How can I debug this JavaScript error? - javascript

I have been asked to fix an issue with a website and I am encountering an issue with a JavaScript error.
On the home page, [removed website link], I am receiving the error Uncaught TypeError: undefined is not a function. However, the function being called on that line (line 30) should exist, as the jQuery plugin is being loaded.
The call-stack just shows a series of anonymous functions pointing towards the jQuery file. I am having trouble determining why this is producing an undefined function error.
I have tried using the Chrome debugger to step through the code where the error occurs but it just seems to highlight the jQuery source file for every step.
My question is this:
How do I go about tracking down the source of the issue when the trail is just a series of anonymous functions in the jQuery source file?
Is there something I am missing here or that I am not considering?
Thank you.
Edit:
As is it not clear, the method being called, jQuery.ContentSlider is in fact being included within the page within the file testimonials.js.
This is not just a "What's wrong with my code" question, but also an inquiry into how I handle situations such as this in the context of JavaScript & jQuery specifically.
A call stack of anonymous functions is confusing to me, and I have already attempted to take the obvious steps, such as verifying the plugin is included and that this inclusion takes place before attempting to utilize that plugin.
Sorry for the confusion.
Edit - Solution Found
It appears that although jQuery and the plugin were included prior to use, another copy of the same jQuery file was being injected by a Joomla! module. Since this was the exact same Google hosted jQuery file, it did NOT appear twice in the Resources tab in the Chrome Developer Tools. It appears that Chrome will parse jQuery twice, but doesn't show it as being included twice. So, the version with the plugin attached was being overwritten.
Thank you to those who answered. Thanks to A. Wolff for bringing that piece of information about the Resource tab to my attention.

You're loading the slider after you instantiate it.
Reverse the order of these two blocks:
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
jQuery('#two').ContentSlider({
width : '440px',
height : '240px',
speed : 400,
easing : 'easeOutQuad',
textResize : true
});
});
</script>
<script src="/templates/sp/javascript/jquery.sudoSlider.min.js"></script>
Edit: To the heart of your well-formed question about debugging, generally, Undefined is not a function, especially when dealing with frameworks, is a symptom of trying to access a method before it exists, which is why your attempted function call returns undefined rather than a function.
It's almost always the result of loading a framework after trying to call it, or in an asynchronous context, of not waiting for the framework to load or do something important.
EDIT 2: The above answer is not correct, as A.Wolff points out: it's not that you must reverse the order of the two blocks, but that:
1) The second framework is probably not the one you want, or
2) You have called jQuery('#two').ContentSlider when you meant to call .sudoSlider, (or whatever is appropriate for that framework).

Related

Export Flash parameters to JavaScript

I'm trying to pass parameters from Flash (as 3.0) to JavaScript.
Tried all methods I found in via. Google, as:
ExternalInterface.addCallback ("fonts", recieveFromJS);
Always one and the same problem; when I try to call the fonts () swfobject, JavaScript gives the error that the method doesn't exist.
Assuming your javascript code does not have a syntax error somewhere, this usually happens because of jquery (or some other js bundle) is stepping on your code. Try using a test page with just the javascript you need, removing all other code and header entries. If it works, then add scripts and links back, one at a time, and you will find which code is breaking it. If it does not work even in your test page, then you have a code/syntax/logic problem with the snippet of code you are working with. If you still have a problem with a code snippet, post it here and I or someone will surely help debug it for you.

