In Quality Assurance testing, efficiency is key. There are many useful tools, like Chrome extensions, to accelerate some of the manual steps testers have to take while testing a web application.

For web applications, testing is often done on Google Chrome (the most popular web browser of 2020). Luckily, there are many Chrome extensions that can help make web testing more efficient and accurate.

That’s why we created a 2020 list of our favorite Chrome add ons for testers.

WINDOW RESIZER

Windows Resizer Chrome extension menu, which features various screen sizes and resolutions to view a Chrome tab in

Testing across different screens and different resolutions is an important step in the testing process. That’s why Windows Resizer allows you to do this directly through the Chrome web browser. You can set the window’s width/height, position, preset icon (phone, tablet, laptop, desktop) and even have the option to apply the new dimensions to the entire window or the viewport.

Download Window Resizer

 


CHECK MY LINKS

Check My Links

Bad links are unpleasant for users browsing a website and can negatively impact searchability for search engines. Check My Links quickly finds all the links on a web page and checks if each link is valid. It highlights which links work and which ones are broken so that you can easily identify the links that need to be fixed. Fast and efficient, this plugin will help get the job done and save you the time it would take to test each link manually.

Download Check My Links

 


GHOSTERY

Ghostery Chrome extension menu showing what you can control and view through Ghostery
The majority of websites track users’ online activities and may store personal data, which can interfere with testing. Ghostery helps protect your privacy and allows you to make your own decisions regarding how much personal data you share while visiting a website.

Download Ghostery

 


WAVE EVALUATION TOOL

WAVE extension menu showing potential accessibility issues on a webpage

Here at PLUS QA, accessibility is important to us. WAVE is a web accessibility evaluation tool that provides visual feedback about the accessibility of your web content by injecting icons and indicators into your page. WAVE can identify many Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) errors, but also facilitates your evaluation of web content. If you are interested in learning more about accessibility please visit our blog.

Download Wave Evaluation Tool

 


LOREM IPSUM GENERATOR

Lorem Ipsum Generator Chrome extension showing three paragraphs with 5 sentences per paragraph

When testing certain web applications, you may need to write blocks of text. Lorem Ipsum Generator provides an elegant and quick way to create default text or generate Lorem Ipsum. It’s optimized for quick usage, but it can be customized for more specific needs.

Download Lorem Ipsum Generator

 


EDIT THIS COOKIE

Edit This Cookie Chrome extension menu page, showing the available options related to cookie management

Editing or deleting cookies can be useful for web application testing. Cookies can be used for experiments on websites, as well as for tracking. Being able to change the cookie to get into a different experiment allows testers to examine more aspects of a web page. EditThisCookie is a great cookie manager, as you can add, delete, edit, search, protect, and block cookies. 

Download EditThisCookie

 


FULL PAGE SCREEN CAPTURE

Full Page Screen Shot extension window open with a full page plusqa.com screenshot visible

Capturing screenshots is vital for testing, to provide documentation of any bugs you encounter. There are many extensions and built-in tools to help with this, but most don’t capture the full page. Full Page Screen Capture allows you to capture a screenshot of your current page in entirety and reliably—without requesting any extra permissions. It’s as easy as clicking on the extension icon (or pressing Alt+Shift+P), to create an image or PDF of the full page.

Download Full Page Screen Capture

 


SITEIMPROVE ACCESSIBILITY CHECKER

SiteImprove Accessibility Extension showing toolbar with accessibility insights on a webpage

There are multiple add-ons for Accessibility testing and Siteimprove Accessibility Checker is a great tool to evaluate any web page for accessibility issues at any given time. It provides intuitive, visual feedback about your content by highlighting detected issues right on the page.

Download Siteimprove Accessibility Checker

 


BUG MAGNET

Bug Magnet Chrome extension showing problematic values and edge cases to the context menu

QA testers can speed up their testing process with certain tools, like this exploratory testing assistant for Chrome. Bug Magnet adds common problematic values and edge cases to the context menu (right-click) for editable elements, so you can keep them handy and access them easily during exploratory testing sessions.

Download Bug Magnet

 


CLICK&CLEAN

Click and Clean Chrome extension menu showing the cleaning options available
Clearing cookies, browsers cache, and history can be time-consuming, especially when you test the same page multiple times in a row. With Click&Clean, you can easily erase all the information stored and customize different options while testing.

Download Click&Clean

 

All the Chrome extensions listed in this post are free and useful for testers. If you ever decide you want to remove any extensions from Chrome, just type in chrome://extensions/ to manage your extensions.

We hope you will find new plugins that will help you get you through testing more efficiently for your next project.

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