_debug.js - a simple helper for debugging via console with customizable colours for different categories of message. More info: http://simianstudios.com/blog/post/a-simple-helper-for-javascript-debugging-via-console.log

_debug.js

/*!  
 *  _debug.js (c) Kris Noble 2015 - http://simianstudios.com
 *  @license MIT 
 */ 
/* 
 *  Simple helper for debugging via console with 
 *  customizable colours for different categories of info.
 *   
 *  Usage:
 *  1. Define categoryColors e.g. 
 *     <category>: {color: '<text color>', background: '<bg color>'}
 *     n.b. 'standard' is the default if the category is not provided/defined
 *  2. Call debug(message, category) or just debug(message)
 * 
 *  Notes:
 *  - Use debugMode to turn debugging on or off temporarily
 *  - debugLevel is an array of categories to output, or use 'all' to output everything
 *  - removing _debug.js from includes will cause errors if you have 
 *    debug() calls in your main code - this is intentional to avoid
 *    having debug code in production if not desired
 */

// Settings
var 	debugMode = true,
	debugLevel = new Array('all'),
    	categoryColors = {
        	standard: {color: 'black', background: 'white'},
        	example: {color: 'blue', background: 'white'}
    	};

function debug(message, category) {	
	// error handling: category not provided or provided but not defined above
	category = typeof category !== 'undefined' && typeof categoryColors[category] !== 'undefined' ? category : 'standard';
	
	// check that debugging is on and that the category is selected for output
	if(debugMode && (debugLevel.indexOf('all') !== -1 || debugLevel.indexOf(category) !== -1)) {	
		console.log("%c" + message, "color:" + categoryColors[category].color + "; background:" + categoryColors[category].background + ";");
	}
}