FM BetterForms Docs
BF Editorfmbetterforms.com
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  • Introduction
  • 🏆Features
  • Getting Started
    • Welcome to FM BetterForms!
    • System Overview
    • Quick Tour of the BetterForms IDE
    • 1. Setting Up Your Foundation
      • 1.1 Configure FileMaker Server
      • 1.2 Install BetterForms Helper File
      • 1.3 Add Your Server to BetterForms (IDE)
    • 2. Building Your First Application
      • 2.1 Create an App (Site) in the IDE
      • 2.2 Create Your First Page (Intro to Page Builder)
      • 2.3 Understanding & Managing Environments (IDE)
      • 2.4 Adding Elements to Your Page
      • 2.5 Understanding Validation
      • 2.6 Adding Actions to Your Page
      • 2.7 Creating Your First List View
      • 2.8 Understanding Page Data Flow
      • 2.9 Creating Your First Hook
      • 2.10 Working with Data Tables (Coming Soon)
    • 3. Understanding Core BetterForms Concepts
      • 3.1 Introduction to Hooks (and where to find them in the IDE)
      • 3.2 Running Your First Hook (Practical Example)
      • 3.3 Introduction to Actions & Action Scripts (IDE Context)
      • 3.4 Understanding the Data Model (and Page Data Model UI)
    • 4. Common Customizations & Expanding Your App
      • 4.1 Adding & Configuring Buttons (Page Builder)
      • 4.2 Implementing Page Navigation (Actions & Site Navigation UI)
      • 4.3 Displaying Data in Tables (Page Builder & Element Config)
      • 4.4 Basic App Styling (Site Styling UI)
    • 5. Mastering the BetterForms Environment & Advancing Your Skills
      • 5.1 Understanding & Managing Environments (In-Depth)
      • 5.2 Deep Dive: Page Configuration & Settings
        • Navigating the Page Builder Interface
        • Working with Page-Level Action Scripts
        • Configuring the Page Data Model
        • Page Integration Settings Explained
        • Managing Page Info & Other Settings
      • 5.3 Working with Global Scripts
      • 5.4 Managing App (Site) Settings & Navigation
      • 5.5 Exploring Further: What to Learn Next
    • Support & Resources
      • Getting Help
      • Learning JSON
  • Reference
    • Site Settings
      • Navigation
      • App Model
      • DOM Header Insertions
      • Global Named Actions
      • Site Structure
      • Slots / Code Injection
    • Developer Mode
    • Page Settings
      • Data Model
      • Card / Window Modals
      • Validation
        • Custom Validators
      • Misc Page Settings
    • Page Elements
      • Copy of Site Structure
      • BetterForms Elements
        • Checkbox
        • Checklist
        • Cleave.js Input Masking
        • DateTime Picker
        • Google Address Autocomplete
        • Image Display Element
        • Input
        • Masked Input
        • Range Slider (noUiSlider)
        • Radios
        • Select
        • Advanced Select (selectEx)
        • TextArea
      • Common
        • Input
        • Button
        • Data Table
        • HTML
      • Grouping Elements
        • Tabs
        • Panel
        • accordion
        • accordion2
        • listrows
      • Uploading Files
        • dropzone
        • dropzone to S3
        • uploadCare
        • 🏗️Uppy File Upload Widget Integration with AWS S3
      • Misc Elements
        • Plain Text / Code Editor
        • signature
        • fullCalendar
        • rangeSlider
      • Payment Gateways
        • Authorize.net
        • PayPal
        • Stripe
      • Adding Custom Page Elements
    • Actions Processor
      • Named Actions (Action Scripts)
      • Actions
        • runUtilityHook
        • path
        • debounce
        • throttle
        • showAlert
        • showModal / hideModal
        • function
        • clipboard
        • cookie
        • setFocus
        • scrollTo
        • wait
        • emit
        • validate
        • channelJoinAnon
        • channelLeaveAnon
        • messageSend
        • messageSendAnonChannel
        • consoleError
        • showStripeCheckout
      • Authentication Actions
    • Script Hooks
      • Globals Variables
        • $$BF_Model
        • $$BF_App
        • $$BF_State
      • Keeping Keys Private
      • Reducing Payload Size
      • API Callback Endpoint
      • Common Hooks
      • Scoped Hooks
    • Users & Authentication
      • Managing User Accounts
      • Custom Login Pages
      • OAuth
    • Advanced Configuration
      • Custom Domains
    • BF Utility Functions
      • Example Usage
        • BF.i18n()
    • BF Error Codes
    • Messaging
      • Adding users to channels
      • Removing users from channels
      • Sending messages
      • Get connected users
      • Get active channels
    • Practices for File Downloads
    • BF Streaming Proxy
    • Updating the Helper File
    • Connection Trouble Shooting Guide
    • Software Testing Overview
    • JavaScript Libraries
    • FM BetterForms - Quality Assurance
    • Rollbacks and Version Control
    • BF Server Proxy
    • Setting up Auth0
    • Create an S3 Bucket on AWS
    • ApexCharts - Getting started
    • BF Enterprise Documentation
    • BetterForms Error Pages API
    • BF Streaming API
    • LLM Query API
    • Creating a PWA
  • Usage Tips
    • Troubleshooting
      • Debugging
      • Frozen Actions Queue
      • Vue Variables
    • JavaScript Tips
      • Calling Named Actions from HTML Vue Events
      • Calculations
    • Hacking a Webpage
    • System Overview
    • Forms Processor
      • Form Types
      • HTML & VueJS
      • Styling and Design
    • Customizing and Styling
      • Custom CSS
      • Custom Components
        • Components Editor
        • Component Best Practices
      • Page Pre-loaders
      • Favicon
    • Design Patterns and Best Practices
      • Working with environments
      • Handling Data
      • Saving Data
      • Data Optimization
      • Business Logic
      • UI / UX
      • Debugging
      • Script Engine Optimization
    • Getting Started
    • Installation
  • Security
    • Authentication
    • Security White Paper
    • Firewalls
    • Technology Stack
  • Compatibility
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  • Inspecting an Element
  • Debugging JavaScript

