JS Bin for Collaborative JavaScript Debugging
The weekend before last I blitzed through an idea I had on the shelf for about 6 months and put it live under the name JS Bin.
What is it?
JS Bin is a form of paste bin, but with a twist. It allows you to also include the HTML and CSS to provide context to your pasty. As such, it means you can actually run the JavaScript and pass this on to a colleague to help to debug.
A short list of features:
- Save private snippet
- Remote Ajax debugging
- Snippet URLs run entirely on their own (i.e. without the JS Bin framework around them)
- Support to quickly inject major JS libraries
- Saves state within the open window (i.e. refresh and the code doesn't reset)
In addition, any code snippet can be edited.
Take this example: query string aware JavaScript (http://jsbin.com/utala/)
...to edit it, you just add '/edit' to the URL and you can modify the snippet yourself and save it as new:
Why?
I had a conversation with Rey Bango some months ago where he was trying to debug a piece of code that had an Ajax hit. He sent me the code, but without seeing it running I wasn't too much help to him.
I made a start some time ago offline and planned for a system to allow you to create fake Ajax handlers to respond to requests.
In the last couple of weeks I saw John Resig's learning app and the sandbox idea suddenly had legs again. I knew I could write something very quickly, almost entirely in JavaScript (and since it's a JS debugger, there's no point in the extra work to make it degrade).
A small server side php file does the saving work (and maintaining old code snippets) and over the course of a few hours I had a fully working webapp that allows me to create Ajax responders and code snippets that run live and can make real Ajax calls.
Examples
I've recorded a couple of screencasts showing how it can be used:
Feedback
If anyone has suggestions, feedback, bugs, etc - please let me know!
I live in the sometimes sunny Brighton (it's in the south of the UK, for those across the pond). The south coast is definitely my favourite place to be, but I spent some time on the outskirts of London whilst at University. I'm starting to focus on my own company Left Logic. It's a web development company with strong focus in usability, accessibility, clean design and powerful bespoke applications. Remy is a DZone MVB and is not an employee of DZone and has posted 9 posts at DZone. You can read more from them at their website.
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