Import from file - JavaScript is required

Question

I just started using Twine so please excuse me if my question seems stupid.

Every time I go to import a story from a file a black box appears in the file viewer window with this text.

"JavaScript is required. Please enable it to continue."

The most I've done so far is create a few test storys to check how the saving system works (since you get explicitly warned to be careful about that), and I never changed anything about the Javascript part of these.

What does that message mean exactly? Where does it want me to enable JavaScript? (It's enabled in ALL my browsers) Do I have to worry about my files disappearing once I actually start using JavaScript? Or is it just a general precautionary message?

Edit: Notably, all my test stories are imported without errors despite of this.

I'm using Twine version 2.2.1 on WIndows 7.

Thank you for your time and help.

Answer 1

There's not enough information to go by, really, and I certainly never had the problem, but you can try debugging it further yourself. Twine (on Windows at least) runs inside a browser - Chrome for me. After opening the tool, open the developer tools (F12) and there the console tab. Continue trying to import whatever story creates the problem and see what appears in the console. With some luck, you might be able to find out the source, or at least have enough information for others to debug the problem.

Answer 2

TL;DR: don't worry, it's expected and doesn't affect your games.

File preview box on Windows uses Internet Explorer engine to display preview for html files, but disables JavaScript in this instance for security reasons. SugarCube (and most probably Harlowe too) contain special tags which browsers display if JS is turned off. Thus the scary warning.

Players won't see this stuff unless they open your game with JS turned off.