Smarty Debug with Firebug

Posted on | April 16, 2009 | 8 Comments

I use Smarty, a template engine, at work. One of the most awesome things about it is the debug window, where it can list all the templates being used and variables that are available.

Mike Horn shared with me how a user, named Hipska, created a Smarty debug template file that works with Firebug. I thought it was so awesome and decided to share it with you too, but with a slight tweak of my own.

The Code

Here’s the code. I’ll explain how it works right after.

{* Smarty *}
{* debug.tpl, firebug version by Hipska, tweaked by GarrickCheung *}
{assign_debug_info}
{if isset($_smarty_debug_output) and $_smarty_debug_output eq "html"}
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
<head>
    <title>Smarty Debug Console</title>
{literal}
<style type="text/css">
/* <![CDATA[ */
body, h1, h2, td, th, p {
    font-family: sans-serif;
    font-weight: normal;
    font-size: 0.9em;
    margin: 1px;
    padding: 0;
}
 
h1 {
    margin: 0;
    text-align: left;
    padding: 2px;
    background-color: #f0c040;
    color:  black;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-size: 1.2em;
 }
 
h2 {
    background-color: #9B410E;
    color: white;
    text-align: left;
    font-weight: bold;
    padding: 2px;
    border-top: 1px solid black;
}
 
body {
    background: black; 
}
 
p, table, div {
    background: #f0ead8;
} 
 
p {
    margin: 0;
    font-style: italic;
    text-align: center;
}
 
table {
    width: 100%;
}
 
th, td {
    font-family: monospace;
    vertical-align: top;
    text-align: left;
    width: 50%;
}
 
td {
    color: green;
}
 
.odd {
    background-color: #eeeeee;
}
 
.even {
    background-color: #fafafa;
}
 
.exectime {
    font-size: 0.8em;
    font-style: italic;
}
 
#table_assigned_vars th {
    color: blue;
}
 
#table_config_vars th {
    color: maroon;
}
/* ]]> */
</style>
{/literal}
</head>
<body>
 
<h1>Smarty Debug Console</h1>
 
<h2>included templates &amp; config files (load time in seconds)</h2>
 
<div>
{section name=templates loop=$_debug_tpls}
    {section name=indent loop=$_debug_tpls[templates].depth}&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;{/section}
    <font color={if $_debug_tpls[templates].type eq "template"}brown{elseif $_debug_tpls[templates].type eq "insert"}black{else}green{/if}>
        {$_debug_tpls[templates].filename|escape:html}</font>
    {if isset($_debug_tpls[templates].exec_time)}
        <span class="exectime">
        ({$_debug_tpls[templates].exec_time|string_format:"%.5f"})
        {if %templates.index% eq 0}(total){/if}
        </span>
    {/if}
    <br />
{sectionelse}
    <p>no templates included</p>
{/section}
</div>
 
<h2>assigned template variables</h2>
 
<table id="table_assigned_vars">
    {section name=vars loop=$_debug_keys}
        <tr class="{cycle values="odd,even"}">
            <th>{ldelim}${$_debug_keys[vars]|escape:'html'}{rdelim}</th>
            <td>{$_debug_vals[vars]|@debug_print_var}</td></tr>
    {sectionelse}
        <tr><td><p>no template variables assigned</p></td></tr>
    {/section}
</table>
 
<h2>assigned config file variables (outer template scope)</h2>
 
<table id="table_config_vars">
    {section name=config_vars loop=$_debug_config_keys}
        <tr class="{cycle values="odd,even"}">
            <th>{ldelim}#{$_debug_config_keys[config_vars]|escape:'html'}#{rdelim}</th>
            <td>{$_debug_config_vals[config_vars]|@debug_print_var}</td></tr>
    {sectionelse}
        <tr><td><p>no config vars assigned</p></td></tr>
    {/section}
</table>
</body>
</html>
{else}
<script type="text/javascript">
// <![CDATA[
var Smarty_debug = function Smarty_debug(collapsed){ldelim}
 
	var group = (collapsed) ? console.groupCollapsed : console.group;
 
	group("Smarty Debug");
 
	group("Included templates & config files");
	{section name=templates loop=$_debug_tpls}
		 console.log("{$_debug_tpls[templates].filename|escape:javascript}{if isset($_debug_tpls[templates].exec_time)} - {$_debug_tpls[templates].exec_time|string_format:"%.5f"}{if %templates.index% eq 0} (total){/if}{/if}");
	{sectionelse}
		 console.info("no templates included");
	{/section}
	console.groupEnd();
 
