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garyb Developer Console (Summer 12 Update issues and more)
Hi all,
I've posted before on Twitter about the browser-based developer console, and hinted at some of the issues I've had (overall though, I do like it), but not put them down in any meaningful fashion.
One of my dev orgs was updated to summer 12 this weekend and I've encountered an issue that's a real nusiance, so it's prompted me to post here to explain it in full. I'll also use this thread to list some of the other issues/areas for improvement.
Anyway, the main issue I'm having at the moment: before the update, the console was pretty good at working out when I had done something stupid and preventing the save, which allowed me to fix and save again once correct. After the update however, I get notified of the problem after I try to save, and worse, when I make changes, I can't save the file. I have to close the developer console window and open it again, re-do my changes and then save.
Previously I think this is how it worked:
- User made changes to code in the console
- As user made changes, either javascript on the page ran checks on the code, or sent the changes to the server - but did not commit them
- When the user clicked save, the file was committed. The user could only save if the console thought the code was valid i.e. if the code passed step 2.
Now, it's as if the following is happening:
- User makes changes to code in the console.
- User clicks save - it is only at this point that the code goes to the server.
- If there are errors in the code, the user is told there is an error. Internally, the console notes the code is invalid because the server has told it so.
- User fixes the error, but cannot save the code as the console believes the code is invalid, because the server told it. The console should try to save the file again and await the new result.
Hope that makes sense - any one else experiencing the same? I'm using Chrome, haven't tried other browsers as yet.
Other issues I've been meaning to post about:
- No asterix on tab names - OK, this is a Summer 12 change. Previously, when you had multiple files open in the console, ones you'd changed but not saved were shown with an asterix against their name in the tab. This was useful but has been removed.
- Refresh - Every now and again you'll get a message about having to refresh logs manually, even when there are no logs open. You get one of these messages for every class/page you have open.
- Attribute suggestions -
The editor can be a bit keen to suggest attributes for VF tags as you move around code.Actually this looks like it may have been fixed :)
Those are the only ones I spring to mind right now. I'll bookmark this thread and add more as I think of them.
I don't want to sound overly negative about the developer console - niggles aside, I was really quite happy with the last release's version, so much so that I made it my first choice for development over the Force.com IDE, and I really like the look of some of the things in the latest release. And it's all a long, long way away from the options we had, even as little as a year ago, so please keep up the great work :)
OK, I managed to solve this.
I tried the console in an Incognito window and it worked. So I suspected an extension - disabled them, restarted, same issue. Then I cleared my internet history, restarted and it started working - hooray!
It may be a coincidence, but I was logged in and using the console when the upgrade took place (yes, I was up at 5am :smileysad:). Perhaps there something in my browser cache lingering around that should've been updated but wasn't...
dataville - I'm using the console for development more than looking at logs; if you're experiencing slowness when looking through logs, it's not an area I've had much use of today, but will let you know if I experience any issues...
All Answers
Hey Gary,
Thanks for the feedback! We love to hear back from the community, positive and negative. They both keep us motivated in making the developer console easier to use and more robust.
The problems you noted sound like regressions. For the main issue, this is how we always do it.
1) User makes changes to the code.
2) After x amount of time of inactivity, about 1 second, we send it to the server but do not commit.
3) If there are problems, we report them.
Now we disable save on 1) so we can make sure the code is valid. Although we didn't save the code if it was invalid, it led users to type something, press save, then go refresh a vf page before the server could respond with the error. It was confusing. Although, if this is more annoying then helpful, please let us know.
If the server returns with no errors, the save button is enabled. You should still see errors being reported without hitting save and you should see save disabled after you start typing. If you fix the problem, and the save isn't enabled after about a second or so, then that's a bug.
- Asterix should still be there. I still see them. Can you reproduce consistantly?
- I'm assuming when you say refresh, you mean that we stopped polling for logs? I think it always notified you that we stoped polling for logs, regardless what state the console was in. Although if the message appears for each tab open, thats a bug. It should always only appear once.
Keep them comming!
Thomas
Hi Thomas, thanks for getting back to me.
I can confirm that something isn't working right in Chrome. I just tried the Dev Console in Firefox and it works like I expect it to, very similar to how it did before for me in Chrome!
In Chrome, I get neither the asterix to show a file has changed, plus the behaviour I desrcibed about trying to save a file with errors. I'm using Chrome 18.0.1025.168 m on Windows 7, 64 bit. I'll try and find a "Safe Mode" for Chrome to see if that helps matters - I'll post back if it makes a difference. If you need any other information to investigate, let me know.
In Firefox, it behaves much more like I would expect it to, so that's good news :)
Finally, I get the notification about the logs several times in a row. Come to think of it, I've taken to switching to do something else for a minute or so and then switching back as that way, I only have to dismiss the message once. If I close them as they appear, I guess I'm dealing with the queue as each prompt comes in, so no queue is actually formed? Out of interest, what is the trigger for that message to appear?
