How to debug IE on Xbox

Question

As a network provider, we strive to get our site to work in Internet Explorer on xbox. Our site runs on IE6 - 10, as well as other other browsers, however, it does not work in the xbox solution.

It uses JS and ExtJS with examples that work in xbox. We assume that this version of IE just breaks into something small and just wants to debug it to identify the problem.

Does anyone know how to debug this version of IE or how to emulate this version of IE?

Both Microsoft support services related to this issue do not have an answer to this in their current knowledge base.

Answer 1

I was lucky to record debugging information in Firebase ( http://www.firebase.com/ ). Some similar solution (sending textual debugging information to some remote computer from the Xbox using a JavaScript-based library) should work - I use Firebase because it is relatively easy and I am familiar with it.

This is obviously a weird way of using Firebase and a very lame process for debugging. I write a debug registration code, upload a new version of my project to a public server, reboot on the Xbox, watch the exit using the Firebase data debugger, make changes and repeat.

Sometimes the changes that I make break the page in such a way that it stops the execution of my code and I don’t get debugging data, so I need to carefully step back and find out what I did. Sometimes, when I make a mistake, shutting down and restarting IE on the Xbox seems necessary to force a new page to load.

But it works enough time to be useful, and I did not find a better solution, in addition to guessing what the errors were.

In general, IE on the Xbox 360 should behave like IE 9, and you should be able to use IE 9 to test content intended for Xbox. But it is clear that there are differences. Here are a few things I learned, some of them trial and error:

Not supported:

• console.log () (calling this will kill the execution of the script)
• strings ()
• plugins, flash, ActiveX controls, etc.

Supported

• Javascript
• some of HTML5 including Canvas .. but not local storage?

This can help in debugging checking the navigator.userAgent line, which will contain the "Xbox" substring. The last thing I checked, I saw "5.0 (compatible MSIE 9.0, Windows NT 6.1, Trident / 5.0; Xbox)."

The one who told you that IE on Xbox does not support JavaScript is confusing. It works great.

I'd love to hear about the best debugging methods.

Answer 2

Thanks everyone for the answers.

I now have a response from Microsoft (over 1/2 year later)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ie/jj883728(v=vs.85).aspx

This gives you a lot of information about xbox on IE, however, although setting up for debugging is quick and useful, it does not give all the errors.

Try it initially in IE9 - the Xbox 360 is similar, however ...

Not supported:

console.log () (a call will be killed by your script) immediate () plugins, flash, ActiveX controls, etc.

Supported

Javascript

HTML5 (complies with IE10 standards)

If anyone comes up with a better solution, please let me know!

James

Answer 3

For debugging information regarding the Xbox, go here

Xbox Debugging

As for debugging Internet Explorer on xbox, this is not what I tried, and without my xbox I cannot try this.

You have a search, often things like this, not on Microsoft sites, but on custom solutions elsewhere on the Internet.