Debugging and Unpacking Custom Widgets in Bold BI

When working with custom widgets in Bold BI, you may need to debug or access the unpacked version of the widget for further development or troubleshooting. The following steps will guide you through the process of debugging and unpacking a custom widget file (.bicw).

Unpacking a Custom Widget

To get an unpacked version of a .bicw file, follow these steps:

1. Ensure you have the custom widget .bicw file ready.
2. Rename the .bicw file extension to .zip. This can be done by right-clicking the file and selecting the “rename” option.
3. Extract the contents of the renamed .zip file. After extraction, you will find the script files located under the src folder.
4. Within the src folder, you will find the custom widget-based script named sourcefile.js, along with other control scripts.

Debugging a Custom Widget

To debug the custom widget, perform the following:

1. Open the src/sourcefile.js file and place the debugger statements where you need to troubleshoot the code.
2. Launch the Bold BI Designer in your web browser.
3. Right-click on the browser window and select “Inspect” to open the developer tools.
4. In the Bold BI Designer, drag and drop the custom widget onto the design surface.
5. The browser’s developer tools will allow you to step through the code, inspect variables, and understand the behavior of the custom widget.

Now we can debug the init and update methods in the custom widget.

Additional Resources

• Create New Custom Widget
• How to Add a Bullet Chart Custom Widget in Bold BI Server