40+ Chrome gadgets are useful for software testing

Modern browsers like Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome make it easier to test. I used both browsers and found that Chrome has a number of utilities for testing more than Firefox.

I was going to list a list of add-ons needed for testing on Firefox and a similar list for Chrome, but I think I'll just list a list of interesting utilities that help testers on Chrome. only Moreover, it's not just a list, it's a list of the most complete utilities for the tester.

Chrome-based utilities for software testing

Google Chrome is the most powerful and popular browser in the world (source). It has a simple interface, light-weigth, and has a range of utilities to enhance performance. That is the main reason for its popularity in both the development and testing communities.

While testing, I used most of the utilities on this list when needed and they really saved my life. Read it and you'll agree.

If you use any other utility that is not on this list of Google Chrome for testing, let me know in the comments section below and I will add it to this list. Don't hesitate, let's start!

Chrome utility for testing – Web UI testing

1. Screen Ruler – Screen Ruler is a simple chrome utility that displays the exact measurement. Using Screen Ruler during the test, you can measure the object's length, width, and padding by simply placing them based on the criteria you want to check. Screen Ruler is really useful for checking Web UI because it helps us log errors that are not visible and makes sure the web application is perfect on every pixel.
2. WhatFont – As a tester, we also need to check the aesthetic issues such as the font and font size used for each specific area on the site. WhatFont is a simple utility. As its name suggests, it makes it easy to find the website font. Just hover over the area you want to know the font on a web page, WhatFont will show the font used. If you need more information about the services used for web fonts, WhatFont is also available.
3. ColorZilla – ColorZilla is a chrome utility for choosing colors. It allows you to find out exactly which colors have been used on the site. ColorZilla is really useful when you need to check if the color of the web matches the design.
4. PerfectPixel – If you are a tester who wants the application to test perfectly pixel by pixel compared to the design, this utility is for you! You can place transparent images over the surface of the web page and compare each pixel.
5. IE Tab – IE tab is a most popular IE browser emulator. Using IE Tab, you can test web pages with different versions of IE without having to leave your favorite Chrome browser.
6. Spell Checker – Spell Checker is not really just like its name. It checks spelling for all words on the web page and suggests how to correct errors. It is a simple utility that supports up to 12 languages. You can add your own words to the dictionary.
7. Grammarly – Grammarly is a great utility to help you whenever you write email, comment or blog post online as an editor. As you write, Grammarly checks spelling and grammatical errors, highlighting them without having to exit the browser. For testing, Grammarly is a free utility that provides accurate grammar checking for your Chrome browser itself.
   Chrome utility for testing – Auto
8. Web Developer – Web developer, also has an add-on of the same name on Firefox, providing a variety of web developer features on the toolbar. It does not have the full functionality of the Firefox counterpart but is still one of the most useful chrome utilities for testing. You can manage browser cache, manage cookies, check and highlight web components, title properties, and other information on the web, saving you time while testing.
9. Firebug Lite – Firebug Lite is another utility for testing. It does not replace the options provided by chrome development tools, but is still great to use. It provides a visual look for HTML elements, DOM, and models in box form. You can use it to check HTML elements at the click of a button.
   Chrome utility for testing – Proof of test

The test evidence is very important so there is a good tool that allows us to capture the screen and take note of the problems easily and save a great amount of time.

1. Awesome Screenshot – Awesome Screenshot is the most popular screen capture tool with testers. You can capture a full screen, a specific area or content seen on the web, and annotate the capture screen by highlighting, cutting, adding text … to serve as test evidence. You can easily share those photos, save them to your personal computer, save them in Awesome Screenshot or save them permanently by uploading to Google Drive or Diigo.
2. Lightshot – Lightshot is a screen capture and customization tool by adding notes. It has a fairly simple interface. You can save screenshots to local memory or upload them to the cloud (you can share the link for others).
3. Screencastify – Another utility should be included in the tester's toolkit. Screencastify is a screen recording utility for chrome. It allows to record user behavior on the site as a video. You can share with the developer as proof of test. Just press record that the content of your tabs will be recorded.
   Chrome utility for testing: Check website's cookies

Managing browser cookies and cache is an important area to ensure the application works as expected and retrieves the correct data on the server. You can use these utilities to check website cookies because it allows us to add, delete, edit cookies and delete browser cache.

