inspecting objects withought entering them

I added some functionality to mozrepl which seems to be pretty useful (At least for me :)

Sometimes when you need to inspect / interact with some object you need to do a lot of repl.enter() command before you reach the object you need. Sometimes it getting too complicated when your object is under a several levels of anonymous elements and iframes. (Hard to believe but such a cases exists :) So basically what I have added some functionality to grab object like you do in dom inspector, bit painful but still.

here is ode which you can actually add to the file specified in extensions.mozrepl.initUrl preferance

var grabInfinite = false;
function grab(infinite){

    grabInfinite = infinite || false;

    var grabOnce = true;

    var context = this._workContext;

    var target = { value : undefined };
var blinkObject = function(target,number){
var params = {
originalBorder : target.style.MozOutline,
changedBorder : “1px dotted red”,
target : target,
number : number || 3,
window : context.window
};

var flashOff = function(){
var params = arguments0;
params.target.style.MozOutline = params.originalBorder;
if (params.number > 0) {
params.window.setTimeout(flashOn,100,params);
}
};
var flashOn = function(){
var params = arguments0;
params.number —;
params.target.style.MozOutline = params.changedBorder;
params.window.setTimeout(flashOff,100,params);
};

context.window.setTimeout(flashOn,100,params);
};

var grabber = function(event){
if (grabInfinite || grabOnce) {
grabOnce = false;
event.preventDefault();
event.stopPropagation();
target.value = event.target;
blinkObject(target.value);
} else if (!grabInfinite){
context.window.removeEventListener(“click”, grabber, true);
}
};
context.window.addEventListener(“click”,grabber,true);
return target;
}
grab.doc = “Grabs object which was clicked (If argument true is passed grubs untill grabMouseStrop is called)”;
function grabStop(){

    grabInfinite = false;

}

grabStop.doc = “Stops grabbing objects”;

After you can connect with mozrepl as you usually do and type somthing like this in console

repl> var suspect = repl.grab();

after click any palce in the window and it will blink the way it does in dom inspector. Now you can access the object you just pointed like this:

repl> suspect.value [object XULElement] — {addEventListener: function() {…}, accessibleType: 4131, type: "", dlgType: "", group: "", open: false, checked: false, ...} repl>

And another alternative method of grabbing objects specially for non snipers

repl> var suspect = repl.grab(true);

Now it will grab objects until you’ll stop it like this:

repl> repl.grabStop();

Enjoy the hacking!!
P.S.: I don’t mind if it will be added to the default repl functions