How can I pop up Webkit's Web Inspector from my WebView object programmatically?

Question

I succeed to enable Webkit's Web Inspector on my WebView. It's working well, and now I can pop it up by clicking "Inspect Element" on context menu. And I want to do this with my push button. But I couldn't find a proper way to do this. My DOM knowledge is 10 years old, very newbie on HTML DOM of nowadays. Is there any way to do this?

I found a class document: InspectorController. I think this is a kind of key. But I cannot know what object exposes and how can I use this.

Environment:

Mac OS X 10.6
Xcode 3.2.1 (iPhone SDK, no plug-in)

Link to InspectorController is dead. – Cœur Jun 15 '19 at 07:26 — Cœur, Jun 15 '19 at 07:26

score 11 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 15 '19 at 07:27

11

Here's some code that should help you open it from cocoa programmatically:

@interface WebInspector : NSObject
{
    WebView *_webView;
}
- (id)initWithWebView:(WebView *)webView;
- (void)detach:(id)sender;
- (void)show:(id)sender;
- (void)showConsole:(id)sender;
@end

void MyWebKit::ShowInspector(bool console){
  if ( !m_webView )
      return;

  if( !m_inspector ){
    m_inspector = [[WebInspector alloc] initWithWebView:m_webView];
    [m_inspector detach:m_webView];
  }

  if(console){
    [m_inspector showConsole:m_webView];
  }
  else {
    [m_inspector show:m_webView];
  }
}

To extend it to the dom, just expose this function to JS.

edited Jun 15 '19 at 07:27

Cœur

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answered Jan 26 '10 at 19:21

Alex MacCaw

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I'm sorry but I cannot understand how I can apply this code to my program. It looks like C++, but I'm not good at C++. – eonil Feb 05 '10 at 20:01
@Eonil. I know this is old, but... The above code is based on the Cocoa framework and is written in Objective-C. – Old McStopher Aug 15 '11 at 16:25
@Old Oh thanks for commenting. I was newbie on Objective-C too. Now I can understand all the codes above. Thanks again :) – eonil Aug 16 '11 at 09:16
I'm not sure how to get this working. I'm getting errors "Variable has incomplete type 'void'", "Expected ';' after top level declarator" and "Expected identifier or '('", all on the first line of 'void MyWebKit::...'. What am I missing? I've never really used code that looks like this. Cheers. – Oliver Cooper Oct 28 '13 at 09:43

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 31 '13 at 06:15

For those confused by @alex MacCaw's answer (it is c++), here is a more "normal" version..

in your .m file... declare the WebInspector header methods..

@interface WebInspector : NSObject  { WebView *_webView; }
- (id)initWithWebView:(WebView *)webView;
- (void)detach:     (id)sender;
- (void)show:       (id)sender;
- (void)showConsole:(id)sender;
@end

Then in that same file, be it your app delegate, or WebView subclass, or whatever... declare an ivar to "hold your inspector, and make a method to open it, using YOUR web view instance or property, or whatever. ...

@implementation AppController  { WebInspector *_inspector; }

- (IBAction)showInspector:(id)x {
   _inspector = _inspector = [WebInspector.alloc initWithWebView:_myWebView];
  [_inspector      detach:_myWebView];
  [_inspector showConsole:_myWebView];
}
....

I would like the web inspector to show in its own window. I assume that is what 'detach' is supposed to do. If you look at the [source](http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/WebKit/WebKit-7534.48.3/win/WebInspector.cpp), detach doesn't do anything. Any ideas on how to accomplish this? — bkant, Dec 03 '14 at 22:11

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 24 '10 at 00:54

There is no public API for interacting with the WebInspector via the DOM or Cocoa. You should file an enhancement request at https://bugreport.apple.com/ asking for this API.

InspectorController is also an internal implementation detail of the WebInspector and its likely a bug that its on the documentation website.

How can I pop up Webkit's Web Inspector from my WebView object programmatically?

3 Answers3

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