Script Debugging Not Working (VS 2008)

Question

I recently installed VS 6.0 after installing VS 2008 and overwrite JIT settings .. when i started VS 2008 option dialog .. it said another debugger has taken over VS 2008 debugger and I asked me to reset .. so I did ..

Now everything works fine except javascript debugging. I am unable to debug javascript .. I can set breakpoint .. but in debug mode when I hover the breakpoint it says "The breakpoint will not currently be hit. The document is not loaded" ..

How can I solve this issue? Can I reset JIT Settings?

Solution 1

I guess I have to reinstall Visual Studio 2008 and see if that solves this problem

Solution 2

It sounds like your script debugging is disabled. To enable it goto, tools internet options, advanced and make sure disable script debugging is unticked.

What I also found helps is if you put a

"debugger;"

line in your javascript. Remeber that if you put a debugger statement on the first line in a function it will not attach the debugger, as far as I am aware that is a known bug with the implemention of the javascript debugger engine.

var myFunction = new function()
{
  debugger;
  alert('This will not properly attach the debugger');
}

A workaround to that is:

var myFunctionThatDoesAttachTheDebugger = new function()
{
    var x = 0;
    debugger;
    alert('this should work and attach the debugger');
}

A very usefull way I have also found, is by opening the website you want to debug, and then simply type the following in the url bar:

javascript:debugger;

That will also launch the debugger and give you a opportunity to attach the debugger.

Hope it helps

Rihan Meij

Solution 3

Have you tried using FireBug for JS debugging? It works pretty well as an alternative to VS.

Comments

[Pradeep]

A simple solution followed by most of us on MS stack. :)

[Mariano Desanze]

I tested the bug of the debugger in first line in: IE 8, FF 3.6 & Chrome 9 and in all cases the debugger statement worked as expected. May the bug be fixed by now? Where did you hear about it?

[Rihan Meij]

I was watching a video from Douglas Crockford, where he mentioned it. It was quite a old video but you probably right, that they have fixed it by now.