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Cover image for What are some Browser plugins that you can't live without ?
Pritesh Usadadiya
Pritesh Usadadiya

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What are some Browser plugins that you can't live without ?

We all need toolkit that makes our jobs a little bit easier. As a QE there are several chrome extensions that i use everyday that boosts my productivity and reduces chunk of extra workload Here are all of them

BlazeMeter | The Continuous Testing Platform

Blazemeter plugin is easiest way to record your performance script in jmeter

Bug Magnet

this is a handy tool for doing exploratory testing. it's opensorce and provides you with range of test data to check edge cases of your app.

Check My Links

its a link checker that crawls through your webpage and looks for broken links.

Exploratory Testing Chrome Extension

another must have plugin for Exploratory Testing. you can gp page by page take a screenshot and write bugs, ideas, notes etc..

Note Anywhere

How many time you have browse through a article had some thoughts and forgot after some time. Well no more.

with this extension, you can create notes on any web page and when you open that page again, the notes will get loaded automatically.

Page load time

Quickly need to check the loading time for your webpage ? there is a extension for it.

Screencastify - Screen Video Recorder

I use this plugin to record product workflows, bugs etc...

In Free tire it gives you 50 recordings per month with max 10 min. recording per session. you can download saved videos from Google drive or export it as gifs.

i have been using it for some time and never needed to upgrade to paid plan.

WhatFont

easiest way to find what kind of font is being used on any portion of webpage without going into the details of devtools.

And of course our all time favorite

Chrome DevTools


So, What are plugins / extensions that you use which has become integrated part of your work ?

Top comments (76)

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nektro profile image
Meghan (she/her) • Edited

All browsers should come pre-installed with uBlock Origin.

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sudiukil profile image
Quentin Sonrel • Edited

I used to have a LOT of browser extensions but now I try to keep only to a few ones, currently on my Firefox:

  • uBlock Origin, for ad blocking
  • HTTPS Everywhere, the name says it all
  • FoxyProxy, for proxy switching (with automatic rules)
  • Bitwarden, my password manager
  • Text Contrast for Dark Themes, to fix input fields when using a dark GTK theme (Linux)
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priteshusadadiya profile image
Pritesh Usadadiya

I used to have a LOT of browser extensions but now I try to keep only to a few ones

same here, i got rid of lots of extensions which i was using occasionally. Now i keep only few handful of them which i use everyday.

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kinghat profile image
kinghat

off topic, but how did you quote that?

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priteshusadadiya profile image
Pritesh Usadadiya

Just go to new line and add > and your quote.

> This is that awesome quote. 

here is a quick Markdown Cheatsheet

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kinghat profile image
kinghat • Edited

Text Contrast for Dark Themes, to fix input fields when using a dark GTK theme (Linux)

is this with firefox or chrome?

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vip3rousmango profile image
Al Romano • Edited

Typically I'm using Chrome Canary for development and these are my must-have plugins I sync across all my accounts,

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jckuhl profile image
Jonathan Kuhl

I should have mentioned JSONView in mine.

It makes working with REST APIs so much easier by presenting JSON in a more readable format.

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priteshusadadiya profile image
Pritesh Usadadiya

A very good collection. Specially Funkify and Spectrum. they are definitely going into my accessibility testing toolkit.

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evmcl profile image
Evan

Generally Useful

ContextSearch web-ext

Select text and search from the context menu or a tiled popup using any of your installed search engines.

Drag-Select Link Text

Easily select the text in links. So damn useful when you need to copy and paste some text that is part of a link!

Gesturefy

Mouse gestures to control the browser. Less moving hands between mouse and keyboard.

New Tab Override

New Tab Override brings back the ability to change the page which is shown when opening a new tab.

Textarea Cache

Automatically save the content in a text input field. Saves you having to retype it when a web-site barfs and the text would be otherwise lost.

Remove annoyances

I don't care about cookies

Get rid of annoying cookie warnings from almost all 'infected' websites!

