BrowserSim and CordovaSim have a new JavaFx web engine as an alternative to SWT WebKit. In the original there was only one web engine - SWT WebKit. Unfortunately, it has several drawbacks. For example, using SWT WebKit on Windows requires Apple Safari installation (provides SWT WebKit engine), which is pretty obsolete for now - May 9, 2012 is the date of the last update. Moreover, SWT WebKit doesn’t support Debugger API. Due to these limitations it was decided to add JavaFX web engine support. Web engine can be changed in Menu → Preferences → Settings Tab → Browser Engine.

Eclipse console logging is available for both SWT Webkit and JavaFx web engines. Now the output of the main javascript console functions (console.log, console.info, console.warn, console.error) is displayed in the Eclipse console.

Dev Tools Debugger is available only for JavaFx web engine. One can connect the debugger to the BrowserSim / CordovaSim (Right click → Debug → Dev Tools…​) and step through the code, introspect variables and so forth.

Here is a short demo video with the new features:

For one who doesn’t use Eclipse / JBoss Developer Studio there is a standalone mode of BrowserSim. However, only SWT WebKit web engine is supported (we are planning to add JavaFx support in the next releases - JBIDE-18703). More details about BrowserSim standalone can be found in the following blog.

BrowserSim FAQ can be found here. If you wasn’t able to find the answer, just post your question in the comments to this blog.

We are trying our best to make our tools as good as possible. User feedback is what we are seeking for now. We look forward to hearing your comments, remarks and proposals. Please, comment below about features you would you like to have in the upcoming releases!
Have fun!

Ilya Buziuk
@ilyabuziuk