Is it possible to enable the WebKit JavaScript Inspector in mobile web browsers?

Question

I would love to use the Web Inspector development tools that come with webkit on a mobile browser. Does anyone know if it is possible to enable web inspector on say the Android web browser ??

Answer 1

Its still possible to see the source of any page with syntax highlighting (HTML only without CSS or JavaScript) by adding view-source: before the URL in chrome.

Answer 2

This is now possible on Android too: https://developers.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/debugging

Answer 3

Turns out that the remote web inspector is also available via a Private API on iOS5: http://atnan.com/blog/2011/11/17/enabling-remote-debugging-via-private-apis-in-mobile-safari/

and is used in this tool: http://www.iwebinspector.com/

Might be worth trawling the just release ICS sourcecode to see if there is a similar un-published API in the stock android browser.

Also you might be interested in a "light" solution, in the form of this remote debugger: Weinre

though its using JS rather than being built into the browser the way web inspector is.

Answer 4

Surprisingly, Blackberry is the first to give this to mobile developers. http://www.berryreview.com/2011/04/15/hot-webkit-web-inspector-on-the-blackberry-playbook-for-web-developers/ Hopefully this concept (especially the remote inspector) will make its way to Android soon.

Answer 5

Actually it's not just a part of safari since google chrome has it too. The web inspector is a part of the webkit engine used by safari, google chrome and if i'm not wrong by the default browser in android devices. But, the web inspector is currently unavailable on any webkit based browser on mobile device.

Answer 6

Web Inspector is an integrated part of the Safari browser, thereby it is not going to be available for other browsers, like Opera Mini, Android browser or what ever.