A few versions back there was always a message showing up on windows if there were any javascript errors in a web dialog. Because the message showed up quite often in the native web dialogs it was suppressed by default (as opposed of fixing the actual javascript bugs). After struggling for too long too many times with misspelled variable names, syntax errors and other annoying and hard to detect errors in my own code I’d very very much want the error dialog back. I’m almost 100% certain I changed a registry entry on my old machine to fix this problem but whatever I google for I just cannot find it.
Using something like window.onerror is probably a better option.
[1] Debugging · thomthom/sketchup-webdialogs-the-lost-manual Wiki · GitHub
But here’s the reg key:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\SketchUp\SketchUp 2016\WebDialogs]
"ShowErrorDialogs"=dword:00000001
This is mentioned in the Release Notes, BTW.
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Thanks!
I prefer the registry change since it also shows syntax errors. After writing a lot of Ruby I sometimes forget javascript parentheses and semicolons 
.
I don’t think the registry trick works in SU2019, at least not for me.
Does anyone know how to bring back JS error pop-ups in SU2019?
@thomthom
you’ll need to set a chrome flag or add js to pop an alert…
@Aerilius posted code here ‘somewhere’…
john
Just to clarify, this is for IE WebDialogs
The registry setting only works upon MSIE WebBrowser control windows which are (deprecated) UI::WebDialog class windows.
For these windows it is still possible to use FireBug Lite. Someone and I were discussing it somewhere. Need to find the link for ya’.
For UI::HtmlDialog (Chrome Extension Framework) windows you can right-click in the window and choose “Show DevTools”. Errors are displayed in the Console tab or pane.
Ah it was Thomas who I conversed with on this. We discussed it in a dedicated issue of his "WebDialogs: The Lost Manual" GitHub repo … (I had to search the general web to find it and it was the first thing on the list.)
Thanks Dan…I’ll look into Firebug…never used it before
I would say the simplest way to see javascript errors in WebDialogs would be to test in an old enough SketchUp version to just have the error message displayed. If the extension isn’t intended to work in such an old version anyway, HtmlDialogs can be used instead. I haven’t used WebDialogs for a year or two now myself and have already started to forget these old quirks. In HtmlDialogs the built in developer tools are very useful.
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Oh DUH! (Sound of hand smackin’ forehead.)
I just looked in the registry and saw that older versions (2017) had automatically created the "WebDialogs" subkey (but without the "ShowErrorDialogs" attribute.)
I then looked at 2018 and 2019, and realized that the installer did not create the empty subkey.
This indicates that this setting has been moved to one of the 2 JSON preference files.
I looked at both and did not see a specific "WebDialogs" JS object defined.
I’d think the best place would be the "Windows Only" object of the SharedPreferences.json file.
(This is the one in AppData/Roaming…)
But (shrug) who knows? Maybe it goes in the PrivatePreferences.json file ?
(This is the one in AppData/Local…)
Oh and the value for the attribute is now likely true | false, instead of 1 | 0.
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Might be the same as the attribute that controls the tooltip label, when working not there, but if it doesn’t work, it is there and has a value.
Yes, most settings have moved to the JSON preferences. The code to read this preference is still in the client. (But I’m actually not 100% sure if SharedPreferences.json or PrivatePreferences.json. It may not matter.) I’d have to dig further for the exact details of this.
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Perhaps add a note to the Debugging section of …
File: SketchUp Ruby API — SketchUp Ruby API Documentation
… and perhaps the initial note in the release notes (where it was originally announced) as well as the UI::WebDialog class.
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