Make Medium Readable Again

Improves the Medium reading experience, ruined by user engagement tactics.

Neat URL

Neat URL cleans URLs, removing parameters such as Google Analytics' utm parameters.

Unstick!

Click the toolbar button, and any element with 'position: fixed' is removed from the page. Clears up pages cluttered with frozen headers and share buttons. (For some reason, I usually have to click it twice for it to have an effect.)

A bit more specialist, but useful to some

Bookmark Tab Here

Adds context menu item 'Bookmark Tab Here' to Bookmarks Menus as an alternative bookmarking method.

Easy Youtube Video Downloader Express

Seems to be the best of the add-ons to download video from youtube.

Feed Preview

Because RSS feeds are not dead.

Firefox Multi-Account Containers

If you have multiple accounts on the same site, then this can really save you having to log out and log in again to switch accounts all the time.

Markdown Here

If you are a markdown aficionado this lets use write in markdown then click a button to toggle to formatted. Useful for web-based email (gmail, etc) and other sites like blogger or wordpress.

SiteDelta Watch

Regularly monitors a page for changes.

More developer specific

Empty Cache Button

Toolbar button to empty the browser cache.

Html Validator

HTML validation inside Firefox. The number of errors of a HTML page is seen on the form of an icon and details in a developer tools tab.

Open With

Quickly open current web page in another browser.

Security/Privacy

uBlock Origin

Repeat after me, it is not an 'ad blocker', it is a HTML firewall.

Bitwarden Passward Manager

The best password manager IMO.

Cookie AutoDelete

When a tab closes, any cookies not being used are automatically deleted. Whitelist the ones you trust while deleting the rest. (Note: It can generate strange behaviour on some sites, or pop-ups that normally only show once will repeat.)

Decentraleyes

Protects you against tracking through "free", centralized, content
delivery. It prevents a lot of requests from reaching networks like
Google Hosted Libraries, and serves local files to keep sites from
breaking.

HTTPS Everywhere

Enables HTTPS encryption automatically on sites that are known to
support it, even when you type URLs or follow links that omit the https:
prefix.

Privacy Badger

Automatically learns to block invisible trackers.

Others I haven't used by are on my list to try

HTTPS by default

Request websites over secure https by default from the location bar instead of insecure http.

Facebook Container

Prevent Facebook from tracking you around the web. The Facebook
Container extension for Firefox helps you take control and isolate your
web activity from Facebook.

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priteshusadadiya profile image
Pritesh Usadadiya

Wow! that's a very long list Evan. going to need my Tea for this one.πŸ˜„

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jckuhl profile image
Jonathan Kuhl

Vue, Augury and React Dev Tools.

All three of those make debugging those frameworks soooo much easier.

And Vue is the best of them. It watches your $emit events, it keeps track of Vuex, it shows you your props and state. I love it.

Outside of web dev, I also use LastPass to keep my passwords managed. Though I'm finding Firefox and Chrome are quickly making it more redundant.

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Sloan, the sloth mascot
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kinghat profile image
kinghat

are you using the extensions reloader url to automate the reloading?

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solomon profile image
Solomon

Yep! Especially when the extension icons don't update after I enable/load an extension (which I think is unintended behavior), I just go to reload.extensions and everything works as intended!

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kinghat profile image
kinghat

well i mean are you tying it into a save trigger by your code editor or something? id like to set that up somehow.

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solomon profile image
Solomon

Does this help? dev.to/sgvictorino/reloading-your-... πŸ˜ƒ

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kinghat profile image
kinghat

tyvm!

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simoroshka profile image
Anna Simoroshka

uBlock Origin
React Developer Tools
ColorZilla - color picker from anywhere on the page
Grammarly - better spell and grammar checker
Inifinite dashboard - I use it to have only a nice image and nothing else on the new tab
LastPass - password manager
Appear.in screen sharing - for my service of choice to make video calls
GitHub SLOC - shows the number of lines in a repo, somehow, to me, it feels important :)
Toolkit for YNAB - youneedabudget.com is an amazing budget planning tool, this is an extension to make it even better
Evernote Clipper - not sure yet about this one

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priteshusadadiya profile image
Pritesh Usadadiya

I have heard good things about youneedabudget.com. didn't know they had chrome plugin.

