Get startup console logs in iOS WebView

Question

In a Cordova application, any calls to console.{log,warn,error,etc} before connecting Safari's developer tools do not appear in the console. This makes it impossible to debug startup errors. How do I get those messages?

Bonus question: How do I get the WebView to stop on debugger; lines prior to connecting with Safari?

Answer 1

This simple trick can be useful, just open the console in Safari and run:

window.location.reload()

Answer 2

I remember a friend telling me about a way to keep safari web inspector running regardless of whether or not the app is in the foreground or not. I found his article and here are the details -

The first thing to do is to set a global hotkey – steps:

• Open System Preferences / Keyboard
• On the right panel, select Application Shortcuts
• Add a hot key – use whatever keys you want (I used CMD + ALT + I)
• Have the matching key be index.html or whatever your cordova’s main html file is

Steps to keep open SWI

• Launch Cordova App
• Open SWI
• Close SWI
• Launch SWI with quick key as set up in global hotkey Application Shortcuts
• Close App
• Reopen app – notice SWI is still running and continues to give us logging/debugging!

Aside from the technique above have you installed this plugin below and inspected logs in Xcode?

cordova plugin add org.apache.cordova.console

Do you use Ripple Emulator? Here is a great post on setting it up.