Firefox--More Web Design Extensions

[Roy Schestowitz]

I'm adding more content to my Firefox & Web Design Tips pages.

Good! It will make a good point to refer people to, especially these who
still design and test using IE. I'll blog about it shortly.

I listed 4 more Firefox extensions useful for web design besides the Web
Developer Toolbar. I think they are useful to anyone who is learning
HTML. I'm going to add more pages about using Firefox for web design when
I have more time...

I didn't know about two of them.

I recommend subscribing to:

https://addons.update.mozilla.org/rss/?application=firefox&type=E&list=newest

http://tips.webdesign10.com/web-design-extensions.htm

Let me know what you think or if you know of some other good ways to use
Firefox for web design. Are there any features I missed with those
extensions?

Live HTTP Headers < http://livehttpheaders.mozdev.org/ >? Or is that at the
verge of site administration? Web programmers might find it valuable.

Roy

 

[WD10]

I'm adding more content to my Firefox & Web Design Tips pages.

I listed 4 more Firefox extensions useful for web design besides the Web
Developer Toolbar. I think they are useful to anyone who is learning HTML.
I'm going to add more pages about using Firefox for web design when I have
more time...

http://tips.webdesign10.com/web-design-extensions.htm

Let me know what you think or if you know of some other good ways to use
Firefox for web design. Are there any features I missed with those
extensions?

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?G=E9rard_Talbot?=]

WD10 wrote :

I'm adding more content to my Firefox & Web Design Tips pages.

I listed 4 more Firefox extensions useful for web design besides the Web
Developer Toolbar. I think they are useful to anyone who is learning HTML.
I'm going to add more pages about using Firefox for web design when I have
more time...

http://tips.webdesign10.com/web-design-extensions.htm

Let me know what you think or if you know of some other good ways to use
Firefox for web design. Are there any features I missed with those
extensions?

HTML Tidy Firefox Extension is very useful, I'd say; I've been using it
since version 0.5.
MeasureIt and Colorzilla are not useful: they duplicate what DOM
inspector already does. So I'd say using DOM inspector is much much more
useful than this sort of extensions.

View Rendered Source is interesting for intermediary and advanced users:
they show a graphical representation of the DOM containment hierarchy.

View Formatted Source is not very useful.

Do you know if/when links toolbar extension will be available for
Firefox 1.5 (Deer Park)?

Gérard

 

[WD10]

I'm adding more content to my Firefox & Web Design Tips pages.

Good! It will make a good point to refer people to, especially these who
still design and test using IE. I'll blog about it shortly.

I listed 4 more Firefox extensions useful for web design besides the Web
Developer Toolbar. I think they are useful to anyone who is learning
HTML. I'm going to add more pages about using Firefox for web design when
I have more time...

I didn't know about two of them.

I recommend subscribing to:

https://addons.update.mozilla.org/rss/?application=firefox&type=E&list=newest

Thanks for that tip... I also added the page for those feeds to my "Firefox
& RSS" page (http://tips.webdesign10.com/firefox-rss.htm).

Live HTTP Headers < http://livehttpheaders.mozdev.org/ >? Or is that at
the
verge of site administration? Web programmers might find it valuable.

Good idea.... I added that one to my page. I just installed 30 new
extensions recently for experimentation... I just tried that one and it's
good. I also added a couple more that I forgot the first time around

 

[Roy Schestowitz]

I'm adding more content to my Firefox & Web Design Tips pages.

Good! It will make a good point to refer people to, especially these who
still design and test using IE. I'll blog about it shortly.

I listed 4 more Firefox extensions useful for web design besides the Web
Developer Toolbar. I think they are useful to anyone who is learning
HTML. I'm going to add more pages about using Firefox for web design
when I have more time...

I didn't know about two of them.

I recommend subscribing to:

https://addons.update.mozilla.org/rss/?application=firefox&type=E&list=newest

Thanks for that tip... I also added the page for those feeds to my
"Firefox & RSS" page (http://tips.webdesign10.com/firefox-rss.htm).

Live HTTP Headers < http://livehttpheaders.mozdev.org/ >? Or is that at
the
verge of site administration? Web programmers might find it valuable.

