If you are trying to just test the functionality of your JavaScript file: create a blank HTML file, add a link to your JS file as you would normally load a JS file from HTML, and open the HTML file in Chrome. Go to the JavaScript console. You'll be able to interact with the functionality of your JS code as usual. You wouldn't need to set up a server for this. If still not clear, here's an example:
<html>
<head>
<script type = "text/javascript" src = "path/to/your/jsfile"></script>
</head>
</html>
If you are trying to just test the functionality of your JavaScript file: create a blank HTML file, add a link to your JS file as you would normally load a JS file from HTML, and open the HTML file in Chrome. Go to the JavaScript console. You'll be able to interact with the functionality of your JS code as usual. You wouldn't need to set up a server for this. If still not clear, here's an example:
<html>
<head>
<script type = "text/javascript" src = "path/to/your/jsfile"></script>
</head>
</html>
You can use a light weight webserver to serve the file.
For example,
1. install Node
2. install the "http-server" (or similar) package
3. Run the http-server package ( "http-server -c-1") from the folder where the script file is located
4. Load the script from chrome console (run the following script on chrome console
var ele = document.createElement("script");
var scriptPath = "http://localhost:8080/{scriptfilename}.js" //verify the script path
ele.setAttribute("src",scriptPath);
document.head.appendChild(ele)
- The script is now loaded the browser. You can test it from console.
Videos
I am sorry for the silly question, I am starting in programming by myself and trying to figure out things correctly.
Every time I clone one repository from Github and open with VS Code (CTRL + Shift + D), I try to run the code to test the application (javascript w/react). But when I try at VS Code, it does not work. Nothing happens. I can only do it with "npm start". Is there any way to deploy it to one "localhost" other than installing the NPM package in the repo's folder?
Thanks everyone and sorry for this question.
Following is a free list of tools you can use to check, test and verify your JS code:
- Google Code Playground
- JavaScript Sandbox
- jsbin
- jsfiddle
- pastebin
- jsdo.it
- firebug
- html5snippet.net
Hope this helps.
If you want to edit some complex javascript I suggest you use JsFiddle. Alternatively, for smaller pieces of javascript you can just run it through your browser URL bar, here's an example:
javascript:alert("hello world");
And, as it was already suggested both Firebug and Chrome developer tools have Javascript console, in which you can type in your javascript to execute. So do Internet Explorer 8+, Opera, Safari and potentially other modern browsers.
Since you're using jQuery, I assume that you actually want to manipulate the various elements on your page. So depending on your specific development enviroment, uploading it each time is probably the way to go anyway. If you can set up a dev enviroment on your local machine (not always possible) then go with that.
As an actual answer to your question, I suggest using Chrome's developer tools, it doesn't just have the console, but an element inspector, and a resource tracker (resource tracker is invaluable when working with JSON and AJAX, since invalid json will fail silently)
As far as I know, the firebug plugin for firefox (dont use it myself) has a similar feature set, so if you're more comfortable with that go with it.
Just remember, as a developer, your development (and debuggin) enviroment is just as important as the code that you are writing.
EDIT: Noticed that you mentioned unit testing. There are several unit testing frameworks out there for JS including one that integrates with firebug called FireUnit. Do a quick google search to find more if you want.
You don't need to upload the JS file to a server to test it. Just write an html and declare the js binding
<script
src="js/yourJSFile.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
Edit the JS file in your favorite editor and then refresh the page to test it.
For unit testing the best option is Selenium. It allows you to record an interaction with the browser and then play it back.