	group("Assigned template variables");
	{section name=vars loop=$_debug_keys}
		 console.log("{ldelim}${$_debug_keys[vars]|escape:'javascript'}{rdelim}:", {$_debug_vals[vars]|@json_encode});
	{sectionelse}
		 console.info("no template variables assigned");
	{/section}
	console.groupEnd();
 
	group("Assigned config file variables");
	{section name=config_vars loop=$_debug_config_keys}
		 console.log("{ldelim}#{$_debug_config_keys[config_vars]|escape:'javascript'}#{rdelim}:", {$_debug_config_vals[config_vars]|@json_encode});
	{sectionelse}
		 console.info("no config file variables assigned");
	{/section}
	console.groupEnd();
 
	console.groupEnd();
	return "Smarty version {$smarty.version}";
 
{rdelim};
// ]]>
</script>
{/if}

How it Works

This debug template gives you two options on how to view it: the original method display’s everything in a new pop-up window, the new and awesome method shows the same thing but in the Firebug Console. The template has an if statement/flag that checks whether it should be rendered in HTML or use Firebug. You’ll have to do some digging on how to setup this flag in your configuration, but the flag is in line 4 defined as $_smarty_debug_output.

The default is to use Firebug. A function named Smarty_debug is defined at the bottom at line 143. When you run it in the Firebug console, it will print out the Smarty debug information in the console as collapsible groups. If the browser doesn’t support console, then you probably shouldn’t be using this method, that’s why the HTML version is available.

1	Smarty_debug(); //type this in your Firebug Console

It bothered me a little that Hipska’s method printed out every line in the group once Smarty_debug function is called. Now here’s my tweak: I’ve made it optional to print out as a collapsed group but you WILL need Firebug 1.3+ (if it works on other versions, please let me know). All you need to do is supply a boolean argument.

1	Smarty_debug(true); //prints out a collapsed group

Conclusion

I really love being able to print out the Smarty debug data to the Firebug Console because I won’t have to deal with an additional pop-up every time. I get’s a little annoying and I think it suck’s up more memory. Thank you Hipska and Mike!

Category: Javascript
Tags: Smarty

Comments

8 Responses to “Smarty Debug with Firebug”

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January 6th, 2010 @ 7:38 am

[...] do when pondering a particularly awkward programming challenge, I came across an excellent post on smarty debug with FireBug. This inspired me to pull together a Prestashop module to allow store owners, designers and [...]
Martin Sjåstad
October 28th, 2010 @ 1:49 am

I am struggling a little bit with how to get this to work..
Where do I put Smarty_debug(true);??

Thanks!
Martin Sjåstad
October 28th, 2010 @ 2:12 am

I am half blind…
Didn’t read the comment in the Smarty_debug(); line

“Write this in your firebug console”…
Doooohh!!

Thanks!!!
Garrick
October 29th, 2010 @ 1:41 am

@Martin Sjåstad: No problem. Honest mistake. I hope this has been helpful.
Martin Sjåstad
November 2nd, 2010 @ 6:51 am

@Garrick: Yes it has, the only thing now is to actually understand the code that produces all of this smarty awesomeness

Thanks for this tip!!
Azzer
November 22nd, 2010 @ 6:09 am

Hi I placed the above code in debug.tpl, set $debugging to true but got the following error when typing Smarty_debug(true); in the firebug console:
ReferenceError: Smarty_debug is not defined { message=”Smarty_debug is not defined”, more…}

Did I missed something? I am using Smarty 2.6.26, Firebug 1.5.4
Safwen
May 10th, 2011 @ 11:27 am

Hi,
Very interesting stuff
But I can’t make it working
I got alway this error message:
>>> Smarty_debug();
ReferenceError: Smarty_debug is not defined.
Could you please explain what to do exactly with the above code source? Where to copy this code?
What about debugging prestashop with firebug?
Thanks a lot
BR,
Garrick
May 10th, 2011 @ 2:27 pm

@Azzer, @Safwen: Smarty_debug is a function that is defined in the smarty debug tpl file. Since you’re getting the error, then it means you’re not loading the correct file or portion of the file.

If you’re still getting the regular Smarty Debug window that pops open on every page load, you know for sure it’s not loading the correct code.

I suggest going back to make sure you’re loading the correct file. Also, make sure to check the $_smarty_debug_output variable. At the top of the code snippet, you’ll notice that the code is doing a check to see if it $_smarty_debug_output == ‘html’. If $_smarty_debug_output isset and == ‘html’ then it will print out the Smarty Debug window code.