re-frame/docs/FAQs/Inspecting-app-db.md

### Question

How can I inspect the contents of `app-db`?  Perhaps from figwheel.

### Short Answer

If at a REPL, inspect:  `re-frame.db/app-db`.  

If at the js console, that's `window.re_frame.db.app_db.state`.

You are [using cljs-devtools](https://github.com/binaryage/cljs-devtools), right? 
If not, stop everything and immediately make that happen. 

### Better Answer

Are you sure you need to?

First, you seldom want to inspect all of `app-db`. 
And, second, inspecting via a REPL might be clumsy. 

Instead, you probably want to inspect a part of `app-db`. __And__ you probably want 
to inspect it directly in the GUI itself, not off in a REPL. 

Here is a useful technique from @escherize. Add something like this to 
the hiccup of your view ...
```clj
[:pre (with-out-str (pprint @interesting))] 
```
This assumes that `@interesting` is the value (ratom or subscription)
you want to observe (note the @ in front).

`pprint` output is nice to read, but not compact. For a more compact view, do this: 
```clj
[:pre (pr-str @some-atom)]   ;; NB: using pr-str instead of pprint
```

If you choose to use `pprint` then you'll need to `require` it within the `ns` of your `view.cljs`:
```clj
[cljs.pprint :refer [pprint]]
```

Finally, combining the short and long answers, you could even do this:
```clj
[:pre (with-out-str (pprint @re-frame.db/app-db))]    ;; see everything!
```
or 
```clj
[:pre (with-out-str (pprint (:part @re-frame.db/app-db)))]    ;; see a part of it!
```

You definitely have [clj-devtools](https://github.com/binaryage/cljs-devtools) installed now, right?

### Other Inspection Tools

Another very strong tool is [re-Frisk](https://github.com/flexsurfer/re-frisk) which 
provides a nice solution for navigating and inspecting your re-frame data structures.

@yogthos' [json-html library](https://github.com/yogthos/json-html) provides 
a slick presentation, at the expense of more screen real estate, and the 
need to include specific CSS.

***

Up:  [FAQ Index](README.md)      


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