Introducing the Firefox Error Console

Did you know that there is an error console in Firefox ? You can access it by clicking on Tools > Error_Console. The Error Console of Firefox opens in a new window and lists errors, warnings and messages that are related to web pages that the user loads and User Chrome.

It reports JavaScript-related errors and warnings, CSS errors and arbitrary messages from chrome code

It can be helpful in three ways. The first is if you are a webmaster and want to make sure that the code on your website is working fine in Firefox. You visit the website then and check the Error Console to see if there are any errors or warnings that are related to your website.

There is always information about the type of error or warning and the location of the file that was involved. Another possibility is for users who have troubles opening a website in Firefox. They could probably, with some knowledge, find out why the website is not displaying properly in Firefox.

It could be extension related for instance. This is probably not that practical for all users who might prefer to visit the problematic website with another browser. I read about users who gave up on Firefox because it had difficulties with Javascript – badly coded that is – and refused to load the website.

Last but not least it is pretty useful for extension coders who need the output to analyze if their extension is working properly. The about:config string Javascript.options.showInConsole handles which errors and messages get logged by the Error console.

The default value false logs only errors and warnings from content. If you set this to true you see errors from content and chrome.

Another string called layout.css.report_errors defines if CSS errors are reported in the console. The default setting is true which means that errors are reported. Set this to false if you do not need this.