I've been doing some scraping and at some websites I found references to JS like this:
<script type="text/javascript">
unescape("%3Cscript src='Scriptdir/pr.asp?id=123456' language='javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
In such cases, it is trivial to retrieve the script code (just go to the link). But how do I retrieve the code in cases like this:
<select ID="Spinner" class="text" onchange="javascript:IWantTheCodeOfThis();">
Is it even possible, or are they stored server-side without an acces for the client?
JavaScript is always stored server-side but executed client-side, so the browser has to get hold of it at some time (unlike to e.g. PHP-code).
What you posted is a JS-function-call so the function "IWantTheCodeOfThis" must be in one of the include-files which are "trivial to retrieve" :)
You could use Chrome or Safari to use the console and look at the resources. You could also type IWantTheCodeOfThis (without ()) in the console, and you will probably see the source code for the function.
Not at all. Any access to Javascript has to be on the client already.
To lookup where the function is located, it's a good idea to use a debugger like Firebug or the Chrome developer tools. Both explicitly show you all available javascript sources on the current site.
JavaScript is executed on the client side. Always.
IWantTheCodeOfThis() is a function that would be in one of the JavaScript downloaded by the browser. Most of the new browsers has some time of "inspector", "develop menu", or "developer tools" from which you can see all of the scripts that were loaded and even search them. Safari, Chrome and Internet Explorer 8/9 all have this. In Firefox, you can use Firebug.
You could go through the scripts by hand but that would be difficult as some websites may load some of their JavaScripts dynamically.
Related
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
Both firebug and the built in console in webkit browsers make it possible to set breakpoints in running Javascript code, so you can debug it as you would with any other language.
What I'm wondering is if there is any way that I can instruct firebug or webkit that I'd like to set a breakpoint on line X in file Y at runtime, and to be able to examine variables in the specific scope that I have paused in.
I need something that can work in both Chrome (or any other webkit browser) and Firefox. For the latter Firebug is an acceptable dependency. Supporting IE is not a requirement.
I've been building an in-browser IDE ( quick video for the interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5lGwqi8L_g ) and want to give it a bit more meat.
One thing I did try was just adding debugger; as an extra line where users set them, but this isn't really an ideal solution.
I'd say you can definitely do this for webkit browsers using the remote debugging protocol. This is based on a websocket connection and a json message protocol that goes back and forth.
You can read the announcement and the whole protocol schema.
Chrome also offers more information about this inside its remote developer-tools docs.
For the debugger domain, for instance, you can see how you can use Debugger.setBreakpoint, Debugger.setBreakpointByUrl and Debugger.setBreakpointsActive to work with breakpoints.
On the other hand, Mozilla also seems to be working on this as you can see in https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Debugger-API and https://wiki.mozilla.org/Remote_Debugging_Protocol though I don't know the completion status of it.
In this case, you can work with breakpoints using the Debugger.Script APIs setBreakPoint, getBreakPoint, getBreakpoints, clearBreakpoints and clearAllBreakpoints
I hope this helps you move forward.
There isn't such a thing, at least not using the public, scriptable side of JavaScript. It would be possible if you have a privileged browser extension that could do that for you. For example, Firebug has a debug method which you can call from its command line, but not from scripts inside a page.
So, you have two solutions:
Implement your own JavaScript interpreter, which you can control as you wish. Might be a bit too ambitious, though...
Rely on a browser extension that can set breakpoints anywhere in the code, expose some API to public code, and interact with it from your JavaScript. But that means that users will have to install some extra piece of software before they can use your "Web IDE".
Use _defineSetter__ to watch variables, and combine it with a call to debugger when an assignment happens.
__defineSetter__("name", function() { debugger; });
or defineProperty:
function setter () { debugger; }
Object.defineProperty(Math, 'name', { set: setter });
References
MDN: Object.defineProperty
A List Apart: Advanced Debugging With JavaScript
JavaScript Getters and Setters
In my code I have a line that dumps the current window (which happens to be a youtube video page):
Firebug.Console.log(myWindow);
It can be seen that window object contains "yt" property, which is another object that can be easily inspected in debugger:
http://i.imgur.com/lHHns.png
Unfortunately, calling
Firebug.Console.log(myWindow.yt);
logs "undefined" - why is that, and how can I access this "yt" property?
Edit: one addidtion that might be important: the code I'm writing is part of a firefox extension, so it's not really running inside a pgae, but in chrome - I'm starting to think that it may be the cause. Can chrome scripts be somehow limited in what they can see/acces as opposed to code in script tags?
For security reasons, Firefox extensions don't access web page objects directly but via a wrapper. This wrapper allows you to use all properties defined by the DOM objects but anything added by page JavaScript will be invisible. You can access the original object:
Firebug.Console.log(XPCNativeWrapper.wrappedJSObject.yt);
However, if you want to interact with the web page from an extension you should consider alternatives where the web page cannot play tricks on you (e.g. running unprivileged code in the content window: myWindow.location.href = "javascript:...").
Firefox and Chrome extensions can't access JavaScript within the page for security reasons.
I have seen confusion like this using asynchronous APIs.
console.log(obj); shows the contents of an object all filled in, but when accessing the object properties in code, they aren't really populated yet due to the call being asynchronous.
Why Chrome and Firefox shows them all filled in is probably just a timing issue as they probably process the console.log() asynchronously as well.
On the server lies a html file with javascript code included.
This javascript code includes a method called something like "CheckObject".
This file works for all users, except one specific (but important).
He gets a javascript error and in his browser sourcode appears something unbelievable:
The methodname "CheckObject" is replaced with "Check!==ect", means the "Obj" of the method name is replaced with !==.
Why could that be?
Hope anybody can help me!
Best regards
If he's using a browser that supports extensions (like Firefox, Chrome, and some others), it's probably worth disabling all of the extensions and seeing if the problem goes away.
If you haven't already, I'd completely clear his cache in case there was a bad page transfer once and the browser is reusing it.
I can't imagine how it would be happening reliably otherwise.
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?