Good idea.... I added that one to my page. I just installed 30 new
extensions recently for experimentation... I just tried that one and it's
good. I also added a couple more that I forgot the first time around

Glad to hear it was useful! Will link to your site later this
morning/night...

Roy

 

[WD10]

WD10 wrote :

HTML Tidy Firefox Extension is very useful, I'd say; I've been using it
since version 0.5.
MeasureIt and Colorzilla are not useful: they duplicate what DOM inspector
already does. So I'd say using DOM inspector is much much more useful than
this sort of extensions.

The DOM Inspector is great, but don't you think it is a little more work to
open it up and click through it than to just use the icons on the status
bar? Also, is there really a way to use the DOM Inspector to do exactly
what MeasureIt or Colorzilla do? (for example, hover over a graphic to get
the color value, or measuring an area in pixels by using a marquee tool on
the screen?) I don't know how to do that with the DOMi (but would like to
learn). Are you refering to the mouseover DOM inspector bookmarklet from
SlayerOffice?

View Rendered Source is interesting for intermediary and advanced users:
they show a graphical representation of the DOM containment hierarchy.

View Formatted Source is not very useful.

I think you're probably right... :S
Maybe I will replace that with some links to info about the DOM Inspector.

Do you know if/when links toolbar extension will be available for Firefox
1.5 (Deer Park)?

I've never used it -- I'm not sure.

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?G=E9rard_Talbot?=]

WD10 wrote :

The DOM Inspector is great, but don't you think it is a little more work to
open it up and click through it than to just use the icons on the status
bar? Also, is there really a way to use the DOM Inspector to do exactly
what MeasureIt or Colorzilla do? (for example, hover over a graphic to get
the color value, or measuring an area in pixels by using a marquee tool on
the screen?) I don't know how to do that with the DOMi (but would like to
learn).

For an element's measurement:
Choose DOM Nodes in the left panel and then Object Computed Style in the
rigth panel and then look for width, height; this is more useful, more
reliable than Object Box model/dimensions since you get to know which
-moz-box-sizing is in use.
Also, Object Javascript object will report other useful values:

/ Top
/ client / Left
elementReference. / offset / Width
\ scroll \ Height

For colorzilla:
Choose DOM Nodes in the left panel, then Object Computed Style in the
right panel and then color and background-color. If colorzilla is able
to discriminate colors inside an image (and I doubt it can do that),
then this specific feature is not in DOM inspector.

Are you refering to the mouseover DOM inspector bookmarklet from

SlayerOffice?

No, I was not.

I think you're probably right... :S
Maybe I will replace that with some links to info about the DOM Inspector.




I've never used it -- I'm not sure.

See in the status bar of this image:
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/images/2/24/FirefoxChromeToolbarsDescription7a.gif

Gérard

 

[Blinky the Shark]

I'm adding more content to my Firefox & Web Design Tips pages.

I listed 4 more Firefox extensions useful for web design besides the Web
Developer Toolbar. I think they are useful to anyone who is learning HTML.
I'm going to add more pages about using Firefox for web design when I have
more time...

http://tips.webdesign10.com/web-design-extensions.htm

Both now linked (Webmaster section):

http://blinkynet.net/comp/ndx_internet.html

 

[Roy Schestowitz]

__/ [Blinky the Shark] on Monday 29 August 2005 05:14 \__

Both now linked (Webmaster section):

http://blinkynet.net/comp/ndx_internet.html

Ditto.

http://schestowitz.com/Weblog/archives/2005/08/29/firefox-design/

To say a little more, the Web Developer Extension does not only complement
existing tools, but I think it replaces a few commercial equivalents. I
always enjoy seeing this trend, whereby every functionality moves to the
browser. With the Horde project I can now /efficiently/ handle multiple
E-mail accounts in the browser, edit files in the browser (server-side),
have FTP in a tab if necessary and even debug designs in the browser.
What's next? Newsgroups reader (proper one, no GG)? Hmmm... what if some
AJAX was involved? That might make a good start-up.

