Reputation: 490143

Debugging JavaScript in IE7

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!

Answers (18)

super1ha1

Reputation: 629

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

Upvotes: -1

Erdal G.

Reputation: 2980

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.

Upvotes: 0

Viktor

Reputation: 633

IE8 Developer Tools are able to switch to IE7 mode enter image description here

Upvotes: 0

Bob

Reputation: 99684

Web Development Helper is very good.

The IE Dev Toolbar is often helpful, but unfortunately doesn't do script debugging

Upvotes: 90

Eugene Lazutkin

Reputation: 43956

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 Edition~~Visual 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.

Upvotes: 41

Ian Mackinnon

Reputation: 14228

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

Upvotes: 0

melaos

Reputation: 8408

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

Upvotes: 32

desbest

Reputation: 4896

The answer is simple.

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

switching the browser mode on IE9

Upvotes: 0

alex

Reputation: 490143

I've found DebugBar.

Not as good as Firebug, but close.

Upvotes: 27

Peter Tseng

Reputation: 13993

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

Upvotes: 2

Marc

Reputation: 259

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.

Upvotes: 25

Jim Davis

Reputation:

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

Upvotes: 3

slf

Reputation: 22767

FireBug Lite: http://getfirebug.com/firebuglite

Upvotes: 0

Jose

Reputation: 11091

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.

Upvotes: 1

Joberror

Reputation: 5890

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

Upvotes: 0

dmkc

Reputation: 1181

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.

Upvotes: 7

Kenny

Reputation: 1302

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.

Upvotes: 3

Joel Coehoorn

Reputation: 415600

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

Upvotes: 3

Debugging JavaScript in IE7

See also:

Answers (18)

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