Skip to main content

Useful browser addons for QA

With so many browsers to choose from nowadays, it's important to choose the right one.

 For me, the wide array of add-ons that are available to aid my day to day job, definitely play a part in my choice. I choose Google Chrome, having an Android phone, means I can sync my favourites between my Mac, my phone and my work PC (100% personal reasons! There are some professional reasons below!)

 There are also a wide array of add-ons that Chrome supports that helps make my life easier, and I strongly recommend any QA have when testing a web UI.

 These are the ones that I use on a regular-ish basis:

 Fiddler - not really an addon for Chrome, but essential in monitoring HTTP requests and responses. It enables you to change requests/responses by setting breakpoints etc. Fiddler in itself could and one day will have a whole blog post about the benefits and the uses and how it can aid with testing. 
Fiddler can be downloaded from here

 FireBug - This is essential. I can not understand how a browser can not have this addon installed! It's so powerful in investigating bugs. Here are just some of the things you can do with Firebug:

  • Editing and Monitoring CSS and Javascript - Using firebug you can edit css on any live html page, which is nice to do when some formatting isn't quite right, you can investigate why and even add to the bug how it can be fixed :) As for Javascript, being able to monitor javascript calls during the loading of a web page can save a lot of time, you can even investigate javascript errors using Firebug if you feel comfortable enough!
  • Helpful in automating tests as it allows you to view the element information that you'll need for interacting with the page when writing automated tests.
Firebug can be downloaded from here


 Y-Slow - This is an extremely useful tool, it grades the webpage, and is extremely useful in suggesting possible improvements for sitespeed and validating the source of the page. 

YSlow can be downloaded from here

 Modify HTTP Headers - This is a firefox only addon, although there are similar tools for Chrome. This allows you to change the headers to alter website behaviour. I have personally used it so the website under test thinks I am visiting the site from another location, so it is definitely useful when testing international websites.

 Can be downloaded from here

 ScreenGrab! - This is useful when raising bugs! You can get it to take a screengrab of the entire webpage, not just the visible portion of the screen. 

 Can be downloaded from here

Spoons.net - Not really an addon, but extremely useful cross browser testing tool, that enables you to test on any of the latest browsers. If you wish to test on legacy browsers, then a pro account is needed (£££)... It's free to sign up and test on the current versions of browsers :)

Can be viewed here

Ghostery - Useful addon for seeing what affiliates and what tags are fired on your website. Can be downloaded for any browser. Makes testing things like webtrends and Google Analytics a lot easier!

 Can be downloaded from here

Feel free to leave a comment of anymore plugins that you find useful and why!
Labels:

Comments

  1. Srinivas Kadiyala2 April 2013 at 05:13

    Thanks for sharing,
    I have tried "Y-Slow and Ghostery"

    I didnt find much useful for testers. nor my developer has not accepted that.
    Can u explain - how would you use best of it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gareth Waterhouse2 April 2013 at 05:33

      Y-Slow is powerful in that it gives the website page a ranking, and as such you can easily see if there have been any decreases in performance if you run it regularly. Ghostery is useful, as it shows immediately what tags are firing within the browser, and from there you can see if a tag is missing or not.

      Delete
  2. Simon2 April 2013 at 05:44

    Thanks for these Gareth. I've added Ghostery to Chrome. It's always cool to stumble across these posts and discover something new that might make my life as a tester slightly easier. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gareth Waterhouse2 April 2013 at 08:28

      No problem! Don't suppose you have any useful addons that you wish to share?

      Delete
  3. The Disciple12 April 2013 at 02:18

    Add the following to the list. HTTPWaTCh, Firecookie and Firepath

    ReplyDelete
  4. Morvader23 February 2016 at 07:42

    Have a look to my Exploratory Testing Chrome Extension. Any feedback is welcomed.

    https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/exploratory-testing-chrom/khigmghadjljgjpamimgjjmpmlbgmekj

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mirnalini Sathya18 March 2017 at 04:50

    Excellent blog about selenium!!! Keep updating your information to gain knowledge on Selenium testing tool Selenium Training in Chennai | Selenium Training
    Selenium Training in Chennai | Selenium Training

    ReplyDelete
  6. BrendaPalmeri28 July 2017 at 00:01

    It’s too informative blog and I am getting conglomerations of info’s about Dotnet certification. Thanks for sharing; I would like to see your updates regularly so keep blogging.
    Website Monitoring Tools

    ReplyDelete
  7. Unknown9 November 2017 at 04:03

    The future of software testing is on positive note. It offers huge career prospects for talented professionals to be skilled software testers.
    Regards,
    Software testing institutes in chennai|Software testing training institutes|testing courses in chennai

    ReplyDelete
  8. Unknown18 April 2018 at 00:26

    Best Mobility ServicesVery good informative article. Thanks for sharing such nice article, keep on up dating such good articles.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Deepika9 May 2018 at 23:59

    VERY INFORMATIVE BLOG. KEEP SHARING SUCH A GOOD ARTICLES.