Roy

 

[WD10]

WD10 wrote :


For an element's measurement:
Choose DOM Nodes in the left panel and then Object Computed Style in the
rigth panel and then look for width, height; this is more useful, more
reliable than Object Box model/dimensions since you get to know
which -moz-box-sizing is in use.
Also, Object Javascript object will report other useful values:

/ Top
/ client / Left
elementReference. / offset / Width
\ scroll \ Height

For colorzilla:
Choose DOM Nodes in the left panel, then Object Computed Style in the
right panel and then color and background-color. If colorzilla is able to
discriminate colors inside an image (and I doubt it can do that), then
this specific feature is not in DOM inspector.

Thanks for those tips. I'm going to add some DOM Inspector information to
my site when I have time. I think the MeasureIt extension is a little
different from what the DOMi does. I haven't had a use for MeasureIt yet,
but I can see where it could be useful. For example, measuring a part of a
page to see how many pixels you want a future image to be.

Colorzilla can discriminate colors inside an image. It's useful when inside
Firefox, but a free program called Pixie is better overall because it's not
limited to Firefox (for example if you want to match the color in an image
that is open in another program). It's just slower to start Pixie than to
click the status bar in Firefox, and I think Pixie only runs on Windows.

See in the status bar of this image:
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/images/2/24/FirefoxChromeToolbarsDescription7a.gif

That looks like a great extension.

 

[WD10]

To say a little more, the Web Developer Extension does not only complement
existing tools, but I think it replaces a few commercial equivalents. I
always enjoy seeing this trend, whereby every functionality moves to the
browser. With the Horde project I can now /efficiently/ handle multiple
E-mail accounts in the browser, edit files in the browser (server-side),
have FTP in a tab if necessary and even debug designs in the browser.
What's next? Newsgroups reader (proper one, no GG)? Hmmm... what if some
AJAX was involved? That might make a good start-up.

I just downloaded Horde but it's going to take a while to figure out. It
looks great though...

I have some ideas about what the perfect browser should be (in addition to
the web development tools--BTW, have you seen the codetch extension?
http://www.codetch.com/. This is going to be one of the best extensions).

There is a great program called Net Snippets Professional
(www.netsnippets.com). It only runs on Windows, but if they could integrate
those kinds of features into Firefox it would be great. A browser shouldn't
just be about viewing web pages. It should also allow saving and organizing
the Web content -- automatically generating bibliographies and reports.
I've only used the trial version of Net Snippets becuase it costs $130. If
a browser is supposed to be the tool to interact with the Web, why not make
it more functional? There is a Firefox extension called Scrapbook, which is
a good start, but it should go beyond that. Saving web pages to random
folders with CTRL-S is too primitive... :S

 

[Roy Schestowitz]

To say a little more, the Web Developer Extension does not only
complement existing tools, but I think it replaces a few commercial
equivalents. I always enjoy seeing this trend, whereby every
functionality moves to the browser. With the Horde project I can now
/efficiently/ handle multiple E-mail accounts in the browser, edit files
in the browser (server-side), have FTP in a tab if necessary and even
debug designs in the browser. What's next? Newsgroups reader (proper one,
no GG)? Hmmm... what if some AJAX was involved? That might make a good
start-up.

I just downloaded Horde but it's going to take a while to figure out. It
looks great though...

Here are some old screenshot that I have lying around:

http://www.schestowitz.com/temp/horde.jpg

Here is the nice initiative at getting an AJAX-enabled feed reader:

http://www.schestowitz.com/temp/500.jpg

I have some ideas about what the perfect browser should be (in addition to
the web development tools--BTW, have you seen the codetch extension?
http://www.codetch.com/. This is going to be one of the best extensions).

It looks very promising. I will wait until I get a nod from someone who uses
it.

There is a great program called Net Snippets Professional
(www.netsnippets.com). It only runs on Windows, but if they could
integrate
those kinds of features into Firefox it would be great. A browser
shouldn't
just be about viewing web pages.

Well, intially it was. Things evolve. What about on-line operating systems?
They retain the same name, but they turn into a new 'monster' over time.

It should also allow saving and
organizing the Web content -- automatically generating bibliographies and
reports.

Web technologies are the main thing that currently keep me ahead of my
superordinates so I look forward to such developments, which the older
generation will fail to grasp or master.

I've only used the trial version of Net Snippets becuase it costs $130.
If a browser is supposed to be the tool to interact with the Web, why not
make
it more functional?

Because not enough people require it at present. I see the way my parents
handle the browser. Some would rather pay, become ignorant as to what's
under the hood and become dependent on a product.

