This document contains the presentation slides for a session titled "How to Develop and Debug Client Side Code" given by Mark Rackley at the SPTechCon San Francisco 2014 conference. The presentation provides an overview of tools and techniques for developing and debugging JavaScript and jQuery code in SharePoint, including jQuery, jQuery UI, DataTables, Bluff Charts, and REST/CSOM/SPServices. It also covers debugging basics, common issues, and best practices.

1. SPTechCon San Francisco 2014
How to Develop and Debug Client Side Code
Mark.Rackley@capSpire.com
April, Twenty Fourteen

2. Mark Rackley / Senior Consultant
• 19+ years software
architecture and development
experience
• SharePoint Junkie since 2007
• Event Organizer
• Blogger, Writer, Speaker
• Bacon aficionado
@mrackley
www.SharePointHillbilly.com
www.MarkRackley.net
www.SharePointaLooza.org

3. What this session is not
In this session I’ll give you the tools to start developing and
debugging JavaScript and jQuery in SharePoint. I will not be
creating SharePoint Apps, Solutions, or features. Visual Studio is
not needed for any of the functionality presented in this session.
To get started from a Visual Studio only approach check out Rob
Windsor's and David Mann’s Pluralsight videos on SharePoint
with JavaScript, CSOM, and REST.
http://www.pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/sharepoint-2013-client-object-
model-rest

4. Agenda
• Some Why’s
• These are a few of my favorite tools
• Common issues & Best practices
• Other helpful tools
• Let’s Do Some Stuff
• Deploy and reference scripts
• Development Basics
• Debugging Basics
All links from this session (and others)
http://bit.ly/POSTCON06
Code Samples Available at
https://github.com/mrackley/SPClientSideDev

5. Why bother with client side dev?
• Stay off the server
• Deployment and maintenance can be easier
• Upgrades can be painless
• You don’t have to be a development guru
• You don’t need expensive tools like Visual
Studio… well you don’t NEED any tools at all.

6. Why is JavaScript development so painful?
• It’s not compiled
• Simple errors hard to track down
• It’s difficult to debug
• Error messages are usually not helpful
• There’s a lot of ways to do the exact same
thing
• Performance can be an issue
• Non-developers are doing it

7. These are a few of my favorite tools
• jQuery (It’s just JavaScript)
• http://jquery.com/
• jQuery UI (Make it prettier and more
interactive)
• http://jqueryui.com/
• jQuery.cookie.js (because it works)
• http://plugins.jquery.com/cookie/

8. These are a few of my favorite tools
• FullCalendar (because sometimes you need
more than one date field)
• http://arshaw.com/fullcalendar/
• DataTables (quick, performant list views)
• http://www.datatables.net/
• SPServices / CSOM / REST (because, what
CAN’T you do??)

9. These are a few of my favorite tools
• SharePoint Designer (yes… really)
• IE and Chrome Developer Tools (It’s like real
debugging)
• Fiddler (Essential when you need to see
what’s really going on)
• http://fiddler2.com/

10. Oh yeah… so, what can’t you do?
• Event Receivers
• Timer Jobs
• Elevate Privileges
• Write to the file system

11. Development basics
• Store scripts in a document library
• To deploy a script across a site collection use a Custom Action
• Avoid directly adding scripts to Master Page
 Can be more difficult to maintain and debug
• To deploy script to a page, add a Content Editor Web Part
and link to script
• Avoid placing scripts directly in CEWP
 Scripts can get mangled and there is no reuse / backup.

12. Querying a list to populate a drop down box
REST / CSOM / SPSERVICES

13. SPServices Get List Items Query
$().SPServices({
operation: "GetListItems",
async: true,
listName: "Vendors",
CAMLViewFields: "<ViewFields><FieldRef Name='Vendor' /></ViewFields>",
CAMLQuery: "<Query><Where><Neq><FieldRef Name='ID' /><Value
Type='Number'>0</Value></Neq></Where></Query>";, completefunc: function(xData, Status) {
var options = "<option value='0'>(None)</option>";
$(xData.responseXML).SPFilterNode("z:row").each(function() {
var Vendor = ($(this).attr("ows_Vendor"));
var ID = $(this).attr("ows_ID");
options += "<option value='"+ ID +"'>"+Vendor+"</option>";
});
$("select[title='<Field Display Name>']").append(options);
}});

