ffosrepl

Ffosrepl uses the Firefox Remote Debugging Protocol to connect a ClojureScript REPL to a Firefox OS device.

Why?

The Content Usage Policy for Firefox OS apps does not allow calling the Javascript function eval. This means that ClojureScript REPL environments like weasel that use eval to evaluate Javascript on the client do not work in a Firefox OS app. By using the Remote Debugging Protocol, ffosrepl gets around this. The (unintended) advantage is, that no changes to the app are necessary for ffosrepl to work. I.e. there is no need for code in the app that establishes the transport between the app and the REPL environment.

Usage

Ffosrepl is intended to be used with the piggieback nREPL middleware. So you need to set it up first. After that, add ffosrepl to the dependencies in your project.clj:

[ffosrepl "0.2.0-SNAPSHOT"]

You then have to forward the debugger socket of your device to a port on your localhost:

adb forward tcp:6000 localfilesystem:/data/local/debugger-socket

Then start lein repl and piggieback the ffosrepl REPL environment onto the nREPL session. You have to specify the name of the WebApp you want to connect to. You can also specify a host (defaults to "127.0.0.1") and a port (defaults to 6000). They must match the host and port the debugger socket of the device was forwared to. If the app is not yet running, ffosrepl will start it automatically.

user> (require 'ffosrepl.repl)
nil
user> (cemerick.piggieback/cljs-repl
        :repl-env (ffosrepl.repl/repl-env "YourAwesomeApp"
                                          :host "127.0.0.1"
                                          :port 6000))
Type `:cljs/quit` to stop the ClojureScript REPL
nil
cljs.user> 

TODO

• Automate the forwarding of the debugger socket.
• Make a library out of the Remote Debugging Protocol implementation. This library can then be used to write a leiningen plugin to install, start and stop apps on the Firefox OS device.