Console Tool Architecture

The Console panel is responsible for rendering all logs coming from the current page.

Architecture

Internal architecture of the Console panel (the client side) is described on the following diagram.

┌──────────────────────────────┐               ┌────────────────────────┐
│           DevTools           │               │    WebConsolePanel     │
│[client/framework/devtools.js]│               │       [panel.js]       │
└──────────────────────────────┘               └────────────────────────┘
                │                                           │
                                                            │
     openBrowserConsole() or                                │
     toggleBrowserConsole()                                 │
                │                                           │
                ▼                                           │
┌──────────────────────────────┐                          {hud}
│    BrowserConsoleManager     │                            │
│ [browser-console-manager.js] │                            │
└──────────────────────────────┘                            │
                │                                           │
                │                                           │
      {_browserConsole}                                     │
                │                                           │
                ▼ 0..1                                      ▼ 1
┌──────────────────────────────┐               ┌────────────────────────┐
│        BrowserConsole        │               │       WebConsole       │
│     [browser-console.js]     │─ ─ extends ─ ▶│    [webconsole.js]     │
└──────────────────────────────┘               └──────────────1─────────┘
                                                            │
                                                          {ui}
                                                            │
                                                            ▼ 1
                                               ┌────────────────────────┐
                                               │      WebConsoleUI      │
                                               │   [webconsole-ui.js]   │
                                               └────────────────────────┘
                                                            │
                                                       {wrapper}
                                                            │
                                                            │
                                                            ▼ 1
                                               ┌────────────────────────┐
                                               │   WebConsoleWrapper    │
                                               │[webconsole-wrapper.js] │
                                               └────────────────────────┘
                                                            │
                                                        
                                                            │
                                                            ▼
                                               ┌────────────────────────┐
                                               │          App           │
                                               └────────────────────────┘
    
Elements between curly bracket on arrows represent the property name of the reference (for example, the WebConsolePanel as a `hud` property that is a reference to the WebConsole instance)

Components

The Console panel UI is built on top of React. It defines set of React components in components directory The React architecture is described on the following diagram.

┌ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─
  WebConsole React components                                                                                                                                          │
│ [/components]                                                       ┌────────────────────────┐
                                                                      │          App           │                                                                       │
│                                                                     └────────────────────────┘
                                                                                   │                                                                                   │
│                                                                                  │
        ┌───────────────────┬──────────────────────┬───────────────────┬───────────┴─────────┬───────────────────────┬────────────────────┬─────────────────┐          │
│       │                   │                      │                   │                     │                       │                    │                 │
        ▼                   ▼                      ▼                   ▼                     ▼                       ▼                    ▼                 ▼          │       ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ┌──────────┐     ┌────────────────┐     ┌────────────────┐     ┌───────────┐    ┌────────────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌─────────┐             │                 Editor                 │
  │ SideBar  │     │NotificationBox │     │ ConfirmDialog  │     │ FilterBar │    │ ReverseSearchInput │     │ConsoleOutput │     │EditorToolbar │     │ JSTerm  │──.editor───▶│                            │
│ └──────────┘     └────────────────┘     │        │     └───────────┘    └────────────────────┘     └──────────────┘     └──────────────┘     └─────────┘             │ [client/shared/sourceeditor/editor.js] │
        │                                 └────────────────┘           │                                             │                                                 │       └────────────────────────────────────────┘
│       │                                                    ┌─────────┴─────────────┐                               │
        │                                                    │                       │                               │                                                 │
│       │                                                    ▼                       ▼                               ▼
        │                                          ┌──────────────────┐    ┌──────────────────┐            ┌──────────────────┐                                        │
│       │                                          │   FilterButton   │    │  FilterCheckbox  │            │ MessageContainer │
        │                                          └──────────────────┘    └──────────────────┘            └──────────────────┘                                        │
│       │                                                                                                            │
        │                                                                                                            │                                                 │
│       │                                                                                                            │
        │                                                                                                            ▼                                                 │
│       │                                                                                                  ┌──────────────────┐
        │                                                                                                  │     Message      │                                        │
│       │                                                                                                  └──────────────────┘
        │                                                                                                            │                                                 │         ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│       │                                                                                                            │                                                           │                Frame                │
        │                                  ┌─────────────────────┬─────────────────────┬─────────────────────┬───────┴─────────────┬─────────────────────┬─────────────┼─────┬──▶│ [client/shared/components/Frame.js] │
│       │                                  │                     │                     │                     │                     │                     │                   │   └─────────────────────────────────────┘
        │                                  ▼                     ▼                     ▼                     ▼                     ▼                     ▼             │     │
│       │                        ┌──────────────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐          │   ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
        │                        │  MessageIndent   │  │   MessageIcon    │  │  CollapseButton  │  │ GripMessageBody  │  │   ConsoleTable   │  │  MessageRepeat   │    │     │   │               SmartTrace               │
│       │                        └──────────────────┘  └──────────────────┘  └──────────────────┘  └──────────────────┘  └──────────────────┘  └──────────────────┘          ├──▶│[client/shared/components/SmartTrace.js]│
        │                                                                                                    │                     │                                   │     │   └────────────────────────────────────────┘
└ ─ ─ ─ ┼ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─│─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─│─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─      │
        │                                                                                                    │                     │                                         │   ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
        │                                                                                                    │                     │                                         │   │                   TabboxPanel                    │
        │                                                                                                    ├─────────────────────┘                                         └──▶│[client/netmonitor/src/components/TabboxPanel.js] │
        │                                                                                                    │                                                                   └──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
        │                                                                                                    │
        │                                                                                                    │
        │                                                                                                    ▼
        │                                                                ┌ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─
        │                                                                  Reps                                       ┌──────────────────────┐  │
        │                                                                │ [client/shared/components/reps/reps.js]    │   ObjectInspector    │
        │                                                                                                             └──────────────────────┘  │
        │                                                                │                                                        │
        │                                                                                                                         ▼             │
        │                                                                │                                            ┌──────────────────────┐
        │                                                                                                             │ ObjectInspectorItem  │  │
        │                                                                │                                            └──────────────────────┘
        └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────▶                                                         │             │
                                                                         │                                                        ▼
                                                                                                                      ┌──────────────────────┐  │
                                                                         │                                         ┌─▶│         Rep          │
                                                                                                                   │  └──────────────────────┘  │
                                                                         │                                         │              │
                                                                                                                   │              │             │
                                                                         │                                         └──────────────┘
                                                                          ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ┘
  

There are several external components we use from the WebConsole:

  • ObjectInspector/Rep: Used to display a variable in the console output and handle expanding the variable when it’s not a primitive.

  • Frame: Used to display the location of messages.

  • SmartTrace: Used to display the stack trace of messages and errors

  • TabboxPanel: Used to render a network message detail. This is directly using the component from the Netmonitor so we are consistent in how we display a request internals.

Actions

The Console panel implements a set of actions divided into several groups.

  • Filters Actions related to content filtering.

  • Messages Actions related to list of messages rendered in the panel.

  • UI Actions related to the UI state.

State

The Console panel manages the app state via Redux.

There are following reducers defining the panel state:

  • reducers/filters.js state for panel filters. These filters can be set from within the panel’s toolbar (e.g. error, info, log, css, etc.)

  • reducers/messages.js state of all messages rendered within the panel.

  • reducers/prefs.js Preferences associated with the Console panel (e.g. logLimit)

  • reducers/ui.js UI related state (sometimes also called a presentation state). This state contains state of the filter bar (visible/hidden), state of the time-stamp (visible/hidden), etc.