Dreamweaver Javascript Debugger

Question

Does DW cs3 have a javascript debugger? The only info on anything close to is says I need to click on the 'preview/debug in browser' button which does open the page, but no debugging ever happens when the page has an error. I also see no way to set break points or walk through the code. Thanks in advance.

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Update 2

I thought I'd update my question with this since no one mentioned it. MS visual web developer (visual studio express - which is free) has a debugger that you can attach to a process. So even if you are not developing in it, you can debug the js in any browser. It also has a very rich variable watch that allows you to drill down through all the decendants of an object for its respective values. I was hoping that DW could at least match VWD...

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Update 3

In order to make this question truely useful to others who search for the answer to this, has anyone tried the Visual Studio debugger tools with non IE browsers?

• Dreamweaver has no effective built in debugger.
• Firebug works great with non IE browsers
• Visual Studio tools work great with ID browsers

So is the one that works well across the board?

Answer 1

I solved most javascript problems using the Error Console in FireFox, I never got that to work :P

Answer 2

I agree with CheGueVerra, defenitively the best debugger is the "error console" in Firefox, and if you want to make it even better just download the Firefox Add-on Console². All you need to debug javascript is there.

Answer 3

There is nothing native to Dreamweaver that handles debugging JavaScript, but there are several other options out there for free.

The Firebug add-on for Firefox allows you to set breakpoints and step through JavaScript. Download and play with that, and you should find what you need. Here is a brief tutorial hitting on your points: Debug Javascript with Firebug

Answer 4

You can also use firebug, which is in my opinion the best JS debugger for Firefox even if there are still some issues sometimes (ref to my post a few days ago http://stackoverflow.com/questions/778591/firebug-debugger-not-working-in-ff-3-x )

Answer 5

I assume your looking for something where you can attach breakpoints and such... well without echoing the others (this can be done in firebug) why not try Aptana IDE. It can be run like a plugin on eclipse and can be used to debug JS.

http://www.aptana.com/docs/index.php/About_the_JavaScript_debugger

Answer 6

Debuggers are specific to a particular interpreter/compiler, not to a language. The same language - in this case, JavaScript - can have more than one interpreter/compiler. In particular, each browser has their own.

So to debug JS in IE, you need an IE debugger - either the one built into IE, or one of the Visual Studio flavours. To debug JS in Chrome, use Chrome's debugger. To debug JS in Firefox, use Firebug. (And so on.)