WebStorm: prompt is not defined

Permanently deleted user

Created February 19, 2017 18:55

Hi everyone,

I'm new to programming in general and have been using WebStorm while I teach myself JavaScript. I understand the why I got the error message I referenced in the title. It's a method of the DOM Window object. My question is, how do I debug if I want to use DOM methods in my script? Is there a library that I need?

I know this is a rookie question, but any clarity on this would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Tom

3 comments

Elena Pogorelova

Created February 20, 2017 09:22

What does the error look like exactly? Is it a runtime error (shown when you run/debug your script), or a warning shown in editor? Please attach a screenshot

Michael Geerts

Created November 29, 2021 11:17

I have the same problem: this is the return of the console:

ReferenceError: prompt is not defined
at Object.<anonymous> (C:\Users\Admin\WebstormProjects\michael.geerts\JavaScript\JavaScript 6 oefeningen\Variables.j
s:1:12)
←[90m at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1101:14)←[39m
←[90m at Object.Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1153:10)←[39m
←[90m at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:981:32)←[39m
←[90m at Function.Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:822:12)←[39m
←[90m at Function.executeUserEntryPoint [as runMain] (node:internal/modules/run_main:81:12)←[39m
←[90m at node:internal/main/run_main_module:17:47←[39m
Process finished with exit code 1

Elena Pogorelova

Created November 29, 2021 11:22

window.prompt() is a function that web browsers implement, there is no such function in Node.js. And you must be running your file as a Node.js application - thus the issue. You can only prompt the user with client-side javascript, i.e. running in the browser via a tag in the rendered HTML, not the Javascript API engine running on the server.
In order to run your code, you need to create .html file and add a reference to your .js to it - like

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title></title>
</head>
<body>
<script src="Variables.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

and then run this code in browser by right-clicking this .html file and choosing either Run or Debug from context menu.

Or, if you like to run your code with Node.js, you need changing it accordingly. For example, you can use process.stdin or readline to read entered value from console

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