--- a/devtools/client/debugger/views/variable-bubble-view.js
+++ b/devtools/client/debugger/views/variable-bubble-view.js
@@ -4,16 +4,18 @@
  * License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
  * file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/. */
 /* import-globals-from ../debugger-controller.js */
 /* import-globals-from ../debugger-view.js */
 /* import-globals-from ../utils.js */
 /* globals document, window */
 "use strict";
 
+const {setTooltipVariableContent} = require("devtools/client/shared/widgets/tooltip/VariableContentHelper");
+
 /**
  * Functions handling the variables bubble UI.
  */
 function VariableBubbleView(DebuggerController, DebuggerView) {
   dumpn("VariableBubbleView was instantiated");
 
   this.StackFrames = DebuggerController.StackFrames;
   this.Parser = DebuggerController.Parser;
@@ -193,17 +195,17 @@ VariableBubbleView.prototype = {
         label: L10N.getStr("addWatchExpressionButton"),
         className: "dbg-expression-button",
         command: () => {
           this.DebuggerView.VariableBubble.hideContents();
           this.DebuggerView.WatchExpressions.addExpression(evalPrefix, true);
         }
       }]);
     } else {
-      this._tooltip.setVariableContent(objectActor, {
+      setTooltipVariableContent(this._tooltip, objectActor, {
         searchPlaceholder: L10N.getStr("emptyPropertiesFilterText"),
         searchEnabled: Prefs.variablesSearchboxVisible,
         eval: (variable, value) => {
           let string = variable.evaluationMacro(variable, value);
           this.StackFrames.evaluate(string);
           this.DebuggerView.VariableBubble.hideContents();
         }
       }, {

--- a/devtools/client/shared/widgets/Tooltip.js
+++ b/devtools/client/shared/widgets/Tooltip.js
@@ -9,31 +9,25 @@ const defer = require("devtools/shared/d
 const {Spectrum} = require("devtools/client/shared/widgets/Spectrum");
 const {CubicBezierWidget} =
       require("devtools/client/shared/widgets/CubicBezierWidget");
 const {CSSFilterEditorWidget} = require("devtools/client/shared/widgets/FilterWidget");
 const {TooltipToggle} = require("devtools/client/shared/widgets/tooltip/TooltipToggle");
 const EventEmitter = require("devtools/shared/event-emitter");
 const {colorUtils} = require("devtools/shared/css-color");
 const Heritage = require("sdk/core/heritage");
-const {XPCOMUtils} = require("resource://gre/modules/XPCOMUtils.jsm");
 const {HTMLTooltip} = require("devtools/client/shared/widgets/HTMLTooltip");
 const {KeyShortcuts} = require("devtools/client/shared/key-shortcuts");
 const {Task} = require("devtools/shared/task");
 
 loader.lazyRequireGetter(this, "beautify", "devtools/shared/jsbeautify/beautify");
 loader.lazyRequireGetter(this, "setNamedTimeout", "devtools/client/shared/widgets/view-helpers", true);
 loader.lazyRequireGetter(this, "clearNamedTimeout", "devtools/client/shared/widgets/view-helpers", true);
 loader.lazyRequireGetter(this, "setNamedTimeout", "devtools/client/shared/widgets/view-helpers", true);
 
-XPCOMUtils.defineLazyModuleGetter(this, "VariablesView",
-  "resource://devtools/client/shared/widgets/VariablesView.jsm");
-XPCOMUtils.defineLazyModuleGetter(this, "VariablesViewController",
-  "resource://devtools/client/shared/widgets/VariablesViewController.jsm");
-
 const XHTML_NS = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml";
 const ESCAPE_KEYCODE = Ci.nsIDOMKeyEvent.DOM_VK_ESCAPE;
 const POPUP_EVENTS = ["shown", "hidden", "showing", "hiding"];
 
 /**
  * Tooltip widget.
  *
  * This widget is intended at any tool that may need to show rich content in the
@@ -422,88 +416,16 @@ Tooltip.prototype = {
       hbox.appendChild(vbox);
       this.content = hbox;
     } else {
       this.content = vbox;
     }
   },
 
