We are in the final stages of testing a new feature for the Sitemorse service that will test the syntax of any JavaScripts we find as we spider through a site.

JavaScript is in increasing use on all types of web sites, ranging from simple rollover
images and form validation scripts, to complex "Web 2.0"-style dynamic AJAX interactive web applications. These scripts are no less susceptible to coding errors and mistakes than the HTML code that makes up the rest of the web pages they appear on.

Up until now, there has been no way of automatically checking a web site for these errors. Sitemorse's new Javascript testing feature examines the Javascript code used on your site, be it "event handlers" processing keypresses and mouse clicks, or in-line or included scripts, and comprehensively examines it all for syntax errors.

Unlike syntax errors in your HTML that a browser might compensate for, these types of errors will prevent your scripts from performing their intended operation - with results ranging from faulty image rollovers, to missing analytics data, to forms that cannot be submitted, to pages whose major functions fail to operate correctly.

We're finalising the report layout of the results at the moment.  There will be a new section to cover JavaScript and the results will be formatted in a similar way to the Code Quality section.

Initially the results wont affect your Overall Score and will therefore not influence your ranking in our surveys.  Once we have the results from across the many hundreds of sites we audit we'll be in a better position to understand when we should look to include them.

We'll keep you posted on the launch date.