Debugging JavaScript in IE7

Question

I need to debug JavaScript in Internet Explorer 7  Unfortunately  its default debugger doesn t provide me with much information  It tells me the page that the error showed up on  not the specific script  and gives me a line number   I don t know if that is related to my problem  It d be nice if it could narrow down the error to a line number on a specific script  like Firebug can   Is there an addon to debug JavaScript in IE7 like Firebug does in Firefox  Thank you  See also  Does IE7 have a    developer mode    or plugin like Firefox Chrome Safari

User · Answer

Microsoft Script Editor can be used to debug Javascript in IE. It's less buggy than Microsoft Script Debugger but has the same basic functionality, which unfortunately is pretty much limited to stepping through execution. I can't seem to inspect variables or any handy stuff like that. Also, it only shipped with Office XP/2003 for some bizarre reason. More info here if you're game.

I downloaded the Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition mentioned by Eugene Lazutkin but haven't had a chance to try it yet. I'd recommend trying that before Script Editor/Debugger.

User · Answer

It s not a full debugger  but my DP DEBUG extensions provides some  I think  usful functionality and they work in IE  Firefox and Opera  9     You can  dump  visual representations of complex JavaScript objects  even system objects   do simplified logging and timing   The component provides simple methods to enable or disable it so that you can leave the debugger in place for production work if you like   DP Debug

User · Answer

The hard truth is  the only good debugger for IE is Visual Studio   If you don t have money for the real deal  download free Visual Web Developer 2008 Express EditionVisual Web Developer 2010 Express Edition  While the former allows you to attach debugger to already running IE  the latter doesn t  at least previous versions I used didn t allow that   If this is still the case  the trick is to create a simple project with one empty web page   run  it  it starts the browser   now navigate to whatever page you want to debug  and start debugging   Microsoft gives away full Visual Studio on different events  usually with license restrictions  but they allow tinkering at home  Check their schedule and the list of freebies   Another hint  try to debug your web application with other browsers first  I had a great success with Opera  Somehow Opera s emulation of IE and its bugs was pretty close  but the debugger is much better

User · Answer

It s not a full debugger  but my DP DEBUG extensions provides some  I think  usful functionality and they work in IE  Firefox and Opera  9     You can  dump  visual representations of complex JavaScript objects  even system objects   do simplified logging and timing   The component provides simple methods to enable or disable it so that you can leave the debugger in place for production work if you like   DP Debug

User · Answer

Microsoft Script Editor can be used to debug Javascript in IE. It's less buggy than Microsoft Script Debugger but has the same basic functionality, which unfortunately is pretty much limited to stepping through execution. I can't seem to inspect variables or any handy stuff like that. Also, it only shipped with Office XP/2003 for some bizarre reason. More info here if you're game.

I downloaded the Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition mentioned by Eugene Lazutkin but haven't had a chance to try it yet. I'd recommend trying that before Script Editor/Debugger.

User · Answer

The hard truth is  the only good debugger for IE is Visual Studio   If you don t have money for the real deal  download free Visual Web Developer 2008 Express EditionVisual Web Developer 2010 Express Edition  While the former allows you to attach debugger to already running IE  the latter doesn t  at least previous versions I used didn t allow that   If this is still the case  the trick is to create a simple project with one empty web page   run  it  it starts the browser   now navigate to whatever page you want to debug  and start debugging   Microsoft gives away full Visual Studio on different events  usually with license restrictions  but they allow tinkering at home  Check their schedule and the list of freebies   Another hint  try to debug your web application with other browsers first  I had a great success with Opera  Somehow Opera s emulation of IE and its bugs was pretty close  but the debugger is much better