   /**
-   * Fill the tooltip with a variables view, inspecting an object via its
-   * corresponding object actor, as specified in the remote debugging protocol.
-   *
-   * @param {object} objectActor
-   *        The value grip for the object actor.
-   * @param {object} viewOptions [optional]
-   *        Options for the variables view visualization.
-   * @param {object} controllerOptions [optional]
-   *        Options for the variables view controller.
-   * @param {object} relayEvents [optional]
-   *        A collection of events to listen on the variables view widget.
-   *        For example, { fetched: () => ... }
-   * @param {boolean} reuseCachedWidget [optional]
-   *        Pass false to instantiate a brand new widget for this variable.
-   *        Otherwise, if a variable was previously inspected, its widget
-   *        will be reused.
-   * @param {Toolbox} toolbox [optional]
-   *        Pass the instance of the current toolbox if you want the variables
-   *        view widget to allow highlighting and selection of DOM nodes
-   */
-  setVariableContent: function (objectActor,
-                               viewOptions = {},
-                               controllerOptions = {},
-                               relayEvents = {},
-                               extraButtons = [],
-                               toolbox = null) {
-    let vbox = this.doc.createElement("vbox");
-    vbox.className = "devtools-tooltip-variables-view-box";
-    vbox.setAttribute("flex", "1");
-
-    let innerbox = this.doc.createElement("vbox");
-    innerbox.className = "devtools-tooltip-variables-view-innerbox";
-    innerbox.setAttribute("flex", "1");
-    vbox.appendChild(innerbox);
-
-    for (let { label, className, command } of extraButtons) {
-      let button = this.doc.createElement("button");
-      button.className = className;
-      button.setAttribute("label", label);
-      button.addEventListener("command", command);
-      vbox.appendChild(button);
-    }
-
-    let widget = new VariablesView(innerbox, viewOptions);
-
-    // If a toolbox was provided, link it to the vview
-    if (toolbox) {
-      widget.toolbox = toolbox;
-    }
-
-    // Analyzing state history isn't useful with transient object inspectors.
-    widget.commitHierarchy = () => {};
-
-    for (let e in relayEvents) {
-      widget.on(e, relayEvents[e]);
-    }
-    VariablesViewController.attach(widget, controllerOptions);
-
-    // Some of the view options are allowed to change between uses.
-    widget.searchPlaceholder = viewOptions.searchPlaceholder;
-    widget.searchEnabled = viewOptions.searchEnabled;
-
-    // Use the object actor's grip to display it as a variable in the widget.
-    // The controller options are allowed to change between uses.
-    widget.controller.setSingleVariable(
-      { objectActor: objectActor }, controllerOptions);
-
-    this.content = vbox;
-    this.panel.setAttribute("clamped-dimensions", "");
-  },
-
-  /**
    * Load a document into an iframe, and set the iframe
    * to be the tooltip's content.
    *
    * Used by tooltips that want to load their interface
    * into an iframe from a URL.
    *
    * @param {string} width
    *        Width of the iframe.

new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/devtools/client/shared/widgets/tooltip/VariableContentHelper.js
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+/* -*- indent-tabs-mode: nil; js-indent-level: 2 -*- */
+/* vim: set ft=javascript ts=2 et sw=2 tw=80: */
+/* This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
+ * License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
+ * file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/. */
+
+"use strict";
+
+const {XPCOMUtils} = require("resource://gre/modules/XPCOMUtils.jsm");
+
+XPCOMUtils.defineLazyModuleGetter(this, "VariablesView",
+  "resource://devtools/client/shared/widgets/VariablesView.jsm");
+XPCOMUtils.defineLazyModuleGetter(this, "VariablesViewController",
+  "resource://devtools/client/shared/widgets/VariablesViewController.jsm");
+
+/**
+ * Fill the tooltip with a variables view, inspecting an object via its
+ * corresponding object actor, as specified in the remote debugging protocol.
+ *
+ * @param {Tooltip} tooltip
+ *        The tooltip to use
+ * @param {object} objectActor
+ *        The value grip for the object actor.
+ * @param {object} viewOptions [optional]
+ *        Options for the variables view visualization.
+ * @param {object} controllerOptions [optional]
+ *        Options for the variables view controller.
+ * @param {object} relayEvents [optional]
+ *        A collection of events to listen on the variables view widget.
+ *        For example, { fetched: () => ... }
+ * @param {array} extraButtons [optional]
+ *        An array of extra buttons to add.  Each element of the array
+ *        should be of the form {label, className, command}.
+ * @param {Toolbox} toolbox [optional]
+ *        Pass the instance of the current toolbox if you want the variables
+ *        view widget to allow highlighting and selection of DOM nodes
+ */
+
+function setTooltipVariableContent(tooltip, objectActor,
+                                   viewOptions = {}, controllerOptions = {},
+                                   relayEvents = {}, extraButtons = [],
+                                   toolbox = null) {
+  let doc = tooltip.doc;
+  let vbox = doc.createElement("vbox");
+  vbox.className = "devtools-tooltip-variables-view-box";
+  vbox.setAttribute("flex", "1");
+
+  let innerbox = doc.createElement("vbox");
+  innerbox.className = "devtools-tooltip-variables-view-innerbox";
+  innerbox.setAttribute("flex", "1");
+  vbox.appendChild(innerbox);
+
+  for (let { label, className, command } of extraButtons) {
+    let button = doc.createElement("button");
+    button.className = className;
+    button.setAttribute("label", label);
+    button.addEventListener("command", command);
+    vbox.appendChild(button);
+  }
+
+  let widget = new VariablesView(innerbox, viewOptions);
+
+  // If a toolbox was provided, link it to the vview
+  if (toolbox) {
+    widget.toolbox = toolbox;
+  }
+
+  // Analyzing state history isn't useful with transient object inspectors.
+  widget.commitHierarchy = () => {};
+
+  for (let e in relayEvents) {
+    widget.on(e, relayEvents[e]);
+  }
+  VariablesViewController.attach(widget, controllerOptions);
+
+  // Some of the view options are allowed to change between uses.
+  widget.searchPlaceholder = viewOptions.searchPlaceholder;
+  widget.searchEnabled = viewOptions.searchEnabled;
+
+  // Use the object actor's grip to display it as a variable in the widget.
+  // The controller options are allowed to change between uses.
+  widget.controller.setSingleVariable(
+    { objectActor: objectActor }, controllerOptions);
+
+  tooltip.content = vbox;
+  tooltip.panel.setAttribute("clamped-dimensions", "");
+}
+
+exports.setTooltipVariableContent = setTooltipVariableContent;

--- a/devtools/client/shared/widgets/tooltip/moz.build
+++ b/devtools/client/shared/widgets/tooltip/moz.build
@@ -4,9 +4,10 @@
 # License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
 # file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
 
 DevToolsModules(
     'CssDocsTooltip.js',
     'EventTooltipHelper.js',
     'ImageTooltipHelper.js',
     'TooltipToggle.js',
+    'VariableContentHelper.js',
 )