Debugging in PocketPages

PocketPages provides several levels of debugging output to help you develop and troubleshoot your application.

Development Mode

Running PocketBase with the --dev flag automatically enables debug output from the dbg() function (see Logging Functions for details):

pocketbase serve --dev

Without the --dev flag, all dbg() output is suppressed, making your production logs cleaner and more focused on important information.

Exception Details

The most common debugging need is to see detailed error information when something goes wrong. Enable exception details and stack traces by setting debug: true in your +config.js:

module.exports = {
  plugins: ['pocketpages-plugin-ejs'],
  debug: true, // Show detailed error information and stack traces
}

This is helpful for troubleshooting errors in your application without overwhelming you with internal PocketPages details.

Plugin Debugging

When developing or troubleshooting plugins, you can enable debug output for specific plugins. By default, plugin debugging is disabled. Enable it for specific plugins in your +config.js file:

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    // Enable debugging for just the EJS plugin
    {
      name: 'pocketpages-plugin-ejs',
      debug: true,
    },

    // Other plugins remain quiet
    'pocketpages-plugin-marked',
  ],
  debug: false,
}

See Configuration for more details about plugin configuration.

Verbose Core Debugging

For detailed information about PocketPages internal operations like routes, parameters, and other core behavior, you can enable verbose debugging in two ways:

Configuration File

Set debug: 'verbose' in your +config.js:

module.exports = {
  plugins: ['pocketpages-plugin-ejs'],
  debug: 'verbose', // Enable detailed core debugging output
}

Environment Variable

Alternatively, set the DEBUG environment variable to 1 or true:

DEBUG=1 pocketbase serve
# or
DEBUG=true pocketbase serve

Both methods will output comprehensive information about PocketPages internal operations, which can be helpful when troubleshooting core functionality.

Note: Enabling verbose debugging can produce a lot of output. It's recommended to only enable it when specifically debugging PocketPages core functionality.