Understanding a javascript code from website - javascript

I'm trying to understand how a webpage works. When you click a button, they call a function from javascript, with some arguments, just like this <a href="javascript:ShowListing('24343434', 22, '2', '434331')" class="btn">. The function (in an external .js) looks like this:
function ShowListing(id1,id2,id3,id4) {
somecode here
Dialog.Show( id1, assets[id2][id3][id4] );
}
My question is, what's assets? I looked for the declaration of the variable in all the scripts and I couldn't find it. Maybe it's defined in a .php?
Is there any way of knowing the value it has given some specific [ids]?
Thanks!

My question is, what's assets?
A variable containing an object of some sort. We can't tell any more than that from the code you've supplied.
I looked for the declaration of the variable in all the scripts and I couldn't find it. Maybe it's defined in a .php?
It has to be defined by client side JavaScript (unless it is a browser built-in which I don't recognise, but seems highly unlikely given the context it is used in). That JS could be in a .php file.
Is there any way of knowing the value it has given some specific [ids]?
Just about every modern browser has a Developer Tools feature.
Developer Tools come with a JavaScript debugger that lets you set breakpoints.
Set a breakpoint to that line and then you can examine the variables in it using the debugger.
Search terms such as how to use the chrome developer tools debugger will help you learn to use those tools for your browser.

First hit F12 if you're on firefox (i think the same goes for chrome) the console panel should be visible, then add the console.log() and refresh the page to see what is asset use
console.log(assets);
the same goes for the other ids and the value of each array in assets

Related

Accessing a JavaScript variable I can see in the console

I am helping to develop a WordPress website. One of the website's plugins "returns" a JavaScript object named FWP. The reason that I put "returns" in quotations is because I'm not clear what returns means. In other words: I'm unclear where FWP is stored.
I can see this object in Chrome's developer console by typing FWP in the console, which then displays the object in the console.
But this all happens in the Chrome developer console. I'm not really doing anything to the variable in the webpage itself. I don't really have access to modify the real FWP object.
Objective: I would like to send this FWP object, as an input parameter, to a custom WordPress plugin that I have written in PHP.
I am confused how to actually grab the FWP object from the webpage, so that I can do things with it.
I know that it's there...somewhere... in the webpage, because I can see it in Chrome's console. Right? I just don't know how to access it.
Is there a general way to access JavaScript variables that one can see in the Chrome developer console? Basically:
1) is there some place where JavaScript variables, visible in Chrome developer console, are stored in the webpage?
2) If so, is there a general method to access them?
Thanks for any guidance. I'm not new to WordPress or php or JavaScript, but I am having a blind spot with this question, and feel that I'm missing something that I haven't learned yet.

What are the rights ways of debugging javascript?

I made a function called test() in javascript file.Placed a simple alert into it.
In html file, called the method on click of a button. But,it was not being invoked.
Problem was in the 11th function, nowhere related to mine !!!! But, how can a person making his first javascript function suppose to find that out ???
I am looking for best ways to debug javascript.
You can debug javascript using many modern browsers. See this question for details on how to debug in Google Chrome:
How do you launch the JavaScript debugger in Google Chrome?
Furthermore, you shouldn't use alert() for debugging as this can give different results to a production version due to alert() causing a pause in the script.
It is best practice to use console.log() and view the output in the browsers Console.
You can also put debugger in your javascript code to force a breakpoint. However I prefer not to use this as forgetting to remove this before deployment will cause your script to pause, which can be quite embarrassing!
You should use the debug console provided by the browser.
Chrome has it inbuilt, press CTRL + SHIFT + j. In Firefox, install Firebug plugin.
In your code, add alert() to show flow and get values of variables.
Also, use console.log() which will only output to the debug console.
Depending on your browser choice there are debugging options - I tend to use Firefox, so Firebug in my case. There is a question that list options for other browsers - What is console.log and how do I use it?
Unless the project you're working on has already adopted a mechanism for debugging, console.log() tends to be a simple and useful option when tracking down a problem.
Whilst debugging you could take the approach to log out a line when entering a function, like so:
var myFunc = function(el) {
console.log('Inside myFunc');
// Existing code
};
This will enable you to see which functions have been called and give you a rough idea of the order of execution.
You can also use console.log() to show the contents of variables - console.log(el);
Be mindful to remove/disable console.log() calls once you're done as it will likely cause some issues in production.
To answer your question within question,
how can a person making his first javascript function suppose to find that out ???
Well, when something is wrong in JavaScript, for example, you made a syntax error - the script will stop working from there. However, this won't stop HTML from rendering on, so it might look as if everything is correct (especially if your JS is not changing the look of the page) but all the functionality of JS will be dead.
That's why we use the debug tools (listed in the other answers here) to see what's wrong, and in cases like this, it's very easy to notice which function has errors and is causing the whole script to break. This would probably have save a few minutes to your seniors as well.
The best approach would be to test frequently so that whenever you run into errors, you can fix them right away.

How to access JavaScript execution trace at runtime in Firefox?

