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Top 10 Firefox Addons For Web Developers

Web developers often require tools to test, analyze and benchmark their web pages and to do so they use various web development products for different purposes.

Those who are familiar with Firefox and use it extensively knows that Firefox browser supports added extensions/addons which can be freely downloaded from the Firefox addon site.

Firefox community is constantly working and adding new addon’s all the time they are even upgrading their addon’s to stay in touch with the time. There is a huge list of Firefox addon’s related to web development still i am presenting you a list of top 10 Firefox addons for web Development.

1. Firebug: Firebug is an extremely popular Firefox addon widely used by the web developer community. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page. Extremely popular addon and can be said as the king of all web development Firefox addons.

2. YSlow: YSlow is typically a performance measuring Firefox addon to analyze and benchmark website performance. YSlow works on yahoo’s performance metrics and analyze live pages for speed, load and other parameters.

3. HTML Validator: HTML Validator does one thing and does pretty well. It Validates and adds HTML Validations inside Firefox. Web Developers can easily concentrate on the number of errors marked by these extension.

4. GreaseMonkey: GeaseMonkey is a cool Firefox Addon which allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.

5. CSS Viewer: With this extension you can view CSS properties of related page elements. Very handy, when You got large CSS file with styles overlapping each other, to analyze why something is not displayed in the way You wanted.

6. JavaScript Debugger: JavaScript Debugger gives you the flexibility of debugging live pages on Firefox and Mozila based browsers.

7. FireShot: FireShot is a Firefox extension that creates screenshots of web pages. Unlike other extensions, this plugin provides a set of editing and annotation tools, which let users quickly modify captures and insert text and graphical annotations.

8. Font Finder: Very handy tool to get all CSS styles of selected text in Firefox / Thunderbird. Just highlight and right click to see all of the styling information you could require including font-size, font-family, color (in both hex and RGB), line-height, letter-spacing, and much much more.

9. Server Switcher: Server Switcher is a navigational help tool for web developers. It allows you to easily switch between sites on your development (hosting the temporary version you are currently working on) and live servers, so that you can immediately see the differences.

10. Selenium IDE: Selenium IDE is an integrated development environment for Selenium tests. It is implemented as a Firefox extension, and allows you to record, edit, and debug tests. Selenium IDE includes the entire Selenium Core, allowing you to easily and quickly. Read the quick guide to selenium IDE.

How To Reveal Your Masked Password Using JavaScript

How To unmask the password saved in your browser which you might have forgotten. Suppose you forgot the password after saving in your favorite browser. Every time you visit your preferred site you are prompted to put the password but that work was done by the browser to help you. Now, what if your PC is formatted and there is no backup whatsoever. In this case you browser (newly installed) won’t be able to remember the password for you and you need to provide it yourself. Just because you have forgotten or lost your password you are barred from your favorite site. In such scenario you can do nothing but ask for the password assistance for the site but in case you are interested in unmasking the password form your browser then you can simply use some JavaScript tricks to unmask your password. Companies who work hard to increase their user friendly features tend to think that by securing the password they are doing good but eventually end up loosing business due to login failures. If a user is told 2-3 times to provide correct password which he/she might have forgotten they will feel irritated and may turn up to another company (that’s a well known fact).

var els = document.getElementsByTagName('input');
  for(var x = 0; x 

If you put javascript: at the beginning of that, and delete all the new lines so that it becomes a one-liner, you can delete the text in your browser's address bar and paste the JavaScript snippet in the address bar instead, then hit the Enter key. This will cause masked passwords to be revealed.



If you expect to use this often, you can create a bookmark button in your Firefox Bookmarks Toolbar easily enough. Start by creating a new bookmark — any bookmark will do, though you may want to choose one for a page without a favicon. Then:
Right-click on the new bookmark button and select Properties. The title bar for the bookmark's Properties dialog will still show the name of the bookmark's original web page while you make edits, but don't worry about that.
	
Change the text in the Name field to Unmask (or whatever else you want it to say).
	
Change the text in the Location field the same way you would for the browser address bar, as described above.
	
Clear the Keyword and Description fields, and fill them with whatever you like (or nothing at all).
	
Click the Save Changes button


Cool.  Any time you want to see the password text you type into a masked password field, now, you can just click the Unmask bookmark button in your Bookmark Toolbar.

In Firefox, you can also just drag and drop this link to your Bookmark Toolbar to get the same effect, if you like:

Unmask

You are, unfortunately, on your own for figuring out how to do any of this in other browsers.

Finally, if you are a web developer and you think it is a good idea to give your site's visitors the ability to unmask passwords when they try to log in, you can always create an Unmask Password link using the above JavaScript snippet. I recommend thinking long and hard about that before making the option available, however.

As a final warning, keep in mind that when you walk away from your computer with your password on the screen, the fact that it is masked may not stop someone else from getting your password using something like this JavaScript trick. Most software security techniques, no matter how useful in a networked world, are not proof against physical access to the machine.