Am I bitter? No. They peril themselves. But sometimes my family and friends
peril themselves and that's when I get a taste of it too...

There is a Firefox extension called Scrapbook, which
is
a good start, but it should go beyond that. Saving web pages to random
folders with CTRL-S is too primitive... :S

I personally use grabbers a lot. In fact, I get all my music without _any_
manual intervention. A grabber spiders using HTTP overnight and gets me the
latest stuff, which resides on Web servers, i.e. people's Web sites (no P2P
involved). This makes me merely one who downloads files, so I'm clean!

Roy

 

[WD10]

I just downloaded Horde but it's going to take a while to figure out. It
looks great though...

Here are some old screenshot that I have lying around:

http://www.schestowitz.com/temp/horde.jpg

Here is the nice initiative at getting an AJAX-enabled feed reader:

http://www.schestowitz.com/temp/500.jpg

That looks great. I hope I have enough time tomorrow to install it.

It looks very promising. I will wait until I get a nod from someone who
uses
it.

The guy who is working on it has this list of features he is adding:

* FTP
* Project/Site manager
* File type association manager
* Extensible editor system
* Syntax Highliter (help pls!)
* Photoshop-like color picker
* CSS manager/editor
* Code snippet insertion
* HTML insertion dialogues
* Find and Replace
(http://www.zachcarter.info/)

I think that it is going to be great.

Web technologies are the main thing that currently keep me ahead of my
superordinates so I look forward to such developments, which the older
generation will fail to grasp or master.




Because not enough people require it at present. I see the way my parents
handle the browser. Some would rather pay, become ignorant as to what's
under the hood and become dependent on a product.

Am I bitter? No. They peril themselves. But sometimes my family and
friends
peril themselves and that's when I get a taste of it too...

But what about schools and universities? When I was a kid we had to take a
class every year on how to use the library system to look up books. It's
2005 now. Every kid should have a class every year on how to use the
Internet for research--and everyone should have a free tool to use for that
purpose (a browser that can organize Web information). A browser with those
features integrated would be perfect and the next generation would
understand how to use it. I wonder how difficult it would be to write a
Firefox extension that does what Net Snippets does. If I had enough free
time I would look into it...

I personally use grabbers a lot. In fact, I get all my music without _any_
manual intervention. A grabber spiders using HTTP overnight and gets me
the
latest stuff, which resides on Web servers, i.e. people's Web sites (no
P2P
involved). This makes me merely one who downloads files, so I'm clean!

I wish I could write that kind of stuff
Does it find good music?

 

[Roy Schestowitz]

I just downloaded Horde but it's going to take a while to figure out.
It looks great though...

Here are some old screenshot that I have lying around:

http://www.schestowitz.com/temp/horde.jpg

Here is the nice initiative at getting an AJAX-enabled feed reader:

http://www.schestowitz.com/temp/500.jpg

That looks great. I hope I have enough time tomorrow to install it.

If you need some help, just holler.

The guy who is working on it has this list of features he is adding:

* FTP
* Project/Site manager
* File type association manager
* Extensible editor system
* Syntax Highliter (help pls!)
* Photoshop-like color picker
* CSS manager/editor
* Code snippet insertion
* HTML insertion dialogues
* Find and Replace
(http://www.zachcarter.info/)

I think that it is going to be great.

It sounds like something revolutionary. Not mind-blowing, but something that
will get people talking... if it's GPL'd, which I('d like to) assume it is,
then syntax highlighting is something that can easily be re-used. KWrite,
for example, highlights so many conceivable formats and syntaxes.

But what about schools and universities? When I was a kid we had to take
a
class every year on how to use the library system to look up books. It's
2005 now. Every kid should have a class every year on how to use the
Internet for research--and everyone should have a free tool to use for
that
purpose (a browser that can organize Web information).

It is moving in that direction:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/23/tech/main791462.shtml

Sadly, in our university, some student need to be taught about backup first.
I am involved with endless sobs about losses of theses and dissertations.
You'd think that a Master or Ph.D. student would know better and not store
his/her file on just a floppy disk or a pen drive.

