How to debug Episerver UI code

TL;DR
To run your site with uncompressed JavaScript in edit mode add <clientResources debug="true" /> to your web.config inside the episerver.framework element.

JavaScript Debug Files Explained

A while back I posted a blog about using uncompressed JavaScript files for debugging EPiServer 7. I thought it would be worth highlighting how you can use uncompressed JavaScript in EPiServer 7.6 and onwards and how it works with the new continuous release cycle. I am happy to say it is even easier than before!

As of EPiServer 7.6 the CMS UI has been released via NuGet packages. These packages contain all the JavaScript files required to run the UI compressed into a zip file. The system then reads the contents of the zip file at run time. The great thing about this approach is that at initialization, if the client resources debug flag is set to true, the system will first look for a debug version of the JavaScript zip file and load that instead if it exists.

In order to have the system use the debug files you need to enable debug mode for client resources. You can do this simply by adding the <clientResources debug="true" /> element to your web.config inside the episerver.framework element. You can then toggle the debug files on and off by changing the value of the debug attribute from true to false.

EPiServer.CMS.UI.Sources (advanced topic)

This nuget package contains all original UI source files together with uncompressed dojo & dijit.

That source package is built as part of every release so it ties quite simply into the continuous release cycle. You can install it the same way you would any other NuGet package from nuget.episerver.com.

Install-Package EPiServer.CMS.UI.Sources

In case you ever need to manipulate sources files and then create a customized dojo build you can use that package. It comes together with all dojo build tools.

Please note that in order to debug the EPiServer edit mode you don't need that package. The config change described above is sufficient.