I want to know how to access JavaScript execution trace at runtime. I saw Firebug can do something like this:
Refer to the image above, all the line numbers executed are highlighted in green. They are achieved at runtime. I guess there must be some way to access those info from the JavaScript engine used by the browser.
Say now I want to build a firebug plugin to access those info and examine all the variables in each executed line at the runtime, how should I start?
Obviously you asked the same question in the Firebug forum.
To duplicate Honza's answer:
Firebug is currently using JSD (jsdIDebuggerService) to figure out,
which line is executable. However, the plan is to switch to JSD2 (work
in progress) https://wiki.mozilla.org/Debugger
You should also base your extension on JSD2
Look for getLineOffsets(line) and getOffsetLine(offset) in the
Debugger document. I didn't test it, but I think that if getLineOffset
returns null, the line is not executable.
Sebastian

NodeJS, use Eclipse Debugger for variables inspection?

I'm following https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Using-Eclipse-as-Node-Applications-Debugger
and leaves me with questions
How can I see what variables contain?
How can I execute arbitrary commands?
This is similar to webkit's inspector. You can do both there, it has a console tab to execute whatever you want and inputing variable's name will display its contents.
I've built my own tool for the time being.
https://github.com/ketamynx/node-codein

How to help the debugger see my javascript, or how to best refactor my script to help make it debugger-friendly?

I have an ASP.NET MVC project that uses some simple AJAX functionality through jQuery's $.get method like so:
$.get(myUrl, null, function(result) {
$('#myselector').html(result);
});
The amount of content is relatively low here -- usually a single div with a short blurb of text. Sometimes, however, I am also injecting some javascript into the page. At some point when I dynamically include script into content that was itself dynamically added to the page, the script still runs, but it ceases to be available to the debugger. In VS2008, any breakpoints are ignored, and when I use the "debugger" statement, I get a messagebox saying that "no source code is available at this location." This fails both for the VS2008 debugger and the Firebug debugger in Firefox. I have tried both including the script inline in my dynamic content and also referencing a separate js file from this dynamic content -- both ways seemed to result in script that's unavailable to the debugger.
So, my question is twofold:
Is there any way to help the debugger recognize the existence of this script?
If not, what's the best way to include scripts that are used infrequently and in dynamically generated content in a way that is accessible to the debuggers?
I can not comment yet, but I can maybe help answer. As qwerty said, firefox console can be the way to go. I'd recommend going full bar and getting firebug. It hasn't ever missed code in my 3 years using it.
You could also change the way the injected javascript is added and see if that effects the debugger you're using. (I take it you're using Microsoft's IDE?).
In any case, I find the best way to inject javascript for IE is to put it as an appendChild in the head. In the case that isn't viable, the eval function (I hate using it as much as you do) can be used. Here is my AJAX IE fixer code I use. I use it for safari too since it has similar behavior. If you need that too just change the browser condition check (document.all for IE, Safari is navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase() == 'safari';).
function execajaxscripts(obj){
if(document.all){
var scripts = obj.getElementsByTagName('script');
for(var i=0; i<scripts.length; i++){
eval(scripts[i].innerHTML);
}
}
}
I've never used jquery, I preferred prototype then dojo but... I take it that it would look something like this:
$.get(myUrl, null, function(result) {
$('#myselector').html(result);
execajaxscripts(result);
});
The one problem is, eval debug errors may not be caught since it creates another instance of the interpreter. But it is worth trying.. and otherwise. Use a different debugger :D
This might be a long shot, but I don't have access to IE right now to test.
Try naming the anonymous function, e.g.:
$.get(myUrl, null, function anon_temp1(result) {
$('#myselector').html(result);
});
I'm surprised firebug is not catching the 'debugger' statement. I've never had any problems no matter how complicated the JS including method was
If this is javascript embedded within dynmically generated HTML, I can see where that might be a problem since the debugger would not see it in the initial load. I am surprised that you could put it into a seperate .js file and the debugger still failed to see the function.
It seems you could define a function in a seperate static file, nominally "get_and_show" (or whatever, possibly nested in a namespace of sorts) with a parameter of myUrl, and then call the function from the HTML. Why won't that trip the breakpoint (did you try something like this -- the question is unclear as to whether the reference to the .js in the dynamic HTML was just a func call, or the actual script/load reference as well)? Be sure to first load the external script file from a "hard coded" reference in the HTML file? (view source on roboprogs.com/index.html -- loads .js files, then runs a text insertion func)
We use firebug for debug javascript, profile requests, throw logs, etc.
You can download from http://getfirebug.com/
If firebug don't show your javascript source, post some url to test your example case.
I hope I've been of any help!
If you add // # sourceURL=foo.js to the end of the script that you're injecting then it should show up in the list of scripts in firebug and webkit inspector.
jQuery could be patched to do this automatically, but the ticket was rejected.
Here's a related question: Is possible to debug dynamic loading JavaScript by some debugger like WebKit, FireBug or IE8 Developer Tool?

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