595889 - Web Console does not report exceptions if multiple windows are opened

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(DevTools :: General, defect)

Description

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

STR:
1) Load http://gavinsharp.com/tmp/test.html in a new profile (notice it fails to alert "2", since an exception is thrown)
2) Open Web Console
3) Reload the page
4) Notice exception reported
5) Open a new browser window (Cmd+N)
6) Repeat 1-3 in that window - no exception reported
7) Open new tab in original window, repeat 1-3 - no exception reported

Comment 1

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

(Is there an existing bug on 3) being necessary to see exceptions? Looking for exceptions after-the-fact is somewhat useful for cases where it may not be practical to reload...)

Comment 2

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

Attachment: testcase

Comment 3

[David Dahl :ddahl]

(In reply to comment #0)
> STR:
> 6) Repeat 1-3 in that window - no exception reported
> 7) Open new tab in original window, repeat 1-3 - no exception reported

The exception should be reported in the first console that was opened for that url.

This should be "fixed" by bug 567165 - and by fixed, I mean the error will be reported to both consoles, as we cannot reliably know which page threw.

This may also be fixed (for real) by tweaking our onerror handler, as we have seen similar issues like this.

Comment 4

[David Dahl :ddahl]

I should say I have prepared some test pages and a test that tests this exact behavior, except not with a new window, but with a new tab.

Comment 5

[Duncan Loveday]

(In reply to comment #1)
> (Is there an existing bug on 3) being necessary to see exceptions? Looking for
> exceptions after-the-fact is somewhat useful for cases where it may not be
> practical to reload...)

There ought to be. When users report problems the first thing I get them to do is check the Fx 3.x error console to see what problems (mostly javascript) have happened since they started the browser, possibly a few hours ago. In many cases they don't know/have forgotten exactly what they did to produce the error but at least it is captured along with the URL. If the new web console only collects errors while it's open, that closes off that whole way of debugging which is a problem.

Comment 6

[Duncan Loveday]

...and equally, the fact the whenever a tab is closed, the web console along with the errors it was reporting is also closed is a problem. Bring back the single error console that lets you see cumulative errors from all windoes and tabs at any time - that was a much better facility.

Comment 7

[:Gavin Sharp [email: [e-mail]]]

You should file that bug, rather than commenting here.

Comment 8

[Duncan Loveday]

(In reply to comment #7)
> You should file that bug, rather than commenting here.

Bug 598012

Comment 9

[David Dahl :ddahl]

(In reply to comment #6)
> ...and equally, the fact the whenever a tab is closed, the web console along
> with the errors it was reporting is also closed is a problem. Bring back the
> single error console that lets you see cumulative errors from all windoes and
> tabs at any time - that was a much better facility.

You can open the JS Error Console - you just need to turn a pref on. devtools.errorconsole.enabled = true

Comment 10

[Duncan Loveday]

David, there's a debate on this as we speak in Bug 598012

Comment 11

[Kevin Dangoor]

Mihai has been working on patches that properly associate many kinds of messages with the proper windows now, so this problem should clear up with those patches.

Comment 12

[Mihai Sucan [:msucan]]

This should be fixed once bug 597136 lands.

Comment 13

[Mihai Sucan [:msucan]]

Bug 597136 landed. Retest results:

1. made my own TC which throws, but does not use an alert(). It works fine. I can have multiple tabs and windows - exceptions are always reported in the correct Web Console.

2. with the TC provided in this bug: the exception is never reported. This happens because Services.wm.getMostRecentWindow(null) returns null when the alert() is shown. Which means, windowUtils cannot be used, and getHUDIdsForScriptError() fails to find the window ID. Interesting to note that the fallback doesn't help either. It should.

So, now this bug morphed from a problem with exceptions thrown by the same page in multiple windows/tabs, into a bug about ... using windowUtils when alert() or when other such modal dialogs are shown - when getMostRecentWindow() returns null.

Comment 14

[David Dahl :ddahl]

I'm thinking we should test for the window type and use the windowEnumerator to get the 2nd most recent window if the type is "dialog".

Comment 15

[Mihai Sucan [:msucan]]

This TC is really nice. Further investigation shows that the exception onload is now not thrown, and it is not caught by the Web Console, nor by the Error Console, nor by Firebug. This is why it doesn't show now.

Still, I wonder why before bug 597136 landed the error was caught and I was able to see activeWindow being null?

Comment 16

[Mihai Sucan [:msucan]]

The fun with online TCs: the TC from the URL provided changed slightly - the code after the alert(1) was // commented out. This is why during tests exceptions did not show. Uh oh.

Copied the TC locally, to test the correct TC and it works.

This bug can be marked as RESOLVED - I believe WFM would be fine.

Comment 17

[Kevin Dangoor]

OK, fair enough... reso/wfm it is!