Web developer extensions for Mozilla Firefox

If you're a web developer, you develop your websites in Firefox or at least test them in Firefox. I'm going to discuss some Mozilla Firefox extensions that make life much easier as a developer.

1. Web Developer
This is an essential extension for any web developer. Here are some of the most beneficial features of the toolbar:

• Outline table cells and block level elements
• Validate HTML and CSS
• The Edit HTML and CSS feature let's you change HTML on a live web page. This can be very helpful when working on the design of a web page because you don't have to do the: Ctrl+S, Alt+Tab, F5 routine to see changes. I don't use WYSIWYG editors. They mess up HTML code.
• In the Options menu, there is a setting to View Source in a new tab rather than a new windows. Very cool!
  

This toolbar offers many other amazing features as well. Try them out for yourself.

2. HTML Validator
While the Web Developer toolbar does have HTML validation, this extension let's you validate HTML code without requiring that your site is online and accessible to the public. The Web Developer toolbar uses the W3 online validation tool. This validates HTML and shows errors on your View Source window in Firefox. Similarly, there is a CSS validator extension.

3. Tamper Data
This Firefox extension let's you see what request headers are sent to the web server and which response headers are received from the web server. You can view any post data or cookies that the server sets. Additionally, the extension lets you modify headers. Great for discovering security holes in your website.

4. Google Pagerank Status
The Google Pagerank Status can be helpful to see where your website stands in the search rankings.

5. Firebug
Firebug adds helpful web development tools to Firefox. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page. I leave it disabled much of the time, because there have been reports of memory leaks. Running too many Firefox extensions will do this.

6. All-in-One Gestures
This mouse gesture extension may not necessarily be related to web development, but it is a great time saver. I rely on this extension to quickly perform common tasks such as navigating forward, backward, opening / closing tabs, refreshing, and viewing source. One of my favorite features is the Undo Close tab. Ever accidentally close a tab? Simply configure a mouse gesture to bring it back up. I configured mine to be a Z gesture since Undo is Ctrl+Z. You can undo multiple tabs.

7. Greasemonkey
Again, I don't necessarily use this extension for web development, but it is extremely helpful. Ever wish you could update a menu on a website or make it more user friendly? Do you have pages with long drop downs that you repeatedly have to scroll through in order to locate your option? With just a bit of JavaScript, you can update websites that you access often to save time.

I recommend at least testing out all of these extensions. You can easily disable an extension if you don't wish to use it all the time.

Coding on dual monitors

More and more companies are starting to offer dual monitor setups to their software developers. They have been shown to increase productivity up to 30%. If you don't use dual monitors, I highly recommend trying it. It is great for anyone in software development, because you can easily write code on one monitor and quickly view the results on the other monitor or use it for debugging.

If you use two (or more) monitors, you need to be using Ultramon. Dual monitor software development is just not the same without it. Ultramon places a task bar on both of your monitors. This is extremely helpful if you are like me and typically have many windows opened at once. Your taskbar isn't crowded with windows since they're divided between both monitors on the task bar. Here are a few of the key features:

• You can also drag maximized windows between your monitors. This is one of my favorite features
• Ultramon enables you to set a number of shortcut keys that are specifically for dual monitor usage
• Ultramon has an SDK that lets you add custom features

Ultramon adds two buttons next to the minimize, maximize and close buttons in the upper right corner of your windows:

• The first lets you maximize windows across both monitors -- very cool
  
• The second gives you the option to place a window on the other monitor

I typically keep my email, website, API reference, or a text document open on one monitor and my development environment open on the other monitor. If you develop software on two monitors, I highly recommend giving Ultramon a chance to revolutionize your dual monitor experience. Is Ultramon worth the $39.95? It is a bit pricey for what it does, but you might be able to have your employer pay for it. You can check our more of the features and download the trial version of Realtime Soft's Ultramon.