I use a few extensions on a routine basis, so I thought I’d spend a moment just listing what I use, briefly explain them for anyone curious. I do quite a bit of web related work (hence the developer slant) as well as some Firefox/Thunderbird and extension hacking. For now I’ll just stick with Firefox extensions, and save Thunderbird Extensions for another post.
These are taken from my Addon Manager (formerly Extension Manager) window and ordered in a way I thought made most sense. No bribes were taken (though welcome ;-)). This is literally the stuff I personally use and recommend.
Web Development
Web Developer
If you don’t know this one yet and do web development, you should be ashamed of yourself. I’ve yet to see a developer not go crazy over this. The Web Developer extension doesn’t do anything, it does everything. By that I mean it has a whole bunch of small tools to make a web developers life easier. From fine control over cookies, to outlining block level elements, to submitting a page (even local) to the W3C validator to disabling JavaScript. No function on it’s own is truly groundbreaking but the extension as a whole is. If you do web development you need it. I couldn’t imagine developing without it. [Get it]
Firebug
Imagine viewing behind the scenes of a webpage. No, not the source code, but how javascript really executes. Debug, view XMLHttpRequests, add breakpoints, and view more DOM info. Again an absolute must have. This extension also has saved me hours of debugging time. One thing noteworthy is the design of the tool is really fantastic, it’s well organized and implemented to make it rather easy to use, despite the overwhelming amount of info it can provide. [Get it]
LiveHTTPHeaders
Viewing HTTP Headers is insanely useful when debugging web applications. Of course you can use telnet on port 80 and be a geek, but that’s way to much effort. WebDeveloper has similar functionality, but I like how this is integrated into the Page Info window, rather than opening into a new tab. I just find it easier to read, hence more usable. It’s been a staple for me for a few years now. [Get it]
Dom Inspector
As it says on the homepage: “DOM Inspector is a tool that can be used to inspect and edit the live DOM of any web document or XUL application.” This little gem is must have for any JavaScript, Firefox, or Firefox Extension development. It’s saved my butt a few times. It’s interface isn’t the best, but it does have it’s perks. [Get it]
IE Tab
This extension lets you view pages in IE’s rendering engine, but in a Firefox tab. I use this for checking how a page loads in IE (much quicker to right click then to open IE and copy/paste the URL). Again simplicity rules! [Get it]
Small Screen Renderer
Glazou thou art my hero for this one. Simply put it takes your webpage and smushes it up so you can see what it would look like on a small screen device like a handheld. With things like MiniMo, this is very worthwhile. He’s done to many cool things (Composer, CaScadeS) to mention here. [Get it]
ColorZilla
Being that I’m not graphically inclined I don’t need this much, but every so often it’s very useful. This extension lets you see exactly what the color is, pretty much anywhere on the site your viewing. Yea, that is awesome. A big timesaver, and pretty clever design.[Get it]
Everyday Browsing
downTHEMall
Every so often you run across something where you want to download everything in site. Either a series of zip files, images, or something else. You can click on each one… or you can use this awesome extension which will find them and download them all for you. [Get it]
ReloadEvery
This is just a cool way to reload a page on an interval. Great for monitoring a page. When not working on my computer I sometimes use this to just keep refreshing a page so I can glance at my display and see what’s going on. Simple and helpful. [Reload Every]
Resizeable Textarea
Asa pointed this one out. Resizing textareas is a must. If it were up to me, this would be included in Firefox 3.0. It’s awesome and infinitely useful. I personally think it qualifies as a killer feature. [Get it]
Screen Grab
I don’t use this one every day, but sometimes you don’t want to print a webpage, but want to save it. This is especially true because printing, or making a PDF sometimes distorts the page from it’s original appearance. Well the solution is to save a screenshot (another thing IMHO should be an option in Firefox as an alternative “type” in the “Save Page As” option. [Get it
GeoLocateFox
Yes, I eat my own dogfood. Seeing where websites are located is fun. Nuff said. [Get it]
User Agent Switcher
Sometimes sites kick you out because you don’t use IE. That’s not cool (go to the help menu and select “Report Broken Website” if you encounter that). A workaround is to fake being IE. This extension allows you to do just that. Though if you do that, remember to change it back to Firefox. Partially for compatibility reasons on sites that serve specific code, and so that webmasters realize how many Firefox users actually visit their site. [Get it]
Mozilla Development
TinderStatus
Tinderstatus is simple but cool. Just lets me know if the tree is one fire. [Tinderstatus]
Obviously DOM Inspector is some help here as well.
I was debating if I should throw some screenshots in here, but I decided against it since most screenshots of extensions stink (at best) since they don’t capture the value of it.
So there you have it, the extensions I use the most. Check them out.
