WebStorm 2023.3 Help

Debug JavaScript in Chrome

WebStorm provides a built-in debugger for your client-side JavaScript code.

The video and the instructions below walk you through the basic steps to get started with this debugger.

Before you start

  1. Make sure the JavaScript Debugger bundled plugin is enabled in the settings. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the IDE settings and then select Plugins. Click the Installed tab. In the search field, type JavaScript Debugger. For more information about plugins, refer to Managing plugins.

  2. Configure the built-in debugger as described in Configuring JavaScript debugger.

    To have the changes you make to your HTML, CSS, or JavaScript code immediately shown in the browser without reloading the page, activate the Live Edit functionality. For more information about the live editing functionality, refer to Live Edit in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Debug an application that is running on the built-in server

WebStorm has a built-in web server that can be used to preview and debug your application in a web browser or IDE's built-in browser. This server is always running and does not require any manual configuration.

Start debugging

  1. Set the breakpoints in the JavaScript code, as required.

  2. Open the HTML file that references the JavaScript to debug or select the HTML file in the Project tool window.

  3. From the context menu of the editor or the selection, choose Debug <HTML_file_name>. WebStorm generates a debug configuration and starts a debugging session through it. The file opens in the browser, and the Debug tool window appears.

  4. In the Debug tool window, proceed as usual: step through the program, stop and resume the program execution, examine it when suspended, view actual HTML DOM, run JavaScript code snippets in the Console, and so on.

Example

Let's suppose that you have a simple application that consists of an index.html file and an index.js file, where index.html references index.js.

A simple client-side application

To start debugging this application using the built-in server, set a breakpoint in index .js, open index .html in the editor, and select Debug 'index.html' from the context menu.

Start debugging session from the editor

WebStorm creates a run/debug configuration automatically, and a debugging session starts.

Debugging session starts, the app opens in the browser

To restart the new run/debug configuration, select it from the list and click the Debug button.

Restart debugging session

Reload the current page in browser

Besides restarting your application by clicking the Rerun button (the Rerun button) in the Debug tool window, you can also use the Reload in Browser action to reload the page where you have currently navigated. This works the same way as the Reload Page functionality (Ctrl+R) in Chrome.

  • To reload the current page, click the More icon on the toolbar and select Reload in Browser (Reload in Browser).

    Reload in Browser action

The example below shows a simple application that consists of two HTML pages and a JavaScript script. The starting home.html page has a Submit button on pressing which the calculator.html page opens with the results of the Calculator.js script execution.

During a debugging session, clicking the Rerun button (the Rerun button) reloads the home.html page with the Submit button. Clicking the Reload in Browser button (the Reload in Browser button) reloads the calculator.html page so all the previous script output is cleared and the debugger returns to line 1 in Calculator.js.

Reloading the current page in browser

Debug an application that is running on the localhost in the development mode

If your application is running in the development mode on localhost, you can start debugging it from the built-in Terminal (Alt+F12), from the Run tool window, or from the Debug tool window. Just hold Ctrl+Shift and click the URL at which the application is running.

Starting a debugging session from the Run tool window
  1. Set the breakpoints in your code.

  2. Start the application in the development mode, for example, using an npm script.

  3. The Run tool window or the Terminal shows the URL at which your application is running. Hold Ctrl+Shift and click this URL link. WebStorm starts a debugging session with an automatically generated configuration of the type JavaScript Debug.

This also works for debugging Vue.js, Angular, React, and Node.js applications.

Debug an application that is running on a remote web server

Often you may want to debug client-side JavaScript of an application that is running on an external development web server.

Debugging client JavaScript code of an app running on a remote server

What is a remote web server?

In WebStorm, any server with the document root outside the current project is called remote. This server may be actually running on a physically remote host or on your machine.

For example, if your project is in C:/WebStormProjects/MyProject and the web server document root is C:/XAMPP/htdocs, for WebStorm this web server is remote.

How do I synchronize my application sources on the server with their local copies in my WebStorm project?

To debug an application on a remote web server, you need to have the copies of its sources in a WebStorm project. To synchronize local and remote sources, create a deployment configuration as described in Create a remote server configuration and Configure synchronization with a server.

Debug an application on a remote web server

  1. Set the breakpoints in the JavaScript code, as required.

  2. Create a run/debug configuration of the JavaScript Debug type:

    Go to Run | Edit Configurations, then in the Edit Configurations dialog, in the Edit Configurations dialog that opens, click the Add button (the Add button) on the toolbar and select JavaScript Debug from the list.

  3. In the Run/Debug Configuration: JavaScript Debug dialog that opens, specify the URL address at which the application is running. This URL address should be a concatenation of the Web server root URL and the path to the HTML file relative to the web server document root in accordance with server access configuration. For more information, refer to Configure synchronization with a server.

    Click OK to save the configuration settings.

  4. Choose the newly created configuration in the Select run/debug configuration list on the toolbar and click the Debug button Start the debugger. The HTML file specified in the run configuration opens in the chosen browser and the Debug tool window appears.

  5. In the Debug tool window, proceed as usual: step through the program, stop and resume the program execution, examine it when suspended, view actual HTML DOM, run JavaScript code snippets in the Console, and so on.

Example: Debug without mappings

Suppose you have a simple application that consists of an index.html file and an App.js file, where index.html references App.js.

  1. Let's now deploy our simple application to a local web server , refer to Deploy your application. In the following example, it is Apache:

    Debug JavaScript on an external web server: uploaded sources on the remote host
  2. When using a local web server, such as Nginx or Apache, as in our example, or the web server is on a remote host, you need to create a Run/Debug configuration to start the JavaScript debugger. To do that, click the list at the upper right-hand corner of the WebStorm window and choose Edit Configurations. Alternatively, choose Run | Edit Configurations from the main menu:

    Debug JavaScript on an external web server: open Edit configurations dialog

    In the Run/Debug Configurations dialog, click and choose JavaScript Debug from the list:

    Create JavaScript Debug configuration

    Specify the URL of your running application, in our example it is http://localhost:8888/MySimpleApp/index.html

    URL to run your application

    In our example, the local project structure and the file structure on the server are the same so no mappings are required.

  3. Now we can start debugging: choose the new run/debug configuration from the list in the upper right-hand corner of the WebStorm window, and then click the Debug button:

    Editor, main menu and the toolbar

    In the Debug tool window, proceed as usual: step through the program, stop and resume the program execution, examine it when suspended, view actual HTML DOM, run JavaScript code snippets in the Console, and so on.

Mappings

Mappings set correspondence between files on a web server and their local copies. You need mappings:

  • When your application is deployed and running on a remote web server.

  • When you have defined several resource root folders in addition to the project root.

WebStorm attempts to guess path mappings from the deployment configuration or based on file and script names and content. However, if your application structure is complicated you need to specify path mappings manually.

Configure mappings

  1. Create a debug configuration of the type JavaScript Debug as described in Debugging an application.

  2. In the Remote URLs of local files area, map the files and folders to URL addresses of files and folders on the server according to the currently used deployment configuration, see Mapping local folders to folders on the server and the URL addresses to access them.

Example: Debug with mappings

Suppose that for some reason you decide to change the folder structure of the application from the previous example and move index.html and App.js to a separate folder src.

The structure of local folders differs from the folder structure on the remote web server

Because the local sources and the application on the web server are structured differently, the debugger will be unable to sync the local sources with the code that is actually executed.

To solve the problem, let's map the URL address of the application root with the src folder.

  1. Start creating a run/debug configuration as described above.

  2. In the Run/Debug Configurations dialog, click in the Remote URLs of local files area.

  3. In the dialog that opens, select the src folder under MySimpleApp.

  4. In the Remote URL field, type the URL address of the application, in our example it is http://localhost:8888/MySimpleApp

    URL mapping
  5. Save the run/debug configuration and launch it as described above.

For more debugging examples, refer to the following posts in the WebStorm blog: Debugging React Applications and Debugging Angular Applications.

Debug asynchronous code

WebStorm supports debugging asynchronous client-side JavaScript code. WebStorm recognizes breakpoints inside asynchronous code, stops at them, and lets you step into such code. As soon as a breakpoint inside an asynchronous function is hit or you step into asynchronous code, a new element Async call from <caller> is added in the Frames pane of the Debugger tab. WebStorm displays a full call stack, including the caller and the entire way to the beginning of the asynchronous actions.

Debugging asynchronous JavaScript code

In the example above, the debugger stops at line3(breakpoint), then at line5(breakpoint). On clicking Step into, the debugger will stop at line5 (on function), then will move to line6.

The asynchronous debugging mode is turned on by default. To disable asynchronous stack traces, set js.debugger.async.call.stack.depth in Registry to 0.

Debug workers

WebStorm supports debugging Service Workers and Web Workers. WebStorm recognizes breakpoints in each worker and shows the debug data for it as a separate thread in the Frames pane on the Debugger tab of the Debug tool window.

Note that WebStorm can debug only dedicated workers, debugging for shared workers is currently not supported.

  1. Set the breakpoints in the Workers to debug.

  2. If you are using Service Workers, make sure the Allow unsigned requests checkbox is selected on the Debugger page (Settings| Build, Execution, Deployment | Debugger). Otherwise your service workers may be unavailable during a debug session.

  3. Create a debug configuration of the type JavaScript Debug as described above in Debugging client-side JavaScript running on an external web server.

  4. From the Select run/debug configuration list on the toolbar, select the newly created configuration and click the Debug button next to it.

    The HTML file specified in the run configuration opens in the browser and the Debug tool window opens with the Frames list showing all the available Workers:

    Debugging Service Workers

    To examine the data (variables, watches, and so on) for a Worker, select its thread in the list and view its data in the Variables and Watches panes. When you select another Worker, the contents of the panes are updated accordingly.

Last modified: 20 February 2024