parts would just have to observe such notifications by addObserver.
Another way, a bit hacky but working, is the SDK part listening to new windows via nsIWindowWatcher.registerNotification and then injecting some API into e.g. browser.xul windows by XPCNativeWrapper.unwrap(subject.QueryInterface(Ci.nsIDOMWindow)).myAddonAPI = something.
Be sure to handle unloading or your add-on well - it is still restartless -, i.e. reverse any changes you've done and remove any observers and so on again.
If you want to interact with SDK addons not created by you, then the XPIProvider route might be the only feasible. But still, it might be worth contacting the add-on author first asking for the addition of some public API instead of hacking deep into the AddonManager and SDK loader internals.
PS:
Considering passing require or the global scope to your window via openDialog if you want to. Get the global scope by placing this into your main.js:
const globalScope = this;

Curl throwing ‘Promise already completed’ error

I’m currently testing various asynchronous-resource-loaders to see which one I want to use. At the moment Curl is throwing a ‘Promise already completed’ error…and their documentation says ‘this should never happen’.
I “suspect” I must to use a ‘define’ within each file being loaded (hope not). Further, their documentation says Curl can work with non-AMD javascript files. But...I am new to AMD and since Curl is far-faster than the other ones I'm testing...I am willing to put some time into understanding this better.
Lastly...
Even though FireBug shows the errors...all the files STILL LOAD asynchronously! But, BECAUSE there are errors...the 'then' portion of the code never gets called.
So My Questions Are:
Do I have to update all the JavaScript file-objects to be contained in a 'define'? (...hope not)
Can you see any other problem syntactically?
The Head’s Code Looks Like This:
<script type="text/javascript">
///<summary>Configuration</summary>
curl = { baseUrl: 'Includes/JavaScript/' };
</script>
<script src="Loaders/Curl/curl.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
function onSuccess() {
}
function onError(ex) {
//alert(ex);
}
require(["MooTools/Core/mootools-1.2.2-core-jm",
"MooTools/mGeneral",
"jQuery/Core/jquery-1.3.2",
"jQuery/Core/jquery.tools.min",
"jQuery/ThirdPartyPlugIns/jquery.tmpl"])
.then(onSuccess, onError);
//require(["jQuery/TopUp/top_up-min"], null);
require(["jQuery/ThirdPartyPlugIns/jquery.dimensions",
"jQuery/ThirdPartyPlugIns/jQuery.Color.Animations",
"jQuery/ThirdPartyPlugIns/jquery.corners.min",
"jQuery/ThirdPartyPlugIns/jquery.tipsy",
"jQuery/ThirdPartyPlugIns/jquery.numberformatter-1.1.0",
"jQuery/ThirdPartyPlugIns/jquery.tipsy"]);
require(["general",
"WindowCenter",
"ThirdPartyPlugin/KeyBoardCapture",
"ThirdPartyPlugin/bsn.AutoSuggest_2.1.3",
"ee/8Ball",
"ee/EE"]);
</script>
Again...I'm sure it is caused by inexperience with AMD-styled code, but I still need help...so any is appreciated.
Typically, you should wrap your modules in a define() or append a define() at the end of the file if those modules have no dependencies. It seems, though, that those modules all depend on jQuery, if not other modules/files.
Since you're not using standard AMD require()/define() protocol, AMD is not really helping you with these modules. Unless you plan to write your own modules using define(), then you could use just about any async loader.
That said, there is a way to make curl.js work with non-AMD modules/files. Use the js! plugin. Here's your first block of files translated to use the js! plugin (note I also added the ".js" ext back on which I like to do with non-modules):
// we load the core files first, then get the next block that depends on them
curl([
"js!MooTools/Core/mootools-1.2.2-core-jm.js",
"js!jQuery/Core/jquery-1.3.2.js"
]).next([
"js!MooTools/mGeneral.js",
"js!jQuery/Core/jquery.tools.min.js",
"js!jQuery/ThirdPartyPlugIns/jquery.tmpl.js"
]).then(onSuccess, onError);
If any of those files within each array depend on each other, you can also use the !order suffix on them to ensure they wait for other files before executing/evaluating (be sure you're setting proper cache headers, though). Actually, the !order suffix is the fastest method as long as there are no caching issues (mobile browsers add some additional constraints on file size).
Were there any other error messages? Specifically, I would expect curl.js to throw at least one error besides just "Promise not completed".
Also, please check the Net tab (Firebug) or the Network tab (Chrome) to check that curl.js is looking in the correct location for the modules.
FWIW, I am planning to remove the alias require --> curl. The reason is that the global require function is non-standard (and explicitly not standardized in the AMD proposal). I suggest you use curl() instead of require().
curl.js also allows it's top-level api to be aliased explicitly via the "apiName" config param if you really, really want to use the name "require". :)
<script>curl = { apiName: "require" }; </script>
<script src="path/to/curl.js"></script>
<script>require(["some/modules"]).then(success, failure);</script>
More FWIW: the standard require is typically only needed in a module and can be requested by including it as a dependency:
define(["require"], function (require) {
require(["another/module"], function (another) {
// use another module here
});
});
-- John
If you're only doing normal javascript file loading (not modules), as it appears, i would encourage you to check out LABjs (http://labjs.com). LABjs focuses on being the most performance optimized loading solution (to the exclusion of some other features like module/dependency style stuff).
In fact, LABjs 2.0a (https://github.com/getify/LABjs/blob/master/next/LAB.src.js), which will be fully released in the next few days, is really exceptionally fast (even more than 1.2) at loading general scripts in parallel. I encourage you to give it a try, unless (as John eludes to above) you plan to go to module syntax... then stick with Curl or RequireJS.

Categories