How to debug a Java project's JavaScript files inside Netbeans 8 itself ?

Question

In Netbeans 8: a new HTML5 project using AngularJS online template lets me runs the html files with the debugger attached to browser and I can set breakpoints inside Netbeans JavaScript files to debug. Which makes things ALOT easier.

But when I create a Java maven based web project with AngularJS dependencies I have to use the browser's code viewer to debug the Javascript code. Which is more time consuming.

How can I debug JavaScript files inside Netbeans instead of debugging in the browser for a Java maven based web project ?

Answer 1

You don't / can't directly. While it is possible to run a Java based Javascript interpreter you won't have access to any browser windows or DOM elements. Instead, you almost certainly want to use EmbeddedBrowser to launch and control Firefox, Safari and/or IE depending on which you wish to test with in Netbeans. Note that it's running an external process to do this, and I don't think you'll be able to access the browser developer tools from within the embedded environment (which is what I normally use when debugging Javascript).