User · Answer

Microsoft Script Editor is indeed an option  and of the ones I ve tried one of the more stable ones -- the debugger in IE8 is great but for some reason whenever I start the Developer Tools it takes IE8 a while  sometimes up to a minute  to inspect my page s DOM tree  And afterwards it seems to want to do it on every page refresh which is a torture   You can inspect contents of variables in Microsoft Script editor  if you poke around under Debug   Window you can turn on local variable inspection  watching etc   The other option  Visual Web Dev  while bulky  works reasonably well  To set it up  do this  stolen from here     Debugging should be turned on in IE  Go into Tools   Internet Options   Advanced and check that Disable Script Debugging  Internet Explorer  is unchecked and Display a notification about every script error is checked Create a new empty web project inside of VWD Right-click on the site in the Solutions Explorer on the top right  go to Browse With and make sure your default browser is set to IE  it s reasonable to assume if you re a web developer IE is not your default browser in which case that won t be the default   by default  Hit F5  IE will open up  Browse to the page you want to debug  VWD will now open up any time you have a script error or if you set a breakpoint in one of the JS files  Debug away    UPDATE  By the way  if you experience the same slowdowns as me with IE8 s otherwise decent debugger  there is a workaround -- if you encounter or make IE encounter an error so that it pops up the  Do you want to debug  dialogue and hit Yes  the debugger will come up pretty much instantly  It seems like if you go  straight  into debugging mode the Dev Tools never inspect the DOM  It s only when you hit F12 that it does

User · Answer

IE8 has much improved developer tools   Until then it s best to write javascript for firefox first and then debug IE using alert   statements

User · Answer

Microsoft Script Editor is indeed an option  and of the ones I ve tried one of the more stable ones -- the debugger in IE8 is great but for some reason whenever I start the Developer Tools it takes IE8 a while  sometimes up to a minute  to inspect my page s DOM tree  And afterwards it seems to want to do it on every page refresh which is a torture   You can inspect contents of variables in Microsoft Script editor  if you poke around under Debug   Window you can turn on local variable inspection  watching etc   The other option  Visual Web Dev  while bulky  works reasonably well  To set it up  do this  stolen from here     Debugging should be turned on in IE  Go into Tools   Internet Options   Advanced and check that Disable Script Debugging  Internet Explorer  is unchecked and Display a notification about every script error is checked Create a new empty web project inside of VWD Right-click on the site in the Solutions Explorer on the top right  go to Browse With and make sure your default browser is set to IE  it s reasonable to assume if you re a web developer IE is not your default browser in which case that won t be the default   by default  Hit F5  IE will open up  Browse to the page you want to debug  VWD will now open up any time you have a script error or if you set a breakpoint in one of the JS files  Debug away    UPDATE  By the way  if you experience the same slowdowns as me with IE8 s otherwise decent debugger  there is a workaround -- if you encounter or make IE encounter an error so that it pops up the  Do you want to debug  dialogue and hit Yes  the debugger will come up pretty much instantly  It seems like if you go  straight  into debugging mode the Dev Tools never inspect the DOM  It s only when you hit F12 that it does

User · Answer

you might want to try microsoft script debugger it s pretty old but it s quite useful in the sense if you stumble on any javascript error  the debugger will popup to show you which line is messing up  it could get irrating sometimes when you do normal surfing  but you can turn if off   here s a good startup on how to use this tool too  HOW-TO  Debug JavaScript in Internet Explorer

User · Answer

Web Development Helper is very good   The IE Dev Toolbar is often helpful  but unfortunately doesn t do script debugging

User · Answer

The hard truth is  the only good debugger for IE is Visual Studio   If you don t have money for the real deal  download free Visual Web Developer 2008 Express EditionVisual Web Developer 2010 Express Edition  While the former allows you to attach debugger to already running IE  the latter doesn t  at least previous versions I used didn t allow that   If this is still the case  the trick is to create a simple project with one empty web page   run  it  it starts the browser   now navigate to whatever page you want to debug  and start debugging   Microsoft gives away full Visual Studio on different events  usually with license restrictions  but they allow tinkering at home  Check their schedule and the list of freebies   Another hint  try to debug your web application with other browsers first  I had a great success with Opera  Somehow Opera s emulation of IE and its bugs was pretty close  but the debugger is much better

User · Answer

you might want to try microsoft script debugger it s pretty old but it s quite useful in the sense if you stumble on any javascript error  the debugger will popup to show you which line is messing up  it could get irrating sometimes when you do normal surfing  but you can turn if off   here s a good startup on how to use this tool too  HOW-TO  Debug JavaScript in Internet Explorer

