autodbg

A JavaScript debugger/REPL for Apple UI Automation. It has been tested against iOS 6 and 7.

Purpose

The UI Automation framework Apple provides does not come with a debugger. The best you can do when debugging your JavaScript is to use UIALogger.logDebug (and friends) to print messages to the Instruments console. This is limited and time-consuming. The purpose of this project is to develop a debugger that can be used with Apples UI Automation framework.

Installing

Clone the repository to your system, open a terminal, navigate to the repo, and enter the following command:

./install.sh

This will install the debugger. To uninstall, simply enter:

./uninstall.sh

Usage

1. Import debugger.js into your JavaScript source file.

    #import "debugger.js"
   

2. Call eval(breakpoint()); in your test where you would like to have a breakpoint. You can add as many breakpoints as you want. You can also optionally name them.

    eval(breakpoint());
    eval(breakpoint('my_breakpoint'));
    eval(breakpoint(123));
   

3. Start a debug session by opening a terminal and entering:

    autodbg
   

4. Run your automation test as usual. When a breakpoint is hit, the terminal you launched the debugger in (in step #3) will allow you to enter JavaScript code to execute. You will know its OK to start entering code in the debugger when you see a right arrow > appear.

When your ready to continue execution of your test, type cont in the debugger.

FAQ

Q: I receive the following debug message when I execute my script: Debugger error: python: can't open file '/usr/local/bin/debugframe.py': [Errno 2] No such file or directory.

A: Make sure you run the installation script first. See the Installing section for details.

Q: I receive the following debug message when I call eval(breakpoint()): Debugger error: [Errno 61] Connection refused

A: You may see this message if you have not started a debugging session or killed an existing one. See the Usage section of this README for details on how to launch the debugger.

Q: Do I have to restart the debugger between test runs?

A: No, when a test completes, you may leave the debugger running.

Contributing

If you would like to contribute, please fork the project, make your changes on a branch, and submit a pull request.

License

MIT License.

Please see LICENSE for details.