Access the interactive backlash/Werkzeug debugger in a failed AJAX request against a TurboGears server

Question

TurboGears features backlash, a great interactive debugger in the browser, based on the Werkzeug Debugger. When debugging is turned on in the server configuration, if a request fails, the server responds with an interactive Web page where you can watch a Python traceback that can be inspected interactively.

However, when developing client-side applications in jQuery or AngularJS, how can I get access to the interactive debugger when an AJAX request fails?

Answer 1

When your AJAX requests fail on the server, you can replace your current document contents with the debug/error document from the servers response. For example, you can do something like the following:

$.ajax({
    url: 'failing_controller/',
    type: 'POST'
})
    .fail(function _handleFailure(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {
        document.open();
        document.write(jqXHR.responseText);
        document.close();
    })
    .success(function _handleSuccess(data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
        // ... handle data ...
    });

You will probably want to replace the failure handler with something more proper in a production environment.