Programatically retrieve count of javascript errors on page

I'd like to write a test case (using Selenium, but not the point of this question) to validate that my web application has no script errors\warnings or unhanded exceptions at certain points in time (like after initializing a major library).
This information can easily be seen in the debug consoles of most browsers. Is it possible to execute a javascript statement to get this information programatically?
It's okay if it's different for each browser, I can deal with that.
not so far read about your issue (as far as I understood your problem) here
The idea be the following:
I found, however, that I was often getting JavaScript errors when the page first loaded (because I was working on the JS and was introducing errors), so I was looking for a quick way to add an assert to my test to check whether any JS errors occurred. After some Googling I came to the conclusion that there is nothing built into Selenium to support this, but there are a number of hacks that can be used to accomplish it. I'm going to describe one of them here. Let me state again, for the record, that this is pretty hacky. I'd love to hear from others who may have better solutions.
I simply add a script to my page that will catch any JS errors by intercepting the window.onerror event:
<script type="text/javascript">
window.onerror=function(msg){
$("body").attr("JSError",msg);
}
</script>
This will cause an attribute called JSError with a value corresponding to the JavaScript error message to be added to the body tag of my document if a JavaScript error occurs. Note that I'm using jQuery to do this, so this specific example won't work if jQuery fails to load. Then, in my Selenium test, I just use the command assertElementNotPresent with a target of //body[#JSError]. Now, if any JavaScript errors occur on the page my test will fail and I'll know I have to address them first. If, for some strange reason, I want to check for a particular JavaScript error, I could use the assertElementPresent command with a target of //body[#JSError='the error message'].
Hope this fresh idea helps you :)
try {
//code
} catch(exception) {
//send ajax request: exception.message, exception.stack, etc.
}
More info - MDN Documentation

initialization of dojo widget

I tried to create custom widget for my site. when I loaded page it says:
mixin #0 is not a callable constructor.
clsInfo.cls.prototype is undefined
I can't find any information about clsInfo, so I don't know what is it. maybe the problem that I use dojo from google:
and my own script is located on localhost. so when my dojo on page initializes something goes wrong with my script. I can't find any good info on dojo, maybe I search in wrong places?
please help me to resolve my problem
I ran into this when I was trying to override a dijit.Dialog so I could bind events to controls within it. We've yet to see if the binding part will work, but if you look at the source, this happens when one of the bases passed in as the second argument fails to resolve to an "[Object function]". In my case, I was passing a String in.
dojo.declare takes 3 arguments:
The name of the custom object "class" you're building
An array of base classes, parents to provide functionality (not the string names of those classes)
A hash of functions and declarations
So if I want to override dijit.Dialog, I have to do:
dojo.declare("myDialogType", [dijit.Dialog], {
function1() {/*Code*/},
function2() {/*Code*/}
}
I had ["dijit.Dialog"] as my second argument and that was the problem.
I strongly recommend using Web Inspector or Firebug with uncompressed local copies of the Dojo library rather than the CDN to figure out what's going on and debug these types of problems. Dojo's documentation is extensive but not complete in some areas and some behaviors have to be figured out by looking at what the code expects. That's not intended as a slight to the authors; once you get it going it's a pretty awesome product, and any documentation for volunteer work is appreciated.
Are you sure Dojo is loading? Did you put your code in a dojo.addOnLoad()? When using a CDN you sometimes run into issues with execution times. dojo.addOnLoad() will not only trigger when the DOM is loaded, it gets called when dojo resources have downloaded, such as dijit._Widget.
I've run into this problem when I screw up the order of my requires which makes _WidgetBase not what _WidgetBase really is. Seems like a simple spot to screw up.

What's with the random Javascript errors?

I'm developing a site in javascript and jquery. Sometimes when I refresh I just get different random errors in firebug. What's the deal?
edit: I'm getting errors like a variable isn't defined, when clearly it is and working, and when i refresh again, the error is gone..
using Firefox V3.5.5 Firebug V.1.5.3 and I'm primarily working with jQuery 1.4.2
OK. While it's more or less impossible to give a reasonable solution to such a general question, I'll just add my 2 cents' worth:
One possible source of "undefined variable" errors comes from including several scripts, which may or may not always load and execute in the same order. If you define a variable in one script (let's call that script declare.js) and use it in another (let's say use.js), and use.js is executed before declare.js, then you will get such an error. If the scripts execute the other way around, everything will appear fine.
If you're interested in this very topic, have a look at e.g. Steve Souders' book Even faster web sites, published by O'Reilly. More specifically, look at the chapter about non-blocking script loading.
Most common cause is that you're trying to execute Javascript before the DOM is loaded and thus before all HTML elements are available in the DOM tree, which in turn may cause that simple calls like document.getElementById(id) and jQuery's $(selector) may return undefined elements. That it sometimes works is pure coincidence and a matter of timing.
You need to ensure that any Javascript/jQuery code which is supposed to be executed during page load and relies on the availability of the elements in the DOM tree, also really get executed after the DOM is loaded. In plain vanilla JS you can do so:
window.onload = function() {
document.getElementById(someId);
}
and in jQuery:
$(document).ready(function() {
$(someSelector);
});

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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