How to debug JavaScript in Internet Explorer | Bernie Sumption :: Software. I’m preparing another (hopefully) useful full length article, but in the mean time I want to share with you a trick for getting a world-class debugger for free in IE. JavaScript debugging in Visual Web Developer Express Some background: users of Visual Studio have long known that it comes with an awesome debugger, probably the best JavaScript debugger there is (though Firebug is catching up fast). Whenever you get a JavaScript error, Visual Studio can connect to the Internet Explorer process and start debugging. You can pause the execution of the code, rewind and fast-forward execution, modify data held in variables and get notified when specific variables change in value.
Once you’re used to it, coding without a debugger makes you feel like a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn’t there*. The only problem is that it costs upwards of £500. The work-around is to get VSE to launch IE for you, so that it owns the process and doesn’t have to explicitly connect to it. Web Development Helper. Web Development Helper is a free browser extension for Internet Explorer that provides a set of tools and utilities for the Web developer, esp.
Ajax and ASP.NET developers. The tool provides features such as a DOM inspector, an HTTP tracing tool, and script diagnostics and immediate window. Web Development Helper works against IE6+, and requires the .NET Framework 2.0 or greater to be installed on the machine. Once installed, the tool can be activated using the Tools | Web Development Helper command.
You can also customize your browser's toolbar to add a button for this command to facilitate frequest use. Clicking on the menu command or browser button brings up the tool's console window and set of commands. DOM inspector allows viewing all elements, selected elements, or elements matching an ID or CSS class, their attributes and styles. Capturing a screen shot of the current page. Viewing page information such as metadata, tags, and linked resources. Viewing request and response details. IE extension for web developer : DOM inspector, Javascript debugger, HTTP headers viewer, Cookies viewer. Visual Studio Express | Microsoft SQL Server Express.