User · Answer

IE8 Developer Tools are able to switch to IE7 mode

User · Answer

Hey I came across the same problem and found this the application IETESTER  It s pretty awesome  it s an app that has IE 5 5 6  and 7 bundled into it  It doesn t matter what IE version you currently have  This allows you to have multiple versions side by side    If you enable javascript debugging in IE options and have Visual Studio installed you can even debug the javascript in VS with all the debug options available to you watches  conditional breakpoints  etc    If you want to start debugging before an error occurs you simply have to put the line  debugger    into your JS code and this bring you into VS to begin debugging after this statement    This is absolutely amazing to me for testing backward compatibility for JS code

User · Answer

Running your code through a Javascript static analysis tool like JSLint can catch some common IE7 errors  such as trailing commas in object definitions

User · Answer

you might want to try microsoft script debugger it s pretty old but it s quite useful in the sense if you stumble on any javascript error  the debugger will popup to show you which line is messing up  it could get irrating sometimes when you do normal surfing  but you can turn if off   here s a good startup on how to use this tool too  HOW-TO  Debug JavaScript in Internet Explorer

User · Answer

Web Development Helper is very good   The IE Dev Toolbar is often helpful  but unfortunately doesn t do script debugging

User · Answer

The hard truth is  the only good debugger for IE is Visual Studio   If you don t have money for the real deal  download free Visual Web Developer 2008 Express EditionVisual Web Developer 2010 Express Edition  While the former allows you to attach debugger to already running IE  the latter doesn t  at least previous versions I used didn t allow that   If this is still the case  the trick is to create a simple project with one empty web page   run  it  it starts the browser   now navigate to whatever page you want to debug  and start debugging   Microsoft gives away full Visual Studio on different events  usually with license restrictions  but they allow tinkering at home  Check their schedule and the list of freebies   Another hint  try to debug your web application with other browsers first  I had a great success with Opera  Somehow Opera s emulation of IE and its bugs was pretty close  but the debugger is much better

User · Answer

Running your code through a Javascript static analysis tool like JSLint can catch some common IE7 errors  such as trailing commas in object definitions

User · Answer

FireBug Lite   http   getfirebug com firebuglite

User · Answer

I ve found DebugBar   Not as good as Firebug  but close

User · Answer

I ve found DebugBar   Not as good as Firebug  but close

User · Answer

It s not a full debugger  but my DP DEBUG extensions provides some  I think  usful functionality and they work in IE  Firefox and Opera  9     You can  dump  visual representations of complex JavaScript objects  even system objects   do simplified logging and timing   The component provides simple methods to enable or disable it so that you can leave the debugger in place for production work if you like   DP Debug

User · Answer

I ve found DebugBar   Not as good as Firebug  but close

User · Answer

The answer is simple    Get Internet Explorer 9 Press F12 to load up Developer Tools Switch the browser mode to IE7

User · Answer

Web Development Helper is very good   The IE Dev Toolbar is often helpful  but unfortunately doesn t do script debugging

User · Answer

Hey I came across the same problem and found this the application IETESTER  It s pretty awesome  it s an app that has IE 5 5 6  and 7 bundled into it  It doesn t matter what IE version you currently have  This allows you to have multiple versions side by side    If you enable javascript debugging in IE options and have Visual Studio installed you can even debug the javascript in VS with all the debug options available to you watches  conditional breakpoints  etc    If you want to start debugging before an error occurs you simply have to put the line  debugger    into your JS code and this bring you into VS to begin debugging after this statement    This is absolutely amazing to me for testing backward compatibility for JS code

User · Answer

If you still need to Debug IE 7  the emulation mode of IE 11 is working pretty well   Go to menu  Dev Tools  then to emulation and set it  It also gives error line information

User · Answer

Use Internet Explorer 8  Then Try the developer tool   You can debug based on IE 7 also in compatibility mode

User · Answer

Microsoft Script Editor can be used to debug Javascript in IE. It's less buggy than Microsoft Script Debugger but has the same basic functionality, which unfortunately is pretty much limited to stepping through execution. I can't seem to inspect variables or any handy stuff like that. Also, it only shipped with Office XP/2003 for some bizarre reason. More info here if you're game.

