Internet Explorer 7 Javascript Debugging
With the release of IE7 by Microsoft, I was eagerly anticipating some great new javascript debugging tools. So far, it looks like we’re stuck with what we had with IE6. So I’ve done some searching online to find some of the best IE7 Javascript Debugging links.
Debugging Javascript in IE 7
The following links are what we found when doing some research on debugging javascript in IE7. Doing a search for Internet Explorer 7 Javascript Debugging, yielded little results, mostly some old blog posts about IE’s lack of javascript debugging support. After a lot of frustration, and reading through the frustrated thoughts of tons of other bloggers, we found what looks like a good tool to debugging javascript in Internet Explorer. Although we haven’t been able to fully research and get these toosl working, they look promising. Here’s some of the better articles/web sites we found on the subject.
Peter-Paul Koch
http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2006/04/ie_7_and_javasc.html
PPK gives a good summary of the current state of IE7. This was written long before IE7 was released. However, the javascript capabilities of Internet Explorer 7 were’nt improved on since PPK wrote this. He also includes some good links to follow.
Alex Russell
http://alex.dojotoolkit.org/?p=536
Alex sums up what most web developers have felt like with having to work with IE7 for the past several years.
IEAddons.com
The official Internet Explorer Add-ons site. http://www.ieaddons.com/default.aspx?cid=home&scid=0 Here’s what you get when you do a search for Javascript Debugger:
http://www.ieaddons.com/SearchResults.aspx?keywords=javascript+debugger I would have thought they’d add some sort of javascript debugger as an add-on.
Microsoft Script Editor
However after looking around, we found out about Microsoft Script Debugger. The weird thing about it is that you can only get it with Office 2002+. ?!?! http://erik.eae.net/archives/2005/07/04/21.49.50/ here’s another link on using it: http://www.microsoftfrontpage.com/content/TipsAndTricks/FP2002/68_MicrosoftScriptEditor.htm. It seems like a great tool, but why wouldn’t Microsoft simply integrate it into Internet Explorer? Jonathan Boutelle has another write up on debugging javascript in Internet Explorer that discusses Microsoft Script Editor. http://www.jonathanboutelle.com/mt/archives/2006/01/howto_debug_jav.html
Finally, here’s an article from MSDN on debugging javascript (http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2004/10/26/247912.aspx), it talks about Microsoft Script Debugger, Visual Studio, and Microsoft Script Editor. Finally, an answer to our script debugging needs. We’re currently researching our script debugging options from these tools. Visual Studio is obviously too expensive for a javascript debugger unless you are developing with .net. So we’ll stick with the other two. In a future article I’ll post what we found, and a step-by-step guide to installing and setting up script debugging in Internet Explorer 7.
January 8th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
after a long search for a (good/any) javascript debugger for IE i found this: http://www.berniecode.com/blog/2007/03/08/how-to-debug-javascript-with-visual-web-developer-express/
I followed the instruction and it works fine with IE7 and windows vista, very slow installation though.
January 21st, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Incredible that Microsoft seem to not only b content with providing a completely sub-standard browser, but then to hide their incompetence, they make it nigh impossible to find out when there are JavaScript errors (which there are a lot with a browser like IE).
I hate Internet Explorer like the black plague!
February 20th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
MS and IE are straight from hell itself. I have JS that works fine under Mozilla, but is totally broken under IE7. MS doesn’t even have an JS error console, let alone a debugger. It’s back to the days of sticking alert() at every point of the code where I think it might be failing. It’s a trip back to the 70s! Thanks MS, you suck!
February 25th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Well, you can get it here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2f465be0-94fd-4569-b3c4-dffdf19ccd99&displaylang=en
It’s not great, though
February 28th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Don’t get confused between the two programs. The Microsoft Script Editor is included with MS Office and seems to be a reasonable debugger. The Microsoft Script Debugger is what Peter links to above. It’s a very different piece of software. It’s no longer supported and is a *very* poor tool.
February 28th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Microsoft Script Editor was still really hard to get to work, and you need MS Office to use it, which doesn’t seem to make any sense at all to me.
You are right about Microsoft Script Debugger, though, it’s a horrible tool that I wouldn’t touch anymore either. The most reliable method of debugging IE that I’ve found to this day is inserting alert statements.
March 3rd, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Two great tools firebug-lite http://www.getfirebug.com/lite.html and debugbar http://www.debugbar.com/. Love the debugbar a little bit more thx to the “real ” interface.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:14 am
I also have a javascript problem. Javascript is totally broken in ie7, but working fine on mozilla. I have reinstalled the browser and java runtime but no joy at all. Anyone have any ideas?
March 16th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Reinstalling the browser and java runtime won’t do anything… don’t let the name Javascript fool you, it has absolutely nothing to do with Java. My only advice would be to start adding alerts and see where the code breaks… if you can provide a URL that would help.
March 26th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
The best Java Script debugger comes with the Visual Web Developer Express edition. Download it from
http://www.microsoft.com/express/download/
it’s free.
Ensure IE 7 is set to “Display a notification about every script error” under Tools –> Internet Options –> Advanced Tab. Create a new project of Web Site type. Click the play button, and Visual Studio will launch IE 7. It might ask you if you want to enable debugging. You will start at your empty project, but you can type any address you want in the address bar and the debugger will still work.
I’m a Firebug Fan, but this is a really good JavaScript Debugger and seems smoother then Firebug.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:26 am
I went through pain of installing VS 2008 Express and the “trick” of starting with blank site and then when VS opens IE; i just go to my url.
Sure enough when i hit the error i am trying to debug it loads JS into VS debugger.
BUT - i don’t see how to get the file loaded before i run - i want to set breakpoints that occur before the error.
Like the rest here - no idea why MS has screwed this up so badly. First a horrible browser like ie7 and then no way to debug in it.
April 7th, 2008 at 10:24 am
IE7 is terrible. How to debug, is a secret.
The politicians at Microsoft want it this way, they are so afraid of the free softwareworld.
We must develop software especially games for Linux en may at last Microsoft stops to exist.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:47 am
In order to enable debugging on IE7 go to MS Office setup -> Add or Remove Features -> select Office Tools item -> click it -> select Run ALL from my computer item.
May 24th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Hey guys,
Wow, loads of headaches over this one. I did install VS2008 Web developer edition and the debugger is amazing. It found the problem, it was Flash trying to reference objects in a bizarre way. I was using SWF Object 1.5 to embed the flash.
Upgraded to SWFObject 2.0 and all the problems disappeared. Amazing progress!
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:32 am
Anyone tried both the VS 2008 express debugger and the Microsoft Script Editor (from Office)? Is VS 2008 best nowdays?