Adobe launches Shadow, a new toolkit for mobile developers

http://venturebeat.com/2012/03/06/adobe-launches-shadow-a-new-toolkit-for-mobile-developers/

by diwank • 14 years ago

51 16 14 years ago

istvanp• 14 years ago

I gave it a quick spin[1] but was a little disappointed that it needed to manually be reconnected to the remote inspector on every page change. It's also completely missing the Network stuff. That said, debugging CSS with this works great.

Interesting side note: it's apparently using weinre[2] as the remote inspector.

[1] Download from here: http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/shadow.html

[2] http://phonegap.github.com/weinre/

Edit: as I understand, the limitations come from weinre because it's JavaScript based on the client side.

dutchbrit• 14 years ago

What always amazes me is that companies like Adobe launch a new product, but don't bother registering the domain - adobeshadow.com (DOH!!) - guess because it's a free product?

Ecio78• 14 years ago

Maybe because in this way they have something to occupy the time of their legal department (suing you, of course :D)

talmand2• 14 years ago

Why bother with obtaining domains for every single product when shadow.adobe.com would work just as well?

eazy_osm• 14 years ago

Y no linux? :/

5h• 14 years ago

I've given it a quick go & am very impressed, relatively smooth experience for a just-launched product, remote inspection, manipulation & js console is great

... tied up with selenium or similar to drive more complex interactions on my desktop browser & have them mirrored by pushing javascript to my phone, could make this a very powerful change.

edit: misread istvanp

MatthewPhillips• 14 years ago

I'm not near a computer I can test this on, does it allow you to remotely debug javascript? Does it allow you to do so in multiple browsers (For example on Android you have Android Browser, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera as different rendering engines)?

lucian1900• 14 years ago

So basically weinre + auto reloading, but for some reason not supporting Linux.

wtdominey• 14 years ago

Gave it a go. Everything connected fine, but in my test it can't resolve to a local hostname. So the stuff I'm developing locally doesn't display, which kind of defeats the purpose.

webmat4• 14 years ago

Try using localtunnel.com

cienrak• 14 years ago

Nice to see Adobe adapting to the slow passing of Flash with interesting tools for the new generation of mobile developers and their problems (device/os fragmentation).

talmand2• 14 years ago

Although I agree with your statement, this project has very little to do with Flash. If anything at all. I would imagine Adobe would have considered such a project regardless of the future of Flash.

webmat4• 14 years ago

Gave it a spin, and unfortunately it won't replace a pure weinre for me.

The way to connect all devices is pretty polished, although the install is not terribly clear. You need to install a local app on your dev machine (presumably hosting weinre), as well as a chrome extension. Then you install the Shadow apps on all your devices. Once that's done, connecting devices works pretty well.

On the other hand it's for pure web browsing (the chrome extension is to follow you around in chrome). So you obviously can't use it to debug a hybrid app (e.g. PhoneGap). You can do that with a pure weinre.

Second, my devices sometimes lose track of where I am. This may or may not be because of the next point.

Third, the devices following you around is entirely url-based. In other words, it doesn't reproduce browser events (e.g. clicks, form submits, etc.), it simply reloads the page completely when the url changes. I'm not saying it should: desktop and mobile support different sets of events. However this reduces its usefulness with single page load apps.

I almost mentioned ajax form submits as a case where its usefulness is reduced. But it occurred to me that you'd probably rather enter your stuff manually on every device anyway. This, paired with the fact that Shadow doesn't try to keep all device in sync when you click around on the devices (it only follows your chrome browser), actually makes it possible for one to test these kinds of interactions.

With that said, I'll still keep an eye on this tool. I think it's pretty promising.

webmat4• 14 years ago

Oh, and it follows you around on Chrome, regardless of the tab you switch to. So switching to HN, for example, brings along all of your mobile devices with you :-)

marknutter• 14 years ago

What is a "pure weinre"?

webmat4• 14 years ago

By that I mean installing the "weinre" tool locally (or using debug.phonegap.com) and connecting your hybrid app or website yourself by including the script tag in your html.

Adobe launches Shadow, a new toolkit for mobile developers

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