14. Client Side Object Model (CSOM) Get List Items
Query
context = SP.ClientContext.get_current();
var speakerList = context.get_web().get_lists().getByTitle("Vendors");
var camlQuery = SP.CamlQuery.createAllItemsQuery();
this.listItems = speakerList.getItems(camlQuery);
context.load(listItems);
context.executeQueryAsync(ReadListItemSucceeded, ReadListItemFailed);
function ReadListItemSucceeded(sender, args) {
var enumerator = listItems.getEnumerator();
var options = "<option value='0'>(None)</option>";
while (enumerator.moveNext()) {
var listItem = enumerator.get_current();
var Vendor = listItem.get_item('Vendor');
var ID = listItem.get_id();
options += "<option value='"+ ID +"'>"+Vendor+"</option>";
}
$("select[title='<Field Display Name>']").append(options);
}
function ReadListItemFailed(sender, args) {
alert('Request failed. ' + args.get_message() + 'n' + args.get_stackTrace());
}

15. SharePoint 2010 REST Get List Items Query
var call = $.ajax({
url: “http://<Url To Site>/_vti_bin/listdata.svc/Vendors?$select=Vendor,Id&$top=1000”,
type: "GET",
dataType: "json",
headers: {
Accept: "application/json;odata=verbose"
}
});
call.done(function (data,textStatus, jqXHR){
var options = "<option value='0'>(None)</option>";
for (index in data.d.results) //MIGHT BE IN data.d
{
options += "<option value='"+ data.d.results[index].Id
+"'>"+data.d.results[index].Title+"</option>";
}
$("select[title='<Field Display Name>']").append(options);
});
call.fail(function (jqXHR,textStatus,errorThrown){
alert("Error retrieving Tasks: " + jqXHR.responseText);
});

16. SharePoint 2013 REST Get List Items Query
var call = $.ajax({
url: _spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl + "/_api/Web/Lists/GetByTitle('ListName')/items",
type: "GET",
dataType: "json",
headers: {
Accept: "application/json;odata=verbose"
}
});
call.done(function (data,textStatus, jqXHR){
var options = "<option value='0'>(None)</option>";
for (index in data.d.results)
{
options += "<option value='"+ data.d.results[index].Id
+"'>"+data.d.results[index].Title+"</option>";
}
$("select[title='<Field Display Name>']").append(options);
});
call.fail(function (jqXHR,textStatus,errorThrown){
alert("Error retrieving Tasks: " + jqXHR.responseText);
});

17. Reading / Storing List Data
var objArray = [
{ID: 1, Title: "Title 1"},
{ID: 2, Title: "Title 2"},
{ID: 3, Title: "Title 3"},
{ID: 4, Title: "Title 4"},
];
for (index in objArray)
{
var thisTitle = objArray[index].Title;
}
 Use REST / CSOM / SPServices to read list data
 Store data in arrays and JSON objects

18. Reading / Storing List Data
var objects = {};
objects[1] = {Title: "Title 1"};
objects[2] = {Title: "Title 2"};
objects[3] = {Title: "Title 3"};
for (id in objects)
{
var thisTitle = objects[id].Title;
}
 Use REST / CSOM / SPServices to read list data
 Store data in arrays and JSON objects

19. Debugging Basics
• Alerts
• Quick sanity checks
• Are your scripts getting executed?
• Developer Tools
• Setting breakpoints
• Evaluating expressions
• Fiddler
• Is the data I’m expecting coming across the
wire?

