Here is a list of 6 add-ons I use as a web developer. What are your favorites?
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Web Developer Toolbar
This one is listed first because it was the first firefox extension I installed. An oldie but goodie, this plugin does everything from disabling javascript to posting your markup to the w3c validator. I still find myself discovering new things with this plugin. An absolute must have! -
Web Analytics Solution Profiler/Debugger (WASP)
WASP is a powerful add-on for analytics. It also has a ton of features, but I use it for one feature in particular. WASP displays the tracking code that the current site is using. It’s great for making sure the tracking code you implemented on a site is actually working. -
Firebug
If I had only one choice for an add-on, this without a doubt would be it. This plugin in a nutshell allows you to inspect and edit the dom, html, css, and javascript live. If you don’t understand the dom, or are curious how javascript can manipulate it, firebug is an excellent tool to help you learn. Hats off to the developers, this plugin is truly indispensable. -
Live HTTP Headers
I recently discovered live http headers due to a post by Neal Grosskopf. With this add-on you can easily view the http headers. It is great for debugging. -
Colorzilla
Colorzilla allows you to take a color sample of the current page in firefox. No longer do you have to take screenshots and use the eyedropper tool in Photoshop. -
Link Checker
I don’t use this add-on a ton, but I’m so thankful it was developed every time I do use it. Link checker crawls every url on your current page and gives you a color code for every bad and good link. Another great time saver.
5 Comments
I’ll second that if there was only one add-on I could use, it would be Firebug. If you haven’t yet, I would take a look at the plethora of Firebug-based add-ons as well. Tools like FirePHP, FireCookie, YSlow and CodeBurner all extend Firebug and are very useful.
I’ll have to take a look at the WASP tool. Looks pretty useful!
Tim, I had no idea those firebug add-ons existed! Just installed all of them. Do you know of a site that references the firebug-based add-ons?
Thanks for the info!
No problem!
There’s a list of them on the official firebug site.
Flashblock ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/433 ) is one of my favorites. It’s great to prevent flash animation from starting and heavy flash pages and allow you to focus more on the other content. Very handy if you are viewing pages over a slow Remote Desktop/VNC Link.
Also, DownThemAll ( http://www.downthemall.net/ )is another I use daily. It makes sucking down images, archives, PDFs, from web pages very easy. Lots of options for section and optionally renaming them on-the-fly.
Great list! Thanks for starting this conversation. I don’t know how I could live without the Web Developer Toolbar and Firebug. Will definitely have to look into Firebug extensions. Will also try link checker and WASP.
Server switcher is a favorite of mine, too. Very quickly switches between live and staging locations.
I use MeasureIt from time to time, too.