I downloaded the Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition mentioned by Eugene Lazutkin but haven't had a chance to try it yet. I'd recommend trying that before Script Editor/Debugger.

User · Answer

If you still need to Debug IE 7  the emulation mode of IE 11 is working pretty well   Go to menu  Dev Tools  then to emulation and set it  It also gives error line information

User · Answer

IE8 has much improved developer tools   Until then it s best to write javascript for firefox first and then debug IE using alert   statements

User · Answer

you might want to try microsoft script debugger it s pretty old but it s quite useful in the sense if you stumble on any javascript error  the debugger will popup to show you which line is messing up  it could get irrating sometimes when you do normal surfing  but you can turn if off   here s a good startup on how to use this tool too  HOW-TO  Debug JavaScript in Internet Explorer

User · Answer

In IE7  you can bring up firebug lite for the current page by pasting the following in the address bar   javascript var firebug document createElement  script   firebug setAttribute  src   http   getfirebug com releases lite 1 2 firebug-lite-compressed js   document body appendChild firebug   function   if window firebug version  firebug init    else setTimeout arguments callee        void firebug     See http   getfirebug com lite html

User · Answer

Microsoft Script Editor can be used to debug Javascript in IE. It's less buggy than Microsoft Script Debugger but has the same basic functionality, which unfortunately is pretty much limited to stepping through execution. I can't seem to inspect variables or any handy stuff like that. Also, it only shipped with Office XP/2003 for some bizarre reason. More info here if you're game.

I downloaded the Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition mentioned by Eugene Lazutkin but haven't had a chance to try it yet. I'd recommend trying that before Script Editor/Debugger.

User · Answer

IE8 has much improved developer tools   Until then it s best to write javascript for firefox first and then debug IE using alert   statements

User · Answer

The IE9 developer tools worked for me  Just set the  Browser Mode  menu item to IE7

User · Answer

I ve found DebugBar   Not as good as Firebug  but close

User · Answer

It s not a full debugger  but my DP DEBUG extensions provides some  I think  usful functionality and they work in IE  Firefox and Opera  9     You can  dump  visual representations of complex JavaScript objects  even system objects   do simplified logging and timing   The component provides simple methods to enable or disable it so that you can leave the debugger in place for production work if you like   DP Debug

User · Answer

FireBug Lite   http   getfirebug com firebuglite

User · Answer

The following tools works great for me    1  http   www debugbar com   Provide a convenience UI to with feature like source  style  DOM  Script  HTML check  It also show the actual error in your JS file  which line  which file     2  http   www my-debugbar com wiki CompanionJS Installing  Provide a console for IE6 or IE7   which originally does not support     Screenshot

User · Answer

Use Internet Explorer 8  Then Try the developer tool   You can debug based on IE 7 also in compatibility mode

User · Answer

The answer is simple    Get Internet Explorer 9 Press F12 to load up Developer Tools Switch the browser mode to IE7

User · Answer

The IE9 developer tools worked for me  Just set the  Browser Mode  menu item to IE7

User · Answer

Web Development Helper is very good   The IE Dev Toolbar is often helpful  but unfortunately doesn t do script debugging

User · Answer

The following tools works great for me    1  http   www debugbar com   Provide a convenience UI to with feature like source  style  DOM  Script  HTML check  It also show the actual error in your JS file  which line  which file     2  http   www my-debugbar com wiki CompanionJS Installing  Provide a console for IE6 or IE7   which originally does not support     Screenshot

User · Answer

IE8 has much improved developer tools   Until then it s best to write javascript for firefox first and then debug IE using alert   statements

User · Answer

IE8 Developer Tools are able to switch to IE7 mode

User · Answer

In IE7  you can bring up firebug lite for the current page by pasting the following in the address bar   javascript var firebug document createElement  script   firebug setAttribute  src   http   getfirebug com releases lite 1 2 firebug-lite-compressed js   document body appendChild firebug   function   if window firebug version  firebug init    else setTimeout arguments callee        void firebug     See http   getfirebug com lite html

[javascript] Debugging JavaScript in IE7

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