The main issue i'm having is that its so much slower than before to the point of being un-usable, I haven't tried reducing the log levels down yet but you can see from this: http://youtu.be/lZ5O-opuOrQ
OK, I managed to solve this.
I tried the console in an Incognito window and it worked. So I suspected an extension - disabled them, restarted, same issue. Then I cleared my internet history, restarted and it started working - hooray!
It may be a coincidence, but I was logged in and using the console when the upgrade took place (yes, I was up at 5am :smileysad:). Perhaps there something in my browser cache lingering around that should've been updated but wasn't...
dataville - I'm using the console for development more than looking at logs; if you're experiencing slowness when looking through logs, it's not an area I've had much use of today, but will let you know if I experience any issues...
I used 18.0.1025.168 m on a Windows 7 64 bit and still can't reproduce. In Chrome, can you open the javascript console Shift+Ctrl+J and let me know if you see any javascript errors?
Dataville, that is not supposed to happen! I have an org with more data than what looks like is in your console, and it isn't like that. I'm thinking we might have some rouge js that is consumming too much memory. Can you also look at your javascript console and let me know if you see any errors. I think you should open a case for this issue. If you do, let me know so I can investigate this further.
Good to hear Gary! Yeah, maybe chrome had old js files cached.
I do get some errors in the console by the way - "Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'style' of null" I had a different error before clearing my cache - don't remember it exactly, but something along the lines of it not finding something lineStyle.
Ahh yeah, I saw that error too. I think Ext throws it if there is a hidden panel. I'll look into it further.
Also, to answer your question earlier, we stop polliing for logs after we poll a certain number of times without opening a file. I think it's set to 420, and we poll every 3 seconds. So after 21 minutes without opening a log (or really any file) you should see that message "If you want to continue checking for new logs, please click Resume Checking Logs"
Hey Dataville,
Have you managed to get around your issue? I noticed you have a lot of plugins. Does it speed up when the're disabled? It is as slow in FF? Any addition information will help us solve the problem.
Thanks,
Thomas
Its still slowish. Cleared cache, disabled all extensions and running in incognito window helps but still a load slower than the previous one. Also it sometimes seems to just stop working and doesn't log anything. But no resume button appears.
I've only just started keeping an eye out on the javascript errors but have just got this one:
Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'style' of null
Using Google Chrome I've had a couple of issues lately:
1) Console just stops responding for a few seconds - this sometimes gives the Chrome "sad face"/crash pop up. Closing the window and re-opening it seems to help. I don't know if this is different than Dataville's issue, but I don't experience it constantly, but have seen the console become unresponsive.
2) Sometimes the scroll bars for setup/entities/related stops scrolling. The bar goes up and down but the text doesn't move. I haven't found a way to reliably replicate, but I think resizing may be the issue. Again, closing the window and re-opening it seems to fix the problem.
1) Can you give me more information on the state of the console? It's known to hang on large logs (stay tuned for Winter'13).
2) Yes, that is an annoying one. We have a bug filed for it but can't consistantly reproduce it either. It seems to be an issue with Ext4.0. The only way to fix it is refresh. This most likely will not be resolved until next release.
1) Not much more data unfortunately. I'm trying to work right now and the console hangs, google says a process is taking a long time, I click wait, type a line or two and then console becomes unresponsive again. The log files aren't particularly long - in fact the logs tab is empty now - I just cleared the one log in it. It's possible that log was big, but I don't know what "big" is, but I can't imagine there was much in it. I'm working with a small data set and very small unit tests, but that wouldn't mean the log file was small.
It really looks like networking - Chrome tries to connect, console (and other force.com) window doesn't repond, eventually it does and things are working. This just started, though, earlier today it was fine. Perhaps it was that one log file, though, since it appears to be more responsive now. If it happens again, I'll do some experimenting and note log file information to see if there is a correlation.
Looks like I spoke too soon. No logs in logs tab, no heap dumps and it was occurring. It may be related to a test class and error checking (problems tab?), but I'm not sure. I closed that test class and it seems like things sped up. It's not a particularly large test, but it's for testing a batch job, so I don't know if that makes a difference.
@anthony_id Yup I'm getting the same thing with no logs or heap dumps appearing at all, which is a pain when your having to simulate a complex issue, you have to set up the data again to try and replicate it again.
Also getting the scroll bars not working.
Also still getting "Invalid response from server, session expired" when you try to load the developer console and it then closes again, try again and does the same, wait a bit and try again and its ok.
Finally the Execution Overview tab at the bottom, if you collapse it, it seems to collapse the top layers but leaves the gray background in place sometimes.
Also happens sometimes when you maximize the size of the developer console to fill the screen it doesn't expand to fill the blank space.
TBH we've been using the debug logs rather than the developer console, can it be reverted back until these issues are fixed?
I just experienced the "Invalid response from server, session expired" issue as well.
the ajax response from the server when pressing Resume Checking Logs:
"""
Data Not Available
."""
what data? I wonder if something can be flushed to work around the issue?
Just fixed the issue. It was due to an open log window that was quite old. closing the empty window solved the problem.