Asp4Hs: Articles
Use of the Microsoft Script Debugger with HomeSite

Note: The following was a short write-up by Darren Forcier of Allaire Development on using the Microsoft's Script Debugger to debug ASP or WSH/VTOM scripts in HomeSite. It was originally posted in the Allaire beta forum in this thread and is copied here to prevent its loss in forum changes.

Date: February 18, 2000 11:41 AM
Author: Darren J Forcier (dforcier@allaire.com)

Walter/All,

I'm still pretty time crunched, so the article is still on the back burner, but here's a few tips to get you started.

First off, download the ActiveScript debugger from Microsoft. That's step 1.. :-)

Overall the docs that install with the Script Debugger are pretty complete and accurate. Give them a good read-through before attempting to work with the debugger. It will save you a bit of time and frustration.

1. If you install Visual Studio or Interdev, it overwrites the script debugger's associations, and makes it really difficult to make it your default debugger. I haven't totally worked the kinks out of this. It's probably a registry setting buried deep in the HKCU Microsoft key.

2. If you are using IE 5 (I haven't tested this on 4) and you are testing your site, you can select the "Script Debugger" option and select the "Break at Next Statement" option when you are testing your site. Otherwise, if you are using the internal HS 4.5 browser:

3. You can use the debugger keyword in your JScript source which will create a source breakpoint. For VBScript use the Stop statement. This was the method that I had to use for the most part while debugging the VTOM deployment script architecture in HS 4.5.

Other than that the other useful thing is the ability to interactively query variables and objects at source breakpoints. You basically bring up the Command Window option, and type the name of the variable or object directly. You can also type in small pockets of JScript or VBScript code to modify the variables at runtime.

For the most part it's a pretty rudimentary debugger but it's better than putting a bunch of response.writes in your code :-)

Regards,
Darren Forcier
Allaire Development

(http://betaprograms.macromedia.com/betaconf/Index.cfm?Message_ID=442045)

Other resources:

• DevGuru: A Beginner's Guide to Using Microsoft Script Debugger
• Asp4Hs: Links: WSH Scripting Resources