Getting logs in Internet Explorer 8 and 9 without opening developer tool view

Question

Chrome, FireFox and Safari can all log to the console without having the developer tool view open. However, IE 8 and 9 (not sure about 10) cannot, as console will be undefined without opening the developer tool first.

Is there any workaround for this? External JavaScript library?

I think ExtJS has a cross-browser debugger with an internal console. — soulseekah, Nov 25 '12 at 20:21
are you sure? I just tried ie 9 and console.log is defined without me opening dev tools. — goat, Nov 25 '12 at 20:22
@rambocoder, really? I am not getting this in `IE9 Ver: 9.0.8112.16421` — MLister, Nov 25 '12 at 20:25
I'm using the same version. http://jsfiddle.net/VsT3U/ gives me "native code" — goat, Nov 25 '12 at 20:28
actually nevermind. on a fresh browser opening, it doesn't work. — goat, Nov 25 '12 at 20:31
@rambocoder, see this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5472938/does-ie9-support-console-log-and-is-it-a-real-function, did you open the developer tool view first and then hide it? — MLister, Nov 25 '12 at 20:31

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 25 '12 at 20:16

1

I'm not sure of any library that will help you with this in IE but you could encapsulate your logging within a method so that it will operate normally in IE when not in developer mode.

function log(val){
  if(console.log){
    console.log(val);
  }
}

answered Nov 25 '12 at 20:16

Kevin Bowersox

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Store the `val` in the DOM or inside a global for later retrieval perhaps, as a fallback for missing `console.log`, with `console = { 'log': function(val) { fallbacklog.push(val); } }` – soulseekah Nov 25 '12 at 20:20
@kmb385, or this: `window.console && console("log something here");` – MLister Nov 25 '12 at 20:23

goat · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-25T20:34:33.513

1

window.console = window.console || {log: function(){}};

THis wont let you access the logs, but it will avoid null pointer errors.

edited Nov 25 '12 at 20:34

answered Nov 25 '12 at 20:24

goat

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interesting, saves a check for each `console.log`. – MLister Nov 25 '12 at 20:40

Getting logs in Internet Explorer 8 and 9 without opening developer tool view

2 Answers2