Dumper

An AutoHotkey V2 variable dumping tool for debugging and development.

Motivation

In other languages I've grown accustomed to having nicely formatted indenting when debugging my applications. While I could get by with AHK's built-in OutputDebug or my editors debugger, I just found myself missing the ease of use of a dump or console.log type function. I also just really dislike the standard suggestion of "use MsgBox() or ToolTip()".

Features

• nice indented formatting for objects
• console output
• string output
• MsgBox output
• Built-in GUI output
  • syntax highlighting
  • error capturing
  • remembers size and position
  • configurable stop on error
  • pause / resume
  • clear log
  • restart / exit app
  • can be auto added to your AHK systray
  • quiet dumps, silent but deadly
  • configurable hotkey
• recursion protection
• dump and exit app support
• customizable Console and GUI theme support

Disclaimer

While you can use Dumper with AHK 2.0 the GUI requires 2.1 alpha. Don't be afraid of the AHK alpha build, in my experience there hasn't been any downsides to using it. If for some reason you can't run the alpha, it wouldn't be difficult to make the few syntax adjustments for AHK v2. I'm avoiding maintaining multiple versions until if/when someone becomes vocal about this.

Examples

GUI Output

#Include <ahk-dumper\RichDumper>

str := "foobar"
dumpGui(str)

>
"foobar"

Console Output

#Include <ahk-dumper\Dumper>

str := "foobar"
dump(str)

>
"foobar"

i := 1234
dump(i)

>
1234

ary := [1, 2, 3]
dump(ary)

>
{
  [1]: 1,
  [2]: 2,
  [3]: 3
}

aryMap := Map("foo", "bar", "asdf", "jkl;")
dump(aryMap)

>
{
  ["asdf"]: "jkl;",
  ["foo"]: "bar"
}

obj := ary
obj.helloWorld := {
  foo: "bar",
  bar: [1, 2],
  baz: "asdf",
}
obj.objInObj := obj ;recursion protected
dump(obj)

>
{
  [1]: 1,
  [2]: 2,
  [3]: 3,
  helloWorld: {
    bar: {
      [1]: 1,
      [2]: 2
    },
    baz: "asdf",
    foo: "bar"
  },
  objInObj: *RECURSION PROTECTED*
}

String Output

str := dumpString(obj)
MsgBox(str, "obj converted to string output")

MsgBox Output

dumpMsgBox(obj)

Dump and Exit App

dumpExit("asdf")

>
"asdf"

Multiple Variables at Once

dump(str, i, ary, obj)

>
"foobar"
1234

...

How To

How should I include Dumper in my script?

There are two ways to include Dumper, choose only 1:

#Include <ahk-dumper\Dumper> ;minimalist, no GUI support, debug console support only
#Include <ahk-dumper\RichDumper> ;Includes GUI, requires 2.1 alpha

Change GUI Theme

You can change the GUI theme by modifying the richDumper := RichDump("dracula") line at the top of the RichDumper.ahk file. Available options are "dracula" and "vsCode"... or make your own in the RichThemes.ahk file:

richDumper := RichDump('vsCode')

Change Console Theme

You can change the console theme by modifying the setTheme section at the top of the Dumper.ahk file. Available options are "dracula" and "vsCode"... or make your own:

dump(values*) => Dumper().setTheme("vsCode").Call(values*)

Add GUI to SysTray

By default the GUI will automatically open anytime you call dumpGui(). This can be handy if you're quietly dumping or you just want to get back to your log after closing it.

richDumper.addToSysTray()

Disable GUI Error Reporting

Edit Richdumper.ahk and remove or comment out the richDumper.enableErrorCapturing() line

richDumper := RichDump("dracula")
;richDumper.enableErrorCapturing()

Turn On Quiet Dumps

If you want to log dumps and look at the output later you can turn on quiet dumping.

richDumper.enableQuietDumps()

Enable GUI Toggle Hotkey

If you're wafting in quiet dumps you might want to set a hotkey to make the GUI log more easily accessible. This method also accepts a hotIfCallback option.

richDumper.setHotkey("F1")

GUI Fluent Option Chaining

All of these GUI options can be fluently chained like this:

 richDumper.enableQuietDumps().addToSysTray().setHotkey("F1", () {
   return WinActive("ahk_exe Code.exe")
 })

See the output in VS Code

You'll need an AutoHotkey debugging extension. zero-plusplus's VS Code extension [link] is confirmed to work but others should work as well. Dumper doesn't do anything particuarly special. Any debugger that works with AHK's built-in OutputDebug[link] function should work with Dumper.

Once a debugger extension is installed and configured F5 will run your current .ahk file inside of VS Code. Find your "debug console" to see Dumper's output.

I don't have the Fira Code font, where do I get it?

It's in the Resources\FiraCode font folder. Install it and you should be all set.

I don't like the Fira Code font, I want to use another font.

That's fine, use whatever font you want but you'll have to adjust some values in the RichThemes.ahk file. If you don't adjust these the show/hide scrollbar functionality won't work correctly. Relevant variables:

  charWidth: 11,
  font: "Fira Code",
  fontSize: 14,
  lineHeight: 31,

Special Thanks

RichCode v2 branch by G33kDude

ColorButton by Nikola nperovic

Panaku in AHK Discord