A debugging dashboard for re-frame. Comes with free x-ray glasses. (Previously known as re-frame-trace)
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README.md

re-frame-trace

re-frame-trace is a programmer's dashboard. It helps you to see inside a running re-frame application, allowing you to better understand it and debug it.

Status: Alpha. Clojars Project

Note the latest version 0.1.14 ALSO requires the latest version of re-frame itself - v0.10.3-alpha2.

What It Can Do

Here's how it might be helpful to you:

  1. Help you to learn re-frame. If you are new to re-frame, it will assist you to understand the data flows involved (the dominoes).
  2. Help you to explore and learn an unfamiliar re-frame codebase. When I click on this "X" button, it shows me what event is dispatch-ed and in what namespace the associated event handler is registered. And, "oh look, that's interesting - four subscriptions recalculated". Etc.
  3. Help you with debugging. You see an x-Ray of your app's functioning. In particular, it will assist you to write and debug event handlers, which is useful because they hold most of the logic in your re-frame apps.
  4. Helps you to find performance problems and/or detect where there is unnecessary computation occurring.

This list is aspirational. re-frame-trace remains a WIP. We're getting there.

Epoch Oriented

re-frame applications are computationally regular. First an event happens, and then boom, boom, boom go a series of known computational steps (dominoes), in a known order. At the end of it, a re-frame app lapses into a quiescent state waiting for another event to kick off the next iteration of the same cycle.

Each re-frame event and its consequent computation forms a bounded "epoch" which can be inspected, analysed and understood independently of other epochs. This tool is epoch-oriented.

And, yes, it has "time travel debugger" capabilities - you can go backwards and forwards through epochs - but that's really not the most interesting or powerful aspect of what re-frame-trace delivers.

It is about Data

As it runs, re-frame generates detailed "trace" which is captured as data, not strings. This trace provides an x-ray of your app's functioning.

In addition, re-frame is as much "data oriented" as it is functional in design. It "flows" data, in a loop, through the functions you provide.

So, data is at the core of re-frame-trace and that's a powerful and leverageable substrate.

Data Dashboard

Except, there's often too much data - too much detail.

So, re-frame-trace tries to be something of a "dashboard" in the sense that it tries to turn "raw data" into "information" through curated analysis, and "roll ups" designed to deliver insight "at a glance". But still allowing you to "drill into the detail".

Right. So, this tool an epoch-oriented, interactive data dashboard for gaining insights and assisting debugging. But, it is also a work in progress, so these magnificent descriptions run well ahead of what is delivered right now. But we're getting there.

A Visual Sampler

Installation

If you are using leiningen, modify project.clj in the following ways. When puzzling over the various possible leiningen configurations, it's often helpful to look at a sample project.clj.

Clojars Project

  • Add re-frame-trace as a dev dependency by placing [day8.re-frame/trace "VERSION"] within :profiles :dev :dependencies. For example:

    :profiles
       {:dev
          {:dependencies [[some-other-package  "0.0.0"]
                          [day8.re-frame/trace "0.0.0 (see version above)"]] }}
    
  • Locate the :compiler map under :dev and add:

    • :closure-defines {"re_frame.trace.trace_enabled_QMARK_" true}
    • :preloads [day8.re-frame.trace.preload]

    For example:

    {:builds
       [{:id           "dev"
         :source-paths ["src" "dev"]
         :compiler     {...
                        :closure-defines      {"re_frame.trace.trace_enabled_QMARK_" true}
                        :preloads             [day8.re-frame.trace.preload]}}]}
    

cljs-devtools is not required to use re-frame-trace, but it is highly recommended.

Usage

  • Make sure you have followed all of the installation instructions above.

  • Start up your application.

  • Once it is loaded, focus the document window and press ctrl-h to slide open the trace panel and enable tracing.

  • When the panel is closed, tracing is disabled.

Use Cases

app-db

  • Inspect a portion of app-db's state with the path inspector, allowing you to focus on just the parts you care about.
  • Reset app-db to before an event was run to run it again, instead of resetting the whole application
  • Toggle app-db before and after states for running an event, to inspect UI changes.

Timing

  • Answer the question "Why is my app slow when it runs this event?"
  • See whether time is spent in processing an event, or rendering the changes

Troubleshooting

  • Try a lein clean
  • Make sure you have followed all the installation steps.

How does it work?

re-frame is instrumented - all important activity generates trace data. re-frame-trace consumes this trace data and renders useful visualisations of the re-frame process. Currently, re-frame's tracing capabilities are in alpha and are subject to change at any time. We're testing the utility of the the trace by building an app on top.

By default, re-frame tracing is "compiled out", so it won't impose a performance cost in production. The trade-off here is that you need to explicitly enable it in development.

The preloads option (:preloads [day8.re-frame.trace.preload]) has to be set in order to automatically monkeypatch Reagent to add appropriate lifecycle hooks. Yes this is gross, and yes we will try and make a PR to reagent to add proper hooks, once we know exactly what we need. The preload namespace also injects a div containing the devtools panel into the DOM.

Developing/Contributing

If you want to work on re-frame-trace, see DEVELOPERS.md.

Citations

  • open by Bluetip Design from the Noun Project
  • reload by Adnen Kadri from the Noun Project
  • Camera by Christian Shannon from the Noun Project
  • Delete by logan from the Noun Project
  • Settings by arjuazka from the Noun Project
  • Wrench by Aleksandr Vector from the Noun Project
  • pause by Bhuvan from the Noun Project
  • play by Bhuvan from the Noun Project
  • Log Out by Arthur Shlain from the Noun Project