Often when you're writing or modifying some JavaScript on the server, you'd like to know what's really inside a variable or object. Especially an object! You can write some special logging statements to do this, but that can be quite tedious — again, especially for an object. And then there's the special case of the global context (which is itself an object) — it would really be nice to take a look at what's in there.Well, you can.Let's take a simple object as our first example. Try this code:

var myObj = {};myObj.x = 'bogonomics';myObj.y = 'taxicide';myObj.z = 1459392;

JSUtil.logObject(myObj, 'myObj');

If you run this code on Spring 2011 Preview 1 or later, you'll see this in the log:

*** Script: Log Object: myObj Object x: string = bogonomics y: string = taxicide

z: number = 1459392

Nothing profound here, just a nicely formatted description of what you've got in that object. But that's a very handy thing! The last line, of course, is what produces the log entry. The logObject() method in JSUtil takes two arguments. The first is simply the object you want a description of. The second is optional; it's the name of that object, so you can identify it in the log (very useful if your script has several logObject() calls for different variables).Now we'll do something slightly more complicated. Try this code:

var myObj = {};myObj.w = {a:'elephant',b:'giraffe',c:'hyena',d:'kitten'};myObj.x = 'bogonomics';myObj.y = 'taxicide';myObj.z = 1459392;

JSUtil.logObject(myObj, 'myObj');

Now you'll see this in the log:

*** Script: Log Object: myObj Object y: string = taxicide z: number = 1459392 w: Object c: string = hyena d: string = kitten a: string = elephant b: string = giraffe

x: string = bogonomics

The property myObj.w is itself an object, containing the properties a, b, c, and d. The logObject() method walks through all of these and outputs them as well, indented so that you can see that they're all part of w. With logObject(), you can log objects with up to 25 levels of contained objects, all with a single line of code.We've recently enhanced the logObject() method so that it will explicitly log GlideRecord and GlideElement instances, providing useful information for them in the output. Here's one last example, this time a business rule, and showing how you can use logObject() to see what's in the global context of any script. Here's the business rule I created (it doesn't matter what table you do this on):

JSUtil.logObject(this, 'Business Rule Global Context');

Here's what you'll get:

*** Script: Log Object: Business Rule Global Context Object cmdbCIChildren: function incidentGetViewName: function getRoleDelegatorGroupOptions: function sys_meta_BUILDER: GlideElement (or child): sys_meta_BUILDER = System meta data v_field_editor_typeGetChoices: function isMandatoryNotification: function sys_action_collection: string = sys_script_include sys_action_table: Java Object: com.glide.script.GlideRecordBusinessRules cti: function doesEntryFloat: function getNextObjNumberPadded: function getRelatedRecords: function system: Object action: Java Object: com.glide.script.Action populatedFilterRefQual: function sc_req_itemGetViewName: function g_warn_time: number = 100 getRelatedGroup: function getCurrencyFilter: function UserGetSysId: function v_field_editor_lengthGetChoices: function cmdb_rel_type_suggest_relationshipGetChoices: function getUsersForRoleDelegation: function sc_req_item_stageGetChoices: function current: GlideRecord('sys_script_include') @ AbstractAjaxProcessor sc_cat_itemGetViewName: function global_simple_events: function historyRecordPresent: function answer: null = null GetIDValue: function deleteAllRecords: function workflowTaskTemplateReferenceQualifier: function getBannerText: function kbGetText: function sys_action: string = update sys_include_map: Java Object: java.util.HashSet addChoiceType: function updateSetPreviewInstalled: function google_getLatLong: function getNextObjNumber: function v_ws_field_editor_lengthGetChoices: function getUserDashboards: function recordHasUpdateXML: function checkForUnscheduled: function getRoledUsers: function now: function sys_userGetEmailAddress: function homeGetViewName: function __wf_engine_stack_count: number = 1 getGroupMembersGivenGroupID: function getDelegatableRoles: function nowDateTime: function dynamicUserCreation: function GetReasonForChange: function sys_action_when: string = after getMyApprovals: function addWFVariables: function getPrimaryCompany: function closeRelatedTasks: function getRelatedCI: function closeProblem: function recurseParents: function sys_script_include: Java Object: com.glide.script.GlideRecordBusinessRules Class: Object create: function sc_req_item_stage_DeliveryPlanChoices: function sys_dictionary_elementCanWrite: function getUserHomepages: function addVarsForSet: function getMyGroups: function getLDAPSources: function action: Java Object: com.glide.script.Action cmn_notif_device_listGetViewName: function getRoleListIds: function getGroupQualifier: function GlideArrayRecord: function calculatePriority: function addVariableSets: function cmn_notif_deviceGetViewName: function recurseImageParents: function emailsToUsers: function getMyRoleDelegationGroups: function checkAllApprovers: function global_events: function gs: Object action: Java Object: com.glide.script.Action getMyAssignments: function limitFieldType: function previous: GlideRecord('sys_script_include') @ AbstractAjaxProcessor ProposedChangesExist: function closeIncident: function globalListen: function trim: function incidentGetCaller: function sys_meta: GlideElement (or child): sys_meta_BUILDER = System meta data getDisplayValueOf: function addVariables: function getDefaultDeliveryPlan: function getRoleDelegatorOptions: function incident_listGetViewName: function GetGroupFilter: function closeChange: function limitFieldLength: function isApprovalMine: function isAdvancedUI: function notifDeviceRefQual: function JSUtil: function getBannerSrc: function lastWeek: function getGroupMembersGivenGroupName: function getDictionaryEntry: function getBaseFilter: function getGroupsInHierarchy: function getAllMembersOfMyGroups: function sys_dictionary_nameCanWrite: function kbWriteComment: function createProblem: function padObjNumber: function zz_transaction_cache: Java Object: com.glide.sys.cache.LRUCache wf_variables: function

getGroupMembers: function

There's a lot of stuff in a business rule's global context! But note in particular how functions, GlideRecords, and GlideElements are shown. You can figure out a lot just from this listing. The functions are from global business rules, and you can find them in there to see what they do. You can see "current", and what table and record that GlideRecord is on.

To get the global context in any script, all you need to do is put the code JSUtil.logObject(this, 'a name'); at the beginning of the script. When the script executes, that will log the the contents of "this", which at that moment is a reference to the global context (because the global context is itself an object).