    Best Software company in USA | Austere Technologies

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous10 May 2018 at 05:09

    Very good work. It is very interesting to learn from to easy understood. Thank you for

    giving information.

    automation testing courses online

    ReplyDelete
  11. Deepika10 May 2018 at 22:04

    Very good informative article. Thanks for sharing such nice article, keep on up dating such good articles.

    Best Software Security Services | Austere Technologies

    ReplyDelete
  12. Deepika10 May 2018 at 23:21

    Nice blog with excellent information. Thank you, keep sharing.

    Application Quality Management Services | Austere Technologies

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous17 May 2018 at 22:11

    Needed to compose one little word yet thanks for the suggestions that you are contributed here...
    Best Online Software Training Institute | Testing Tools Training

    ReplyDelete
  14. Deepika17 July 2018 at 04:30

    Wow...What an excellent informative blog, really helpful. Thank you.

    Best Degree Colleges Hyderabad | Avinash College of Commerce

    ReplyDelete
  15. sandy30 August 2018 at 06:09

    Thank you for sharing this valuable information. But get out this busy life and find some peace with a beautiful trip. book Andaman holiday packages

    ReplyDelete
  16. Deepika21 September 2018 at 02:34

    Great informative blog, keep for sharing.

    Best Blockchain services | Massil Technologies

    ReplyDelete
  17. Deepika25 September 2018 at 22:13

    Excellent informative blog, keep for sharing.

    Best System Integration services | Massil Technologies

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Treating Test Code as Production Code

It's important when writing automated tests to remember that the code you write should be up to production standards, meaning any conventions that you have in place should be adhered to and that it should follow good design patterns. Too many people often say why does it have to be as good as production code, it's "Only" a test, so long as it passes then that's fine... To answer this we need to look at why we want our tests to be written in such a structured and efficient manner: - Maintainability - by making the test code structured and efficient, it becomes far easier to maintain and in doing so changes in the future can happen quickly as the test isn't linked to anything that it shouldn't be and it's easy to understand for a new set of eyes. - Durability - Again by making the tests structured they should be resistant to changes, if you change a variable name for instance then it shouldn't effect the unit test unless it absolutely has to....
1 comment
Read more

Testers: Be more like a Super-Villain!

Who doesn't love a Super Hero? Talk to my son, and he'll tell you how much he loves them, talk to many adults and they'll say the same! Deep down, we all love to be the Super Hero, we all want to save the day! However, I want to talk about the flip side of Super Heroes, the Super Villains... I often play Imaginext with my son, and I (unfortunately?) am nearly always the Super Villain! Be it Lex Luthor, Joker, Two Face, Mr Freeze or The Riddler! These are all great characters and great Super Villains, but why would I want to write about Super Villains? A while ago where I worked, we had a few Super Heroes, people who would be able to come in and "fix" things that had broken and help deliver projects on time. We then shifted, we decided to do away with the Super Hero culture and try and prevent from being in that position in the first place, whilst we didn't go as far as wanting to hire Super Villains, it's definitely a story that has stuck with me and t...
2 comments
Read more

Using BDD and gherkinising your Acceptance Tests

In my post Testing of Automated tests , I mention about a BDD framework which involves using BDD to drive your acceptance tests. BDD stands for Behaviour Driven Development.  One effective method of writing BDD tests are by using a format known as Gherkin language. These consist of Given, When, Thens. The main advantage of the gherkin language is that it's readable by the business, and in an ideal world forms part of the Conditions of Acceptance around a PBI. Also, using a Visual Studio plugin of SpecFlow , you can integrate your Gherkinised COAs into your solution with feature files, and then drive the automated tests, however, for this post I will focus solely on how to effectively gherkinise your acceptance tests. A Feature file consists of a feature outline, which details what the feature file is testing followed by Scenarios and examples (parameters).  The BDD scenarios are made up of a Given, When, Then... These are effectively an initial state (Given), an action (W...
6 comments
Read more