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 ExpressSome 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. Microsoft have released an excellent free edition of Visual Studio for web development called Visual Web Developer, but among the features reserved for the professional edition is the ability to connect to a process. Hence when you get a JavaScript error in a web page, VWD won’t appear in the list of possible debuggers.

The work-around is to get VWD to launch IE for you, so that it owns the process and doesn’t have to explicitly connect to it:

1 Internet Explorer Options First enable debugging in IE: go to Tools > Internet Options > Advanced, and make sure “Disable Script Debugging (Internet Explorer)” is unchecked and “Display a notification about every script error” is checked.
2   Then Download and install VWD
3 Adding a new empty website in Visual Web Developer Create a new empty website
4 Start Debugging

Click the “Start Debugging” button. You will be prompted to enable debugging for this website - do so. VWD will then launch IE in debugging mode.Since your website is empty you will see a 404; ignore it and navigate to the actual page or website you want to debug.

A tip from Fraser in the comments below: If you like, you can create a home page for the new site, and add this code to the head section:  <meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”0;url=http://yoursite.com”>. This will redirect you automatically to your chosen site.
5 JavaScript debugging in Visual Web Developer Express Any script errors will cause IE to pause execution and transfer control to VWD.The screenshot to the left shows me changing the value of a variable as the script is paused.

If any Firefox users have probelms getting VWD to launch IE, see James Wiltshire’s comment below.
A few debugging tips:

  • Learn these shortcuts: Step Over (F10) executes the current line of code and moves to the next one. If the current line of code contains a function call, Step Into (F11) moves the debugger into that function call. Step Out (Shift+F11) executes the rest of the current function and pauses again after it returns. Continue (F5) resumes the script until the next error or breakpoint.
  • Debugging is easier if you write code with one function call per line, so that the debugger knows which function you want to step in to.
  • You can type any expression in the Watch window, and when its value changes it will turn red.
  • If you want to open the debugger when there is no error, click in the left-hand margin to set a break point or place the ‘debugger’ keyword in your code (this works in Firebug too).
  • The Script Explorer window is an extremely useful list of open JavaScript and HTML files that you can use to find code in order to set a breakpoint. It is not shown by default but you can enable it in Debug > Windows > Script Explorer.

Happy coding!

* joke stolen from Rowan Atkinson