Please leave me a comment and let me know if the above technique help you in unmasking your forgotten password. Subscribe to our RSS to receive latest updates in your mailbox. 

Mentor Entry Level Developers In Easy 7 Steps

Every Organization needs to mentor the entry level developers to attain success in their future endeavors. So, if you are the one who is given an opportunity to teach and train your new people then following tips will be good for you. Not every developer can become a good mentor so if you think you are not up to the task you should straight forward say NO to your employer otherwise you will end up wasting your time and alienating a promising new developer. But if you are up to the task the read the following 7 tips on how to successfully mentor the entry level developers.

1. Mentoring should be your priority

I think the key ingredient in a successful mentoring relationship is giving the relationship priority above anything other than an emergency. It is the inability to give the relationship priority that makes true mentoring scenarios so rare. If you don’t make the mentorship a priority, the new hire quickly senses that she is not important. She also quickly figures out that, when she goes to you for help, she is slowing you down from attending to your “real” priorities. The end result? She doesn’t seek you for help, and she tries to do things on her own. Basically, you’re no longer her mentor.

2. Define a Clear Road map

I’ve seen a number of mentoring programs sink because there is no plan. Someone is hired, and a more experienced developer is assigned to show that person the ropes. The experienced developer wasn’t told about this new mentoring role until 9:05 AM on the new hire’s first day. The would-be mentor takes the new hire on a tour of the building and introduces her to a few other teams — and that’s the extent of “the ropes.” The only thing the new employee usually learns is where to find the kitchen. You need to have a game plan with set goals (for the new hire and the mentor) and a list of topics to cover; otherwise, you’ll both feel lost and give up before you even start.

3. Be tolerant of mistakes

Working with entry-level developers can be frustrating. They are not familiar with writing code in a real-world environment with version control, unit tests, and automated build tools. Also, they may have been taught outdated habits by a professor who last worked on actual code in 1987. Often, entry-level developers do not realize that the way they were taught to approach a problem may not be the only choice. But if your reaction to mistakes is to treat the developer like she is stupid or to blame (even if she is being stupid or is truly at fault), she probably won’t respond well and won’t be working with you much longer.

4. Assign appropriate projects

One of the worst things you can do is to throw an entry-level programmer at an extremely complex project and expect her to “sink or swim.” Chances are, the programmer will sink; even worse, the programmer will add this project to her resume, and then she will run out of there as fast as she can just to get away from you. On the other hand, don’t create busywork for the programmer; let her work on nagging issues in current products or internal projects that you never seem to have time to address. Once you gain confidence about what the programmer can accomplish, then you can assign a more difficult project.

5. Give and accept feedback

You can’t successfully navigate a ship in the middle of an ocean without a compass. Likewise, the new employee will not achieve her goal of becoming a productive member of the team without knowing where she has been and where she is going. This means you need to give feedback on a regular basis, and the feedback needs to be appropriate. For instance, being sarcastic to someone who made an honest mistake is not helpful. Feedback has to be a two-way street as well; you need to be listening to them to find out what their concerns and questions are, and address them.

6. Listen to the new employee’s ideas

Entry-level developers have a lot less built-in prejudices and biases than experienced developers. Sometimes the saying “out of the mouths of babes” really applies. A number of times in my career, I’ve seen a less-experienced employee point out an obvious answer that all of the more experienced employees overlooked. When you treat a new hire as a peer, it raises their confidence and makes them feel like part of the team.

7. Treat the developer with respect

Just because someone is entry-level, it doesn’t mean that her job is to refill your coffee or pick up your lunch. She isn’t rushing a sorority — she’s trying to break into the development business. If you disrespect the developer, she might leave or go to HR about your behavior (and maybe still leave). Leave me a comment and share your thoughts. Also please Subscribe to our RSS for latest tips, tricks and examples on cutting edge stuff.

Microsoft And Yahoo Collaborated Against Google

Microsoft and Yahoo have signed a search engine deal to merge their search technology and advertisement operations. This move is highly inspired by Google 70% market share and now these two giants are trying to break their way into Google’s territory.

he 10-year deal gives Microsoft an exclusive license to Yahoo’s search-engine technologies, which it will be able to incorporate into its own search platforms. The plan is for Microsoft’s Bing to become the search engine for Yahoo’s sites. Microsoft will pay Yahoo 88 percent of search revenue from traffic on Yahoo’s own sites, with revenue guarantees worldwide for 18 months.

Now, that bing is making headlines with a surge of 8% unique visitors to the page and 28% rise in page impression, it looks like the competition is on.

Yahoo have announced that they will save $200m (£120m) a year on capital expenditure and increase its annual cash flow by around $275m a year, with a $500m benefit to annual income overall. Looks good for Yahoo which was shutting its many services and even planning to shut Geocities where thousands of loyal people will be hurt. Microsoft on the other hand is not talking about how much they are expecting this deal to bring in but they are certainly looking for a market share rather than profits.

Google currently owns the search engine and advertising market and expert feels that monopoly needs to be broken, this deal will put Microsoft back on track but still they have long way to go.

