I always liked Internet Explorer the most. Because, being as a Web Developer, I liked the rendering in Internet Explorer the most than any other browsers. Also, the IE is the very commonly used browser by all developers and websites. I always used Firefox for testing my JavaScript (as IE doesn’t have any kind of JavaScript validators).
But the all new Firefox 2.0 changed me entirely. I’ve even ended up in uninstalling my IE plug-in based Avant Browser which I found the most convenient replacement for boring IE interface. Actually the Avant Browser people call it the Swiss Knife Browser as it had a lot of cool utilities. But now, I don’t think this term is really means anything for Avant Browser than Firefox 2.0!
Actually the normal Firefox (with the DOM Inspector in custom installation) hasn’t given me much relief and isn’t the reason I wrote this Post. It’s after I found some cool extensions for Firefox from internet and applied it. It became so useful that I really ended up in using ONLY Firefox. I upgraded my Internet Explorer to 7.0 version as it’s now highly stable and supported old version (IE 6) websites also. But after I found a extension in Firefox that enabled me to use IE engine (the plug-in used by Avant Browser like IE replacements) in any Tabs as I wish gave me an easier way of switching the engines, I fall in LOVE with Firefox. It’s now the ultimate Developer Tool. If you’re interested, a Web Developer, and a dedicated fan of IE (like me), please read further about the extensions I used on Firefox 2.0 that made me forget IE forever.
This is a cool extension that shows different colors of tabs based on the usage. If you left a Tab unvisited for a period of time or new url loading or cycling, it will change the color of that Tab. This really helped me a lot in identifying which tab I visited when.
AI RoboForm Tool bar for Firefox 6.8.0
This is actually used in conjunction with RoboForm, an Excellent tool for Windows that stores your logins and automatically logins to them if you want. It also supports Form filling, Automatic Login, and encryption. This toolbar is meant for Firefox 2.0 and supports cool features integrated with Firefox for auto filling almost everything. (You can forget Firefox’s Form and Password remembering features).
Real Developer Tool. This is actually can be considered as a Web Page editor. But acts simply as a separate tab in Firefox and enables you to edit pages while previewing your changes. It’s like Dreamweaver. It also supports WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) mode of editing. It’s really wonderful.
This is another Developer Tool. This extension comes preloaded with Firefox installation. You need to choose Custom mode while installing and select this. If you haven’t installed it already, you can visit the plug-in link given in the title and download it. This shows a status bar icon which, when clicked, immediately shows the errors in your web page.
Another cool Developer Tool which gives great control over the JavaScript and CSS you use in your Web pages. A clear winner on top of IE which doesn’t have any kind of software like this.
Actually, I couldn’t believe Firefox is this much customizable that by just installing an extension, you can use Firefox as a new Software itself. This is just 102 KB (unbelievable!) and gives an entire FTP client in a Tab of Firefox 2.0. Enables you to do all FTP operations as you do in any FTP client software. A clear winner over IE as IE is having the boring integrated FTP client that shows files in Windows Explorer mode.
This is the Extension that finally made me write this Post! This cool extension allows you to use IE engine for a Tab (a Web Page). Which is amazingly cool feature that is NOT supported in any other Browser (as far as I know). It gives a cool icon in status bar (or you can drag & drop a button of this next to Go button which gives very convenient way) which, on click changes the engine of the currently displayed web page from Firefox and IE which enables you to test your web pages how it will look in Firefox and IE by just a click of mouse.
lori (Life-of-request info) 0.1.0
Another Developer Tool. It just creates three boxes in the Status Bar which shows the accurate time each page took for rendering from Web Server. The ultimate thing any Web developer wants to know is how long his page is taking to load from Live! That’s solved by this amazing extension.
Another excellent tool (cool isn’t enough). This gives me another box in the left corner of Status Bar which upon click, dims the current web page and allows you to draw a rectangle over any area which shows it’s measurement in Pixels. I can say, this is another ultimate thing any Web Page Designer will look for.
MetaProducts Integration 1.1.3
Another Software based extension like AI RoboForm. It comes with Mass Downloader, an excellent tool for mass downloading. Allows faster downloads by just downloading the same file from ten different connections and integrating internally for a single file output. I liked this Tool very much and using this for almost 2 years. Now, I found this extension which enabled easy way of integrating Mass Downloader with Firefox.
Session Manager 0.4.3 (Hacked for supporting Firefox 2.0)
This another cool extension which enabled me completely get rid of Avant Browser. Because, the ultimate feature of Avant Browser is saving all the open tabs under any crash or manual close of Browser and giving an option to restore them in next open of the Browser. This feature is not really integrated in Firefox though it supports restoration of tabs under Crashes only. But that flaw is gone away by this excellent extension. This enabled me not only save the session, it actually enabled me to keep track of closed tabs (I can specify the limit also) and allows me restore them individually. Also, supports saving the contents of the Tab (preserving anything I might’ve entered in that page), another cool reason to go for this.
Only one problem with the extension is it is not supported in Firefox 2.0. While searching in Internet, I found the work around for this and given that link in the title of this extension here. If you are using older Firefox and want this extension, it is available here.
Excellent feature that enabled me forget IE7. IE 7 came with a cool feature of previewing the open tabs as Thumbnails and also a Drop down list of currently opened tabs. Both of these features and also another feature where by pressing Ctrl+Tab you can navigate through the open tabs by using Thumbnails of them (just like Alt+Tab functionality in Windows that shows only icons of open Programs) are included in this extension.
Another Developer friendly Tool. Validates everything (HTML, CSS, XHTML, etc) of a web page. Only problem is, it’s not offline validation (not Software based). It goes to their website for validating. And their website sometimes seems to be hanging.
Best XML Developer Tool disguised as a extension here. Another amazing feature of Firefox. This tool enables me to work around XML just like HTML with validations and everything.
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