FireBug 0.4 includes JavaScript Debugger

By Kevin Yank | May 25, 2006 | JavaScript & CSS

Web developers need no longer deal with the flakiness of Venkman, Mozilla’s venerable but stagnant JavaScript debugger.

With the release of FireBug 0.4, an excellent extension for analyzing JavaScript and CSS errors and XMLHttpRequest operations (AJAX) that we have covered before, Firefox now has a powerful, up-to-date debugger that you don’t need to hack to get working.

Firebug Debugger screenshot

In addition to standard debugging capabilities like setting breakpoints, stepping through code, and inspecting variables, FireBug adds support for checking assertions, automatic breaking on JavaScript errors, and more.

If you do any JavaScript work at all, grab FireBug now and consider making a donation to developer Joe Hewitt, who built the thing in his spare time.

Written By:

Kevin Yank

Kevin began developing for the Web in 1995 and is a highly respected technical author. He wrote Build your own Database Driven Website using PHP and MySQL, a practical step-by-step guide published by SitePoint, and he's co-author of the SitePoint Tech Times, a bi-weekly newsletter for technically-minded web developers. Kev believes that any good webmaster should have seen at least one episode of MacGyver.

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{ 14 comments }

AlexW September 18, 2006 at 2:39 pm: http://www.joehewitt.com/software/firebug/
Sam September 18, 2006 at 2:13 pm: from where can i download firebug can u plz give the details of the URL for the firebug ?
Akela August 22, 2006 at 4:40 am: Nice Javascript debuggers review can be find here:
http://www.ajaxpath.com/ajax-debuggers/
Ghandi June 14, 2006 at 4:12 am: check out http://www.eclipse.org/
Anonymous June 14, 2006 at 3:44 am: Does anyone know if there is an extension that can debug php like this?
If not, what php debuggers are good? I’m goint to take a look at NuShpere PhpED soon.
thanks
pk
boriscy June 9, 2006 at 1:33 am: This is a great debugger, be cautioned to put break on errors when you are working with XMLHttpRequest
Ghandi June 9, 2006 at 12:11 am: When I have ‘Show XMLHttpRequests’ marked, it “steals” the request that I make. Which makes it kind of a pain to use for debugging requests.
Anyone else have that problem? or do I not implement something right?
That would be my only problem, otherwise it is great.
donaldduck June 8, 2006 at 9:46 pm: It’s a nice debugger, but venkman is more powerfull. By the way: I had never Problems with venkman.
Amit May 27, 2006 at 11:43 pm: Cool. So I can now start fixing those bugs now :)
polvero May 27, 2006 at 2:52 pm: With the latest JS Debugger in Firebug, I’ll have to go back and reinstall it. Otherwise it was just another validator that that alerted me of the hundreds of invalid webpages I visit everyday.
Just briefly after looking at some of the latest screenshots I like how you can view logs of xmlHttpRequests and their responses. I think I’m really going to like this tool now :)
Ilija Studen May 26, 2006 at 11:26 am: Simple reinstallation fixed the problem. So, if you upgrade FireBug and don’t have debugger tab visible just reinstall.
Qani May 26, 2006 at 8:21 am: You have to have Firefox 1.5 installed, anyways thanks for the heads up, I will definetly be using this in the near future!
Ilija Studen May 26, 2006 at 5:52 am: One of the best FF extensions ever. I’ll need to reinstall it because Debugger tab is not visible after the upgrade… Or I missed something?
kaklz May 25, 2006 at 4:41 pm: Awesome!