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Efficiency is vital when it comes to QA Testing. For testing websites and web applications, adding plug-ins like Chrome extensions can speed up the process for manual testers. When testing on a desktop, there are multiple browser options to choose from (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge for example). It can be beneficial to test on all of these browsers. Testing on Google Chrome, though, has the advantage of multiple extensions QA testers can use to make web testing more efficient and accurate. We’ve updated this list for 2021, so check out some of the top