Debugging a Firefox addon is a slow process: (1) edit source code in a JS editor (2) package into XPI using a build script (3) drag into Firefox to install (4) restart Firefox (5) open the JavaScript Debugger
Can we speeden up the process? Like install it into Firefox without a restart, or configure the build script to install it into Firefox as well?
The answer is remote debugging, which will enable you to connect the android device to your workstation via a USB cable and debug your mobile webpage on your desktop. On a side note, you can debug multiple device sizes while performing responsiveness tests simultaneously.
Navigate to the chrome extensions management page at chrome://extensions and ensure developer mode is on. Click the Load Unpacked button and select the broken extension directory.
You'll want to locate your profile folder. Once you find it, go into the folder called 'extensions', and then locate the folder for the add-on you are working on. Replace that folder with a file of the same name (minus .xpi
if that's part of the name), and inside the file place the full path to your source directory of the add-on.
In Linux and Mac, that'll look like:
/full/path/to/yourExtension/
And on Windows:
C:\full\path\to\yourExtension\
Remember the trailing slash and beware of extra whitespace.
As long as you don't use jar files inside your add-on, you will no longer have to rebuild (this is covered in a bit more depth here).
Additionally, you'll want to set nglayout.debug.disable_xul_cache
to true. For edits to xul or js files, you'll just have to open up a new window to see your changes instead of restarting the application. There are other preferences here that you may find useful as well.
Extra tips:
Starting firefox with a certain profile (dev), while other firefox profile is open and with the debugger already on:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -no-remote -P dev -jsconsole
Check out the restart addon (saves time).
i use Netbeans with the Foxbeans Plugin for addon development, there you just press the "run button", and firefox starts up with the addon installed (into a test profile). maybe you should give this a try!
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