This meeting discusses exploring libraries in WeWeb - a low-code platform, finding and manipulating stored variable states through the browser console, updating variable values through custom code variables, and other related topics.
1. Stored State: Local storage and cookies can store state information at the browser level, remaining between refreshes and synching between tabs. This state change data can be accessed either through the console view or the more user-friendly application tab which formats information for easier reading. This tab can also provide a path to understanding a machine's thinking by revealing where it stores state data. 2. Variable Investigation: The State Changers explored accessing default values for variables within WeWeb libraries. They discovered that WeWeb does not expose the default value for variables at present, which raised curiosity about resetting variables. The exploration focused on ways to work around the occasional termination of a workflow due to the undefined nature of a hidden or removed variable, using Javascript code to bypass such issues. However, they find that the WeWeb documentation and its felicitation of the process could be improved. 3. Use of Developer Tools: The developer tools on the browser were stressed as valuable for digging into coding issues and getting software to speak back to users. This involved surfacing through the console output to identify relevant bits and tracing the syntax. For instance, a function updateValue which accepts two arguments could be found within WeWeb's library (dub dub lib), which was discovered through browsing the Window global context. 4. Reverse Engineering: Interacting with the get and update methods in WeWeb was discussed, emphasizing that this comes from exploratory debugging rather than predetermined wisdom. The session ends with a plan for a future session to specifically focus on JavaScript for low code, a topic that emerges from the curiosity about coding expressions and the syntax of function objects discovered during the exploration. They also touched briefly on using diagnostic approaches to reverse engineer other systems like Xano.
(Source: Deep Dive: Devtools Part 2 7/26/2023 )
