$a console command sometimes throws an error

[hilaryhacksel]

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open a new tab and make sure your developers tools window is closed.
2. Navigate to your angular app (or https://augury.angular.io/demo/#/).
3. Open your developers tools and pick the Augury tab.
4. Click on some Angular component.
5. Type $a into the console and press enter
   -> produces the error: Uncaught ReferenceError: $a is not defined(…)

However, $a is defined if your developer tools is open before navigating to the angular app.

[orizens]

hi @hilaryhacksel
I investigated this issue.
It seems like the 'window' referenced within the consoleReference function is not the actual window of the relevant tab.
This is caused of a limitation with content scripts as described here
It seems like the proper solution would be to use postMessage to interact with the Tab's window object and set the '$a' property there.

[stevenkampen]

Ok, I am able to reproduce this reliably now, and to do that I had to include the following steps:

1. Make sure you are signed OUT of Chrome.
2. Open the dev tools with "Inspect Element", rather than CMD + Shift + I.

A cache refresh was not required but the quitting chrome and opening again is.

[stevenkampen]

@orizens I think I've found at least the superficial cause of this error. At least it worked for me and for @hilaryhacksel. It might make you laugh but in the end it was just that the incorrect console "context" is selected. It should be "top" as in the screenshot below, but I found that mine had been changed to the extension context. Please confirm if this is describes your situation also.

I'm thinking now about how to mitigate this annoyance with some proactive hinting in the console.