Useful Firefox Add-ons for testing

There are hundreds of Add-ons for Firefox, most of them are not suitable for helping testers whilst testing but amongst the vast number available there are some true time saving gems.

Here’s a few that I use on a regular basis, you might also find them quite useful.

 

1. Selenium IDE

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2079

Selenium is fast becoming the standard web test automation tool and there is good reason for it. You can use it for record and playback testing or get down to code level and drive it that way. The browser platform for replaying the tests is not complete yet but it is getting there. The Selenium IDE is the basic record and playback tool which is invaluable for automating website pages or for quickly loading data through the UI.

 

2. IE Tab

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419

IE Tab is great if you use Firefox as your default browser, especially if you use sharepoint sites as you can flip the current tab to render in IE. In sharepoint this enables controls that are simply not available in Firefox and displays the pages correctly in some instances. It is also great for quickly seeing how a site will look in IE whilst you are testing, although it should not be used to substitute full IE testing.

 

3. Firesizer 0.65

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5792

This is a handy little tool that simply resizes the window to a predefined size. Great for testing how your site will look in different sizes.

 

4. W3C Page Validator

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2250

Great tool for checking your site against the W3C conformance standards. Does sometimes complain about things that are not W3C failures and does require you to validate each page in turn, but still useful.

 

5. Pencil Sketcher

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8487

Amazing little add-on which allows you to design screens and mockups really quickly and within the browser. You can add all sorts of shapes and widgets. Brilliant for mocking up screens for the test plans and cases.

 

6. SQL Injection

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6727

This is a great tool for checking SQL injection vulnerabilities on sites under test. It generates the SQL for you and adds it to each available input field.

 

7. Quick Restart

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3559

This is a very simple tool but invaluable. It basically adds a restart button to the tool bar which simply restarts the Firefox browser. Invaluable when testing cookies and sessions where lots of restarting is needed to clear them down.

 

8. Firebug

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843

Brilliant add-on for inspecting the page under test. You can view the HTML and CSS as well but the inspection tool is very useful.

 

9. Molybdenum

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4149

This is a cool little app for managing Selenium tests. It gives a clearer interface for managing suites and cases. Still not perfect though but better than the standard Selenium IDE.

 

10. Regular Expressions Tester

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2077

Useful tool for testing Regular Expressions.

 

These are just a few of the useful tools that can be found to help testers be more efficient and effective whilst testing web apps.

Comments

# re: Useful Firefox Add-ons for testing
Gravatar I have been using HTTPFox in my testing:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6647

It is a great HTTP debugging proxy (similar to Fiddler for IE). You can see HTTP traffic and analyze at the protocol level.
Left by Corey on 10/29/2008 6:48 PM
# re: Useful Firefox Add-ons for testing
Gravatar The SQL Injection one and the Pencil is cool, thanks!
Left by Hadi Hariri on 10/29/2008 7:23 PM
# re: Useful Firefox Add-ons for testing
Gravatar Thanks for the comments guys. Corey - that HTTPFox is quality. Very useful indeed.
Left by Rob on 10/30/2008 9:03 AM
#  Firefox Add-ons for testing
Gravatar SQL Injection Add-0n is ultimate useful for me.. THANKS a TON !!
Left by dhrruva on 12/11/2008 7:40 AM
# Some more Useful Firefox Add-ons for testing
Gravatar Some more Useful Firefox Add-ons for testing
Left by Rob Lambert's Blog on 2/10/2009 5:17 PM
# re: Useful Firefox Add-ons for testing
Gravatar Does anyone know about any SQL Injection Addon for internet explorer?
Left by Tester on 4/28/2009 7:46 AM
# re: Useful Firefox Add-ons for testing
Gravatar This is exactly what I'm looking for
Left by Hieu Vo on 7/9/2009 9:06 PM
# re: Useful Firefox Add-ons for testing
Gravatar Glad you like the list. The list is ever changing. might be worth me compiling a new one at some point.

Left by RLambert on 7/15/2009 2:34 PM
# re: any firefox addon for php injection and email header injection
Gravatar Can anyone please provide me information regarding firefox addon for php injection and email header injection
Left by Anshu on 10/14/2009 10:02 AM
# re: Useful Firefox Add-ons for testing
Gravatar Great list! I saw the question asked about most useful Firefox addons for testers on the QualityTester website today at: www.qualitytesting.info/.../most-useful-firefox...

I googled and found your article. I'll point to it from my blog, if that's OK?
Left by Yvette Francino on 11/8/2009 2:36 PM
# re: Useful Firefox Add-ons for testing
Gravatar Hi Yvette,

I certainly don't mind a link back from your blog.

Thanks for your nice comment.

Rob
Left by RLambert on 11/9/2009 9:21 AM
# re: Useful Firefox Add-ons for testing
Gravatar Gr8.. List... It was really helpful. But please let me know how test the SQL injection through these addons
Left by Ansi on 1/19/2010 5:52 AM
# re: Useful Firefox Add-ons for testing
Gravatar Hi Ansi,

My advice would be to start with the add on homepage and see what advice is there.
addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6727

Wikipedia has some useful information on how they work:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_injection

Another good site is here:
www.acunetix.com/websitesecurity/sql-injection.htm

Thanks for commenting

Rob
Left by RLambert on 1/19/2010 9:24 AM

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