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  1. Usage Tips

Hacking a Webpage

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Last updated 10 months ago

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As you begin to play around with BetterForms, you may find that sometimes you want to dig deeper into the webpage to understand what's really going on—especially if things don't display just right! If you're familiar with basic web development, these techniques may already seem familiar to you.

Hacking a webpage requires that you use the developer tools that are built into your browser. For a brief intro about how to use the developer tools in your browser, check out . We recommend using Google Chrome for development, but these tips should work in FireFox and Safari just the same.

These tips are only relevant for debugging JavaScript, HTML, and CSS in the web browser. If you're experiencing issues with your data not behaving as expected, you may want to start with your instead.

Inspecting an Element

An easy way to open the developer tools in most browsers is to right-click on any element and select "Inspect Element". This opens the developer tools panel with the element you selected highlighted in the HTML code. From here, you can easily see how the JSON schema of the BetterForms editor translates to the HTML element on the page. You can even edit the HTML directly in the developer tools panel to quickly see how the changes might affect the look of the page.

This panel also allows you to modify the CSS properties of an element. This is a great way to test how some CSS changes will look before you add them to your .

If you're new to CSS, this is a great way to expand your knowledge by playing around with existing sites. Check out for a quick overview.

Debugging JavaScript

If you have a function action that you want to step through line-by-line, you can add a debugger;statement to your code at the point you want the code to pause. Then, with your developer tools panel open, trigger the function (click the button or refresh the page, etc...).

You'll see your code pop up in your developer tools panel and can use the buttons to step over a function, step into/out of a function, or just play the script with the blue continue button. These buttons are very similar to those found in the FileMaker script debugger.

While a script is paused, you can mouse-over parts of a variable or JSON path to see the result of that data. This is very helpful to see if your JSON path reference is incorrect!

When you're done, don't forget to remove the debugger statement so that your scripts are better hidden in your production app!

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