Firefox Extension: Web Developer

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If you are a web site developer you probably have got inspiration from other site sometimes. Again, while developing a new project, you had to deeply and thoroughly test your creation. These are the main reasons why - if you use Firefox or Chrome - you should consider installing the Web Developer extension.


The extension is in the form of a bar with different tools available to help you during developing. There are so many features that you could write a book about it. You can control everything of the page, from JavaScript, cookies, CSS, images, forms and so on. You can gather information on any control or snippet on the page, or highlight specific sections to evalute the final result.

As an example, using the "Disable" drop down menu, you can disable:
1) cache;
2) Java;
3) JavaScript;
4) Meta redirect;
5) fonts minimum size;
6) page colours;
7) popup block;
8) proxy;
9) referer.
Those disabling command will help you isolate problems or errors.

Another interesting set of tools is available in the CSS menu. I must admit, I use it a lot to check newly created pages. The best feature is the Border Box Model: with it you can select any part of the web page and see the associated CSS style.

Debugging the code behind a page is very important. The Web Developer toolbar provides a set of additional tools that is very handy. You can validate your CSS style, your feeds, html code, links and so on. Interesting enough, you can do it with a live page or locally. Infact you can check CSS stylesheets and html code from local files - and, believe me, that is incredibly useful.

I understand that writing the full list of features for the Web Developer extension, would be crazy. While I'm writing this very article, checking the toolbar, I realise I would need more than just one article. Therefore I ask you once again to trust me: install the extension and see for yourself. You won't regret it.