Leave me a comment and share your thoughts on this deal. Also please Subscribe to our RSS for latest tips, tricks and examples on cutting edge stuff.

How To Build Website Backlinks By Using An Organic Approach

How to build website backlinks in an organic way? The question is not so simple as you need to first know What are “backlinks”? Well, Backlinks are links that are directed towards your website which are also termed as Inbound links (IBL). They represent the popularity or importance as more and more people (sites) linking to you will eventually end up giving backlinks to your site.You might think that how come backlinks are important for your website though you are having excellent articles (data) on your site. But if you think in terms of search engines you will notice that they heavily rely on backlink to measure importance and popularity of any data. These search engines especially Google gives more credit to websites that have a good number of quality backlinks, and consider those websites more relevant than others in their results pages for a search query.

What Goes in the background to calculate Backlinks?

While calculating the relevancy of a site to a keyword, search engines consider the number of QUALITY inbound links to that site. Here comes a question: What is QUALITY backlinks? A quality backlink is termed as links coming back to your site from a high page rank (PR) sites specially from the same niche. So its vital to get quality back links rather then settling for mere inbound links. Search engine in order to display exact and better search results considers the content of the sites to determine the QUALITY of a link. When inbound links to any site come from other sites, and those sites have content related to your site (same niche), these inbound links are considered more relevant to your site. If inbound links are found on sites with unrelated content, they are considered less relevant. The higher the relevance of inbound links, the greater their quality.

Tips To Build Back links In an Organic Way

Although, there are numerous methods provided in various SEO sites but here is my list of building backlinks in an organic way, remember no black hat SEO tricks here

1. Directory Submission: Search engines sometimes refers directories to find more description about a site. These directories often gives one way backlinks to your site which is good for SERP. If these directories are paid and quite old, you can simply get quality backlinks. DMOZ, Yahoo, LIL and Zoominfo are MUST for every site.
2. Sponsered Listing: You can optionally sponsor a site which will give you good traffic along with backlinks. Make sure you opt for site in the same niche of your site. Try to look for one time payment rather then recurring payments.
3. Forums & Blogs: Try commenting on blogs and reply on popular forums which are old and highly indexed in google. When commenting in blog make sure you provide a valid comment about that particular article and not some random text. Putting a link in your comment can lead to a SPAM. If your comment adds some value to the article, it will give you good result in long term. Create multiple profiles in popular forums and add signatures. e.g. make sure your signature contains your keywords if possible. Don’t make it look like a SPAM.There is very thin line between a valid signature, comments and SPAM so make sure you understand the difference.
4. Content Exchange: Content Exchange will give some boost and new visitors to your site but make sure you exchange in the same niche.
5. Submit RSS Feeds to RSS Directories: Generate a RSS feed and submit it to the RSS directories. On the Internet people are hungry for content, there might be a bunch of people waiting to put your RSS on their website and thus provide you with a bunch of free backlinks.
6. Write Short Articles on Popular sites: Write short articles on popular sites like squidoo, hubpages and ehow with a link back to your site (containing keywords). Although, you need to build good reputation on these sites to get some traffic and backlinks but this will give good results in long term.
7. Google and other Alert services: Though, this is not a task but think about it. Whenever a keyword is chosen for sending alert. Google will automatically fetch all the blog post or articles posts on a particular keyword and send alerts. So, your keyword rich article may be fetched by Google while sending alerts to millions of people. Chances are that people will either bookmark as favorites or simply write something about your article giving a backlink.
8. Website Review services: There are various website review services available. Choose a popular review service and submit your site for review. In case you are chosen they will write an article about your services/site and eventually you will get quality backlink.
9. Publish Widgets: Create and share a widget with other site owners. Contact other site owners of same niche and ask them whether they are interested in putting your widget on their site. If the other site have good traffic you are bound to get some percentage of their traffic too along with quality backlink.
10. Ping Popular Services: If you site is a blog, ping services like Technorati to tell them that you have a new article on your site which should be crawled by them. These services are quite popular and highly indexed by search engines. When these search engines will see your link on these sites you will get some backlinks.
11. Question & Answer Sites e.g. Yahoo Answers: Create a solid profile by answering questions of other members, few of your questions can contain links. Although, the links will be “nofollow” still it will be an advantage to have those.
12. Social bookmarking: Although, many people think that social bookmarking is THE ONLY solution to get back links, well i contradict this point. Simply bookmarking on popular sites won’t give you much of the traffic but waste your time. You need to create very strong profiles in sites like stumbleupon, digg, reddit, delicious etc. with lots of friends followers interested in same niche before bookmarking/promoting something. They can give you instant hits and might republish your article on their sites by linking back to your site.
13. Create blog pages on various popular sites like wordpress and blogspot: You may optionally create blog pages on popular sites like wordpress, blogspot and provide short introduction of your article with a link back to your site.

If you’ve got any thoughts, comments or suggestions for things we could add, leave a comment! Also please Subscribe to our RSS for latest tips, tricks and examples on cutting edge stuff.