Developer & Advanced Tools

Built-in utility tools for advanced users and developers, used for debugging, visual customization, or in-depth troubleshooting.

Mesh Gradient Debugging Tool

The Mesh Gradient Debugging Tool is a built-in visual debugging tool primarily used for previewing and customizing the dynamic background effects used in the Share Snapshot feature.

Core Features

Real-time Preview: View background generation results instantly under different combinations of Seed, Palette, and Layout.
Palette Browser: View all built-in color palettes and their hex codes.
Layout Switching: Browse all supported mesh deformation layouts.
Overlay Simulation: Toggle the data overlay to simulate real snapshot generation.

How to Access

Since this tool is mainly for development and testing, it's not included in the regular menus. You can access it as follows:

Open the "Settings" page of the extension.
In the browser address bar, append #mesh-gradient-lab to options.html.
- For example: chrome-extension://<id>/options.html#mesh-gradient-lab
The page will automatically switch to the debugging view.

Debugging & Logs

If you encounter unexplained issues during use, you can use the browser's built-in developer tools for troubleshooting.

1. View Background Page `Service Worker` Logs

Go to the browser's extension management page (chrome://extensions).
Enable "Developer mode".
Click "View: Service Worker" in the All API Hub card.
Here you can see low-level logs for background requests, auto-refresh, and WebDAV sync.

Right-click on the plugin popup or settings page and select "Inspect".
Switch to the "Console" tab to view UI-layer logs.

Verifying the Uninstall Survey Locally

The uninstall feedback survey page lives in docs/docs/.vuepress/public/uninstall.html and is published verbatim by the documentation site. By default, a locally built extension registers no uninstall page address, so uninstalling it locally opens nothing; use the steps below to enable it temporarily for local verification.

1. Preview the Survey Page Locally

The survey page is fully static and opens without any injected configuration:

# Open the file directly
start docs/docs/.vuepress/public/uninstall.html   # Windows
open docs/docs/.vuepress/public/uninstall.html    # macOS

# Or through the documentation site's dev server (same path as production)
pnpm --dir docs docs:dev
# Then visit http://localhost:8080/uninstall.html

You can append parameters by hand to simulate a real uninstall:

uninstall.html?uid=analytics-test&v=4.0.0&d=42&lang=zh-CN

d is the number of days between installation and uninstall. Without PostHog configuration the page sends no network request and only prints what it would send to the browser console ([uninstall-survey] not sent), so a local preview produces no analytics.

2. Run a Real Uninstall Flow in a Local Build

Development and test builds skip registration by default. In development mode, open the Dev panel (the floating ball icon at the bottom right of the options page) and use the "Uninstall survey" section:

Survey target: shows the current target address and switches between the local documentation site (http://localhost:8080/uninstall.html) and the deployed page. The choice is remembered. Switching takes effect only after you register again.
Compose URL preview: composes and shows the address without registering it; the parameters can be copied.
Register uninstall URL: registers the current target address with the browser immediately; then remove the extension on chrome://extensions and the browser should open that page. Registration is an explicit action and is not affected by the default dev/test skip.
Open survey page: opens the survey page directly as a preview; the uid parameter is removed automatically, so the preview is not counted as a real uninstall.
Clear uninstall URL: clears the registered address.

Note that the browser opens this page only after an uninstall; disabling the extension does not trigger it. The background Service Worker console logs Uninstall survey URL registered with the parameters listed separately (the logger redacts the query string of URLs).

For scripted automated testing, environment variables can also register the address automatically on every background startup:

VITE_PUBLIC_UNINSTALL_SURVEY_DEV=1 \
VITE_PUBLIC_UNINSTALL_SURVEY_URL=http://localhost:8080/uninstall.html \
pnpm dev

VITE_PUBLIC_UNINSTALL_SURVEY_DEV=1 is the key switch: without it, dev/test builds always skip automatic registration.
VITE_PUBLIC_UNINSTALL_SURVEY_URL points the address at a local page or your own test page so it never reaches the production survey page. When omitted, the production address is used.