Script debugging tips

Monica wrote a very nice document for this feature.

A few quick highlights:

• Internet explorer defaults to having script debugging disabled. IE also likes to disable script debugging when you install a new version of IE (example: XP SP2). In IE, go to Tools->Internet Options->Advanced. Prior to Windows XP SP2, the option you needed to uncheck was 'Disable Script Debugging'. In XP SP2, the IE team decided to split this into two separate options – 'Disable Script Debugging (Internet Explorer)' and 'Disable Script Debugging (Other)'. The 'Other' option control script debugging in other applications that use mshtml.dll such as Outlook.
• Try to keep all of your script running in the same script block. IE will sometimes get confused if you have more then one.
• To debug client side script that is in a .ASPX file, you will need to either open the .ASPX file from the Running Documents window (called the 'Script Documents' window in Visual Studio 2005), or set a breakpoint by function name (Ctrl-B).

Comments

• Anonymous
  September 17, 2004
  When tring to log onto AOL, I get many screens that state a script error and Just-In-Time notices.
  
  In browsing,disable script debugging is checked but the notices still appear.
  
  What else can I do?
  
  Perry Gerhart
• Anonymous
  September 17, 2004
  What kind of exception are you getting?
• Anonymous
  September 19, 2004
  The only thing I've found that works fairly consistently is the 'debugger;' statement. If you've got a lot of script in different blocks and files sometimes this is the only way to get the debugger to stop where you want, especially if your script is in a .htc! Even then, you're not always guaranteed the debugger will be pointing at actual code when it stops.
  
  I recently finished a lengthy complicated web application project and the script debugger was probably the one thing that caused me the most grief, hair pulling and cursing throughout the life of that project.