Accessing iOS Safari Web Inspector from Windows Machine Accessing iOS Safari Web Inspector from Windows Machine windows windows

Accessing iOS Safari Web Inspector from Windows Machine


It appears to require Safari 6, which has not been released for Windows. Regarding the unavailability of Safari 6 on Windows, Apple has stated "Safari 6 is available for Mountain Lion and Lion. Safari 5 continues to be available for Windows."


I regularly use weinre. It basically runs a webserver that in turn acts as an inspector-enhanced proxy to browse webpages and websites. The inspector can be started by adding a script to your page or running a bookmarklet.

weinre is a debugger for web pages, like FireBug (for FireFox) and Web Inspector (for WebKit-based browsers), except it's designed to work remotely, and in particular, to allow you debug web pages on a mobile device such as a phone.

To install it, you will need NodeJS and NPM (included with NodeJS). You will also need a WebKit-based browser on the desktop/receiver end (Safari, Google Chrome, or Chromium). It should work on Windows, OSX, and Linux.

If you already have NodeJS and NPM installed, you can install and run it with:

npm i -g weinreweinre# Go to the URL that it outputs for instructions to use it

screenshot of developer tools and ios simulator, showing weinre in action

UPDATE:

@EvAlex has pointed out another tool very similar to Weinre called Vorlon.js. It is pluggable and supports viewing/switching between the inspector of multiple devices simultaneously.


Setup Vorlon on Windows

npm i -g vorlonvorlon

Verify Vorlon is Running

Open a web browser and navigate to http://localhost:1337

Setup Ngrok

  • Download Ngrok: https://ngrok.com/download
  • Unzip it
  • Open a command prompt: Start -> Search -> cmd
  • Navigate to ngrok.exe: cd <ngrok_path_where_ngrok.exe is stored>/
  • Run it: ngrok.exe http <port> e.g. ngrok.exe http 1337

Ngrok provides a url e.g. https://0ad8c32f.ngrok.io -> localhost:1337

Copy and paste the ngrok url into your webpage.

<script src="https://0ad8c32f.ngrok.io/vorlon.js"></script>

Navigate to the page under test on your device(s):

http://thepageiwanttotest.com/testing123

References