20. How about some best practices?
• Avoid global variables
• Write scripts in small digestible chunks
• Code with performance in mind
• Minify files, but make updates in un-minified files
• Be consistent in structure and syntax ESPECIALLY if
developing as part of a team
• Document what you’ve done

21. Common issues
Issue Symptom
Script not loaded “Object doesn’t support property or method”
Script loaded more than once /
Different versions of same library
Sporadic errors, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Missing quotes, semicolons,
commas, other syntax errors
“Expected <char>” (not always the right character) or Syntax Error.
Mismatched variable names (foo vs
Foo) or use of initialized variables.
Unable to get property ‘x’ of undefined or null reference.
‘x’ is undefined
No error, but unexpected results.
Timing / Async issues Script errors, unexpected results
Conflicting jQuery libraries Script errors, unexpected results
http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.noConflict/
Changes to script not taking effect Script cached, use cache busting technique of incrementing a rev number on your script.
<script type="text/javascript" src="../../SiteAssets/jquery.min.js?rev=1.0"></script>

22. Other tools
• Visual Studio Express Web (You don’t have to buy it)
 http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/products/visual
-studio-express-products
• TypeScript
 http://www.typescriptlang.org/
• Web Essentials (Does not work with VS Express )
 http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/07d54d12-
7133-4e15-becb-6f451ea3bea6

23. Other tools
• jsLint & jsHint
• Syntax / Quality Checking
• Can be more frustrating than helpful
• http://www.jslint.com/
• http://www.jshint.com/

24. Let’s DO some stuff!!!
I know!! It’s about time? Right?

25. jQueryUI
http://jqueryui.com/
jQuery UI is a curated set of user interface
interactions, effects, widgets, and themes built
on top of the jQuery JavaScript Library.
Whether you're building highly interactive web
applications or you just need to add a date
picker to a form control, jQuery UI is the
perfect choice.

26. jQueryUI– Basic Usage - Tabs
<div id="tabs">
<ul>
<li><a href="#tabs-1">Tab 1 title</a></li>
<li><a href="#tabs-2">Tab 2 title</a></li>
<li><a href="#tabs-3">Tab 3 title</a></li>
</ul>
<div id="tabs-1">
<p>content in tab 1</p>
</div>
<div id="tabs-2">
<p>content in tab 2</p>
</div>
<div id="tabs-3">
<p>content in tab 3</p>
</div>
</div>
<script>
$(function() {
$( "#tabs" ).tabs();
});
</script>

27. jQueryUI demo
Tabs

28. DataTables
http://www.datatables.net/
DataTables is a plug-in for
the jQuery Javascript library. It is a highly
flexible tool, based upon the foundations of
progressive enhancement, which will add
advanced interaction controls to any HTML
table.

29. DataTables – Basic Usage
//array of arrays
$('#example').dataTable( {
"aaData": [
["row 1","value"],
["row 2","value 2"],
],
"aoColumns": [ //field count must match column count
{ "sTitle": "Column Name" },
{ "sTitle": "Column Name 2" }
]
});
//array of objects
$('#example').dataTable({
"bProcessing": true,
"aaData": vendors, //array of objects
"aoColumns": [
{ "mData": "Vendor" }
]
});

30. DataTables demo
Using SharePoint REST

31. Bluff Charts
http://bluff.jcoglan.com/
Bluff is a JavaScript port of the Gruff graphing
library for Ruby. It is designed to support all the
features of Gruff with minimal dependencies; the
only third-party scripts you need to run it are a
copy of JS.Class (2.6kB gzipped) and a copy of
Google’s ExCanvas to support canvas in Internet
Explorer. Both these scripts are supplied with the
Bluff download. Bluff itself is around 11kB
gzipped.

32. Bluff Charts – Basic Usage
var g = new Bluff.Bar('LineBarChart', '800x400');
g.title = 'Tasks By User';
g.tooltips = true;
g.theme_37signals();
for (index in tasks)
{
g.data(tasks[index].name, [tasks[index].Completed,
tasks[index].Deferred,tasks[index].NotStarted,
tasks[index].InProgress,tasks[index].Waitingonsomeoneelse]);
}
g.labels = {0: 'Completed', 1: 'Deferred', 2: 'Not Started',
3: 'In Progress', 4: 'Waiting'};
g.draw();

33. Bluff demo
Quick and dirty charts

34. What’s next??
SharePoint Hosted Apps
Single Page Apps (SPAs)
 AngularJS
 http://angularjs.org/
 Breeze
 http://www.breezejs.com/

35. April, Twenty Fourteen