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Version: v11.9.4

Flipper - Debug tools


Flipper is a tool for debugging iOS, Android, and React Native apps to access applications from a desktop interface where you can visualize and inspect the code. WaveMaker has integrated Flipper using CLI wm-reactnative-cli.

Steps to Setup

  1. Download Flipper.
  2. After installing Flipper, select the Settings option from the left menu.

Flipper-Settings

  1. For Android development, add Android SDK location and for iOS Development, add IDB binary location, as shown in the image below.

Flipper-Settings-Dialog

  1. Check the requirements to run Flipper from the Setup Doctor option.

Flipper-Setup-Doctor

  1. Ensure that the requirements are met for each respective development environments. If the requirements fail or show warning, you can expand the item and address the issues and perform re-run.

Flipper-Setup-Dialog

Debug

  1. Open the project and preview the application.

  2. Copy the preview URL. For example:

https://wavemakeronline.com/…../{Project_Name}

For Android, run the following command.

wm-reactnative run android "preview-link" --clean

For iOS, run the following command.

wm-reactnative run ios "preview-link" --clean
note

You can skip the clean option after the initial run.

  1. Once app is launched in the emulator or device, open Flipper to debug the application.

  2. Select the Emulator/Device from the App Inspect option.

Flipper-Select-Device

Flipper Plugins

You can access Flipper plugins for debugging the application and for development ease.

Flipper-Plugin-Manager

Go to the Plugin Manager option to access plugins, as shown in the image below.

Flipper-Plugin-Manager-Dialog

From the Install Plugins tab, you can install the required plugin,

From the Plugins Status tab, you can check all the active plugins.

Flipper Default Plugins

For React Native applications, you can use some plugins by default, including Crash Reporter, Logs, React DevTools, and Network.

Flipper-Select-Device

Crash Reporter

The Crash Reporter plugin shows a notification in Flipper when the app crashes. The notification shows the crash information, such as stacktrace and other metadata.

Logs

The Logs plugin shows device logs without any additional setup. There are plugins for both Device and App Logs.

Flipper-Select-Device

React DevTools

The React DevTools shows the React Native Component Tree, which can be used to edit the component properties.

Flipper-Select-Device

note

Run the following command if Flipper fails to connect to the device.

adb reverse tcp:8097 tcp:8097

Network

The Network plugin provides the Network Inspector, which is used to inspect outgoing network traffic in your apps. You can easily browse all requests being made and their responses. The plugin also supports gzipped responses.

Flipper-Select-Device