Since Servoy 7.3 we started to utilize the standard Google Chrome debug protocol to debug a mobile applications.

This allows to debug a Servoy mobile client on an actual device such a phone or tablet or debug another browser(tab) running a mobile client.

Startup

For this to work, the mobile client needs to be exported in debug mode, this must be done by using the mobile export (Export Soluton > Mobile Export) and then enable the Export in debug mode checkbox.

When the mobile solution is executed on a mobile or in the desktop browser, it will talk back to the Servoy Developer. This communication is enabled if the active solution is a mobile solution; in the background a special service is run as: localhost:8889

Usage

If the mobile solution is running, open in the Chrome browser to: localhost:8889. This will show a page to choose the client to debug (in case there are multiple clients running) or connect directly if only one present.

While in the debugger of Chrome, there are two tabs where you can inspect stuff:

• the console tab - displays the console output the client generates
• the sources tab - where debugging is started for the actual code that is running in the mobile client
  
  • The navigator (the arrow button on the left) gives access to all the sources.
  • Under localhost:8080 section there are the same scripts as in the Developer. One can open them to set breakpoints, these will be hit when that code in the mobile client is hit.

Hot Code Replace

Changes can also be pushed right to the running client by making changes directly in the Chrome browser and save those changes. This will push the changes to the mobile client and that code will be executed in the next run. If the client is reloaded or the PhoneGap application is started again, these changes will be lost. But these changes are pushed and reflected in the workspace of the Servoy Developer to be used in next run!