A browser with
those features integrated would be perfect and the next generation would
understand how to use it. I wonder how difficult it would be to write a
Firefox extension that does what Net Snippets does. If I had enough free
time I would look into it...

It's Java Runtime Environment. Give it time. It's where all the hype is
headed.

I wish I could write that kind of stuff
Does it find good music?

Depends on what sites it's aimed at as a starting point. At the moment (as
those sites are volatile) I select sites from this Wiki:

http://wiki.monkeyfilter.com/index.php?title=MP3_Blog_Listing

If you have a modern Mac or _nix box, see entry below:

http://schestowitz.com/Weblog/archives/2005/08/10/music-obscurity/

This latest items points to some older ones. If you use Windows, you can
'hand-pick' the MP3's instead of recurse and dispose.

Roy

 

[WD10]

A browser with
those features integrated would be perfect and the next generation would
understand how to use it. I wonder how difficult it would be to write a
Firefox extension that does what Net Snippets does. If I had enough free
time I would look into it...

It's Java Runtime Environment. Give it time. It's where all the hype is
headed.

Do you mean a tool like that should be written in Java?

Depends on what sites it's aimed at as a starting point. At the moment (as
those sites are volatile) I select sites from this Wiki:

http://wiki.monkeyfilter.com/index.php?title=MP3_Blog_Listing

If you have a modern Mac or _nix box, see entry below:

http://schestowitz.com/Weblog/archives/2005/08/10/music-obscurity/

This latest items points to some older ones. If you use Windows, you can
'hand-pick' the MP3's instead of recurse and dispose.

I'll look into it...

 

[Roy Schestowitz]

A browser with
those features integrated would be perfect and the next generation would
understand how to use it. I wonder how difficult it would be to write a
Firefox extension that does what Net Snippets does. If I had enough
free time I would look into it...

It's Java Runtime Environment. Give it time. It's where all the hype is
headed.

Do you mean a tool like that should be written in Java?

I mean, merely anything you write in Java can (should) be incorporated into
Firefox in one way or another. Think of Firefox as a Java platform -- that
is -- a virtual machine that assembles and delegates power to many child
processes. Maybe Mozilla will one day become an all-in-one application.
Thunderbird and Firefox I was told have been combined to be called
Seamonkey. Time will tell it it will 'take'. Let's not forget that they
used to be joint in the Mozilla Suite, formerly known as Netscape.

I'll look into it...

Excellent. *smile*

Roy

 

[Andy Dingley]

MeasureIt and Colorzilla are not useful: they duplicate what DOM
inspector already does.

I've never used DOM Inspector for either of these. Although they
"duplicate the task", their interface is completely different. I usually
use them for measuring things like existing sites or design dummies
given to me as big bitmaps, where I later need to build a matching site.
For neither of these would the DOM Inspector be a good interface to use
- it's much easier with the direct screen-based interface of the simpler
tools.

View Rendered Source is interesting for intermediary and advanced users:
they show a graphical representation of the DOM containment hierarchy.

It's also useful for XSLT work, where it shows the results of a
client-side XSLT transform. Similarly for JavaScript and dynamically
modified pages.

 

[william]

I'm adding more content to my Firefox & Web Design Tips pages.

I listed 4 more Firefox extensions useful for web design besides the Web
Developer Toolbar. I think they are useful to anyone who is learning HTML.
I'm going to add more pages about using Firefox for web design when I have
more time...

http://tips.webdesign10.com/web-design-extensions.htm

Let me know what you think or if you know of some other good ways to use
Firefox for web design. Are there any features I missed with those
extensions?

Whats with the stupid little box popping up when you mouse over the
"Tallahassee Web Site Design" link on the bottom of the page?

 

[Blinky the Shark]

Whats with the stupid little box popping up when you mouse over the
"Tallahassee Web Site Design" link on the bottom of the page?

Here, it contains a thumb of the linked page. Not that I have any
need to see that.

 

[WD10]

Whats with the stupid little box popping up when you mouse over the
"Tallahassee Web Site Design" link on the bottom of the page?

A little blunt for constructive criticism, don't you think? Maybe the box
too much... I was just experimenting with overlib. In the past I never took
the site very seriously because for a long time it only had only 10 visitors
a day and almost all of them were me But now it's starting to get
significant traffic so maybe I should move the experimenting somewhere else.