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simoroshka profile image
Anna Simoroshka

I think it's not theirs, it's an independent thing. It adds some nice UX tweaks to the webapp.

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priteshusadadiya profile image
Pritesh Usadadiya

thank you for the info @simoroshka ☺

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milowinterburn profile image
Milo de Vries

Is shameless self promotion ok if it's to fight climate change? Using co2ok.ninja webshops pay to make your purchase there climate neutral (shipping and production). Also, we finance projects that not only directly reduce emmions, but also help people in developing nations.

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priteshusadadiya profile image
Pritesh Usadadiya

yes it is. cool website with noble concept. Great work Milo

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milowinterburn profile image
Milo de Vries

Thanks! It's hard work, we're currently having a bit of a rough patch (among others is surprisingly hard to get press/influencers). Little things like your comment are what keeps me going.

πŸ’šπŸŒ

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adambrandizzi profile image
Adam Brandizzi

Funny, I have no development-oriented addon on Firefox! That's what I have:

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priteshusadadiya profile image
Pritesh Usadadiya

great stuff. you are heavy on how you surf web. :)

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tammalee profile image
Tammy Lee

I love Privacy Badger! I still have Greasemonkey installed, too.

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papagoat profile image
Terence Lucas Yap
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priteshusadadiya profile image
Pritesh Usadadiya

i'm curious. where do you use Allow-Control-Allow-Origin: * ?

if you don't mind.can you provide some working applications/examples ?

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papagoat profile image
Terence Lucas Yap

It's for testing Rest APIs on localhost. Our enterprise system disabled CORS. This tool allows for a quick hack.

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glennmen profile image
Glenn Carremans • Edited

Standard Adblock Plus and 1Password.

The last couple of months I added these 3 dev related extensions.

Refined GitHub

Browser extension that simplifies the GitHub interface and adds useful features

CodeCopy

A browser extension that adds copy to clipboard buttons on every code block

JSON Viewer

The most beautiful and customizable JSON/JSONP highlighter that your eyes have ever seen.

Btw these are all open source so you could always contribute improvements.

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priteshusadadiya profile image
Pritesh Usadadiya

i am sold on JSON Viewer and CodeCopy. definitely gonna try.

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jackharner profile image
Jack Harner πŸš€ • Edited
  • LastPass - Password Management
  • uBlock Origin - Ad blocker
  • Pushbullet - Moving files/texting/notifications to and from my phone and all my computers (The Desktop App works much better than the extension)
  • Material Color Palette - A little self promo, but I use this extension daily to quickly access Material Design color codes.
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kayis profile image
K

The Grammarly plugin is rather nice because I'm not a native speaker.

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tammalee profile image
Tammy Lee

I'm a native speaker and I use Grammarly all of the time! :D

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deadlybyte profile image
Carl Saunders

I'm currently using the following extensions:-

Redux Dev Tools - React debugging tools to the Chrome Developer Tools

axe - Accessibility testing in Chrome Developer Tools

VisBug - Open source browser design tools

Sizzy - Tool for developing responsive websites crazy-fast

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priteshusadadiya profile image
Pritesh Usadadiya

axe seems cool. how does it compare to WAVE ?

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deadlybyte profile image
Carl Saunders

Haven't used WAVE, so can't give a comparison. All I can say is axe is really good.

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cstringer profile image
Chris Stringer

CSS Reloader - reloads page stylesheets without reloading the page itself, highly useful especially when designing for SPAs or other instances where full reloads reset the application state.

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priteshusadadiya profile image
Pritesh Usadadiya

I thought only Hugo can do that. this is very useful for designers.