Configuring Web Browsers

By default, most JavaScript-capable web browsers do support JavaScript. Actually, the very first Netscape version to support JavaScript did not even have a feature to turn it off!

However, JavaScript can be turned off, so you should find out how to simulate that (and how to instruct users just to turn it on). This depends not only on the browsers used, but sometimes also on the browser version. In Firefox 1.5 browsers, JavaScript can be enabled using Tools, Options, Content, Enable JavaScript. In Internet Explorer 6 you have to dig a little bit deeper: Tools, Internet Options, Security, Internet Zone, Custom Level, Scripting, Active Scripting, Enable.

Tip

Internet Explorer versions 6.0 and 7.0 (on Windows XP, 2003, and Vista only) has a security feature that blocks JavaScript running on local pages (see Figure 1.1). This is quite useful actually, but it can be quite annoying when you're testing an application. There are two workarounds: Either use a local web server to test your application, or just deactivate the error message, by choosing Tools, Internet Options, Advanced, Security, Allow active content to run in files from My Computer.

Figure 1.1. A rather annoying error message with JavaScript on local pages.