Thursday, March 6, 2008

No Excuse for JavaScript Errors!

I've refrained from posting rants to this blog up until now but I feel that this one is very relevant to the topics discussed here.  JavaScript errors on production web sites degrade the user experience for all users!  There is no excuse for them.  At best they degrade viewer's confidence in the site, at worst there is crucial functionality that doesn't work.

I know I'm not the first to rant about this, unfortunately I most likely won't be the last either.  With the proliferation of AJAX frameworks and JSON the number of script errors will undoubtedly increase instead of decrease.  Too many web developers either don't understand JavaScript or don't care enough to make sure that it works properly.

Personally, I think all web developers should always have script error notifications turned on in their browser, even when they are just surfing.  It really makes you see how prevalent they are and drive you to ensure that your own sites/applications don't have the same issues.

mixerror These errors aren't limited to small sites either.  Click a navigation link on the website for mix08 and you will find a JavaScript error!  Inexcusable.  This is even a site promoting a conference for web developers!  If on a Microsoft conference website there are errors, how can we expect Joe Developer to do better?

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