1. Edit This Cookie – If you are testing the A / B version of the web application, this utility will save you a lot of time. Edit This Cookie provides a nice, organized interface that allows you to manage browser cookies like a professional. It represents a set of cookie files and its value. You can change any current value or add, delete, search, protect or block cookies. Using this utility you will find it easier to use the chrome settings screen to search for cookies for a specific page.
2. Cookie Editor – Cookie Editor is another utility that allows you to edit cookies during testing such as adding, deleting, changing, protecting, blocking and finding cookies. It is also possible to export cookies to JSON files.
3. Clear Cache – If you find it difficult to clear your browser cache, this utility will help you delete from the toolbar without having to go around (Settings -> delete browser data). You can customize it to control the data you want to delete – app cache, download, file system, browser history data form, local memory, password, …
4. Cache Killer – Cache Killer is a useful plugin for tester. It allows to easily disable cache in Chrome. Unlike Clear Cache, when it allows to clear the cache before loading a page, you always perform the latest version of the code. If you are checking the application cache, you can disable this add-on with just one click.
   Chrome utility for testing – Simulation of different screen sizes
5. Resolution Test – Resolution Test makes it easy to test web applications on different screen sizes and resolutions. You can choose from a list of the most popular screen resolutions that websites use, or use customizable sizes. It creates browser window screen sizes and simulates web applications in the screen size you want.
6. Window Resizer – is a chrome utility that is very useful in web application testing. It does everything for Chrome like what Firesizer does for Firefox – resizing the browser window to simulate different screen resolutions allows you to check how the layout of the website will change on Different screen sizes. You can choose from screen resolution suggestions or add screen resolutions that you create yourself (and save them). Some of the functions Window Resizer has and Resolution Test does not have Window Resizer allows you to customize key shortcuts and you can also export those settings and import them to another computer to use.
   Chrome utility for testing – Test discovery
7. Bug Magnet – Bug Magnet is a huge time-saver option when exploring. Right-click on any field on the web application to create a menu with predefined values ​​for email, name, phone number, postcode, … Select the value you want and fill in the field on the web page. . So, if you plan to do a discovery test in the near future, you don't need to fake the value to test the fields because Bug Magnet will do it for you. Try it once, and you'll use it every day.
8. Form Fuzzer – Form Fuzzer is another chrome utility to test data filling fields with different and extremely useful values ​​for exploring tests. Like Bug Magnet, you don't need to create data to check different formats of email addresses, phone numbers … manually when testing forms. Just right-click on the form you want to fill out and select the desired value that was set first.
9. Web Developer Form Filler – This utility helps fill form fields and proves useful while exploring. You can install hotkeys to fill out the form using only one key.
   Chrome utility for test API
10. Postman – Postman Chrome Extension is a tool for API testing – especially RESTful APIs. It provides the ability to set up and create environment variables that save time. You can request to check the API requirements group once.
11. Advanced RESTClient – Advanced RESTClient is another chrome utility for API testing. It doesn't have as many features as Postman but it is also quite cool to start with API testing. REST Client allows you to create and test customizations that require API with a simple interface.
12. Resteasy – Resteasy is another option for testing RESTful API on Chrome. It provides the same features as Advanced RESTClient, so you can try both and choose the one you prefer.
13. JSONView – If you are testing RESTful API, JSONView allows you to view JSON format as a tree in the Chrome browser if it is difficult to read and verify.
14. Ghostery – This utility makes it easier to check how the application runs when the network is slow and the API fails. It allows you to see all trackers on the site and offers the option to disable a particular tracker.
    Chrome utility for security testing
15. XSS Rays – XSS Rays is a useful chrome utility that is widely used in the testing community for security testing. It is like the XSS Javascript scanner that helps us identify XSS vulnerabilities in web pages. XSS Rays analyzes all web links and forms when it is loaded and checks XSS on GET parameters, POST.
16. Request Maker – Request Maker helps you create new requests, catch requests made by the website, tamper with the URL, modify the title and POST data. My favorite feature of Request Maker is to mark requests by clicking on a button. It saves a lot of time.
17. d3coder – d3coder is another chrome utility for security testing. You can encrypt and decode selected text via the context added in Chrome. Copy text to clipboard and select a context switch from the menu. After conversion, d3coder copies new text to clipboard. d3coder is a great plugin for security tests that allows encoding / decoding different types like base63, ROT13, CRC32, UNIX.
18. Site Spider – Site spider is a crawler site that reports all broken web links instead of having to manually check. Site Spider is open source so you can change it when you want.
    Chrome's utility for Accessibility Testing

There are many standards (WCAG, ARIA, RGAA, Section 508) that define how to make Web content and web applications more accessible to people. The following Chrome utilities can be used for accessibility testing to ensure these standards are met.

1. WAVE Evaluation Tool – WAVE is an excellent web accessibility assessment tool used to test web based on WCAG standards. WAVE Evaluation tool adds WAVE capabilities to your browser and provides an intuitive view of the web site's accessibility by passing icons and indicators to the website.
2. Accessibility Developer Tools – This is an add-on ability to access the Accessibility audit and the Accessibility sidebar pane in the component tabs in the developer tool and is actually part of the core tool in chrome. When you run the Accessibility audit, it lists the rules that the site violates according to WCAG 2.0 Guidelines, including missing ARIA attributes.
3. aXe – aXe is another utility that provides additional accessibility testing for Chrome browsers. It is a lightweight utility based on the Javascript Javascript library. aC error for all errors based on WCAG 2.0 (W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) and Section 508 (US Federal Procurement Standard).
4. ARIA Validator – ARIA Validator adds a button to Chrome to validate ARIA implementation on any website. For each frame it can read on the web page, it will open a new tab to display errors and warning.
   Chrome utilities to improve performance
5. Session Manager – As a tester, you will often visit certain websites every day. Therefore, Session Manager allows you to create a group of web pages that you can open with just one click. All in one go, sounds great, isn't it? With Session Manager, you can manage tabs – save, update, delete and restore a set of tabs. Use it and you will never regret it.
6. iMacros – iMacros is a chrome utility that makes it easier to test websites. It allows you to record and replay your actions on the site. iMacros can be used to automate your simple daily tasks like smoke tests every day. You can use iMacros to open a group of websites to save time.
7. MindMup – Mindup is a great add-on that allows you to create free mind maps. Mind maps are a great way to reorganize your understanding of application flows, write down different scenarios and even find dependencies between components of the system. MindMup gives you the ability to do exactly that without having to exit the browser. You can create mind maps and work with others in real time with a simple and neat interface. It is integrated with Google Drive and Dropbox. Because your mind map is saved in the cloud, you can access it anywhere – a browser on a desktop, tablet, or mobile device.
8. Proxy SwitchySharp – Proxy SwithchySharp saves you in case you need to switch proxies regularly. It allows you to manage and switch between multiple proxies quickly and easily. The feature I like best is that you can create rules for proxy transfers automatically, enabling a specific proxy for a specific URL. Using Proxy Swithcher, you can hide IP address.

I hope the list of google chrome utilities for software testing will help you.

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