Firebug and its kin are awesome for debugging javascript, but once our scripts are in the wild we really don’t have any feedback of any kind about the state of the browser.  DamnIT from JupiterIT attempts to alleviate this by providing an automated feedback system for javascript applications.

How it works:

1. A box appears prompting you to describe your most recent actions:
2. One of the following occurs:
   • you type something and click send
   • you click “close”
   • 10 seconds pass with you doing nothing
3. DamnIT emails you the following information:
   • Browser
   • Page
   • HTML Content
   • Description (if you entered one)
   • Error message
   • File name, line number, and stack (if the browser supports them)

On the surface this is an incredible system.  In practice there are a few key issues that I think need addressed before the product is an ideal fit for every situation.  Basically, I have severe reservations about the email only nature of the system and its dependence on central management.  Both of these are key issues when dealing with sensitive information or large volumes of error messages and I’m sure will be addressed with future versions.  I am going to integrate the system into the next release of BLT and will be providing feedback from those efforts in the near future.  In the short term, you can check out DamnIT here:

https://damnit.jupiterit.com 

 As much as I love jQuery, prototype templates have made it into more than one of my projects because of their versatility and ease of use.  They are a capable and amazing tool for formatting and displaying output on the client side and I thought I’d take a few minutes to dive into them.

So what are templates.  In short they are a string with symbols embedded that are replaced at the time of evaluation to create a new string.  For example:

var apple = { fruit: "apple", variety: "honeycrisp" };

var templ = new Template( "My favorite fruit are #{variety} #{apple}s."  );

console.log(  templ.evalaluate( apple ));

>>> My favorite fruit are honeycrisp apples.

This basic example is really all there is to templates.  But, they can be incredibly useful for formatting and displaying JSON data. and repurposing things in universal ways across an app.

It’s been a crazy several months, new town, new job etc…

I’m finally in a position to start posting again, so you can expect semi regular updates from here on.