MotherApp Engine

MotherApp Engine

Tutorial

Part 2: Debug your app with MotherApp Debugger

MotherApp Tutorial

You can use MotherApp Debugger to debug your application before compiling the application and deploying the application to the device. MotherApp Debugger can help you:

  1. Use Safari, Firefox or Chrome to debug interactively, i.e. all the links, tabs, popup can be played interactively in the browser directly (see Reference which features supported in the Debugger)
  2. Detect general XML format error
  3. Tell you whether the syntax you used is supported in MotherApp HTML

1. How to start the Debugger

1.1. Start Debugger directly

Go to http://debugger.motherapp.com/debug.html, there is a box at the bottom right corner.

You input the server url of your application into the url text box and click [Submit] at the bottom right box. Then the Debugger will start your application. For example, inputting http://tedtalk.willflow.com will launch the application as below (You can notice that the url of the Debugger becomes http://debugger.motherapp.com/debug.html?url=http://tedtalk.willflow.com):

1.2. Start Debugger by bookmarklet

  1. Go to http://debugger.motherapp.com/bookmarklets.html, then you drag the "MA Debug" into your bookmark.
  2. Go to your application url using browser, e.g. http://tedtalk.willflow.com/.
  3. Click the "MA Debug" bookmark. Then the browser will guide you into the Debugger. (You can notice that the url of the browser becomes http://debugger.motherapp.com/debug.html?url=http://tedtalk.willflow.com/

2. Detect the syntax

Debugger helps you detect whether the syntax of your application is valid. As below, the Debugger will tell you what's wrong with the syntax. Normally, there are 3 types of syntax error:

  1. Some html tags do not closed, e.g. <img src="/./d-media/reference/...">
  2. The html tag is not supported in MotherApp HTML, e.g. <i>, <em>, etc.
  3. Invalid usage of MotherApp HTML, e.g. "wf_style" attribute in <body> cannot use "selected", etc.

What Resources Are Available to Me as a Developer?

  • MotherApp HTML Reference
    Click here to see the complete reference for MotherApp HTML. You can select having the code elements displayed by category, alphabetically, or with associated screen shots.
  • Development Tools
    • Click here to use the MotherApp Debugger.
      Use the debugger test your application using a web browser (the Safari 4, Firefox 3.5 and Google Chrome browsers are recommended). The generated user interface may differ somewhat from the display on any particular device (since the app will display natively, and therefore differently, on each platform), but the debugger accepts the same MotherApp HTML as the devEngine. It will allow you to to check the syntax for your MotherApp HTML pages.
    • Click here to use the MotherApp Sandbox
      The MotherApp sandbox helps generates the testing version of app that could be actually deployed to the devices.
    • Click here to view our set of sample apps.
  • More Information
    • Click here to view our list of MotherApp "How to"s. For example, "how to deliver your completed app," or "how to launch the video player."
    • Click here to view the answers to our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
    • Click here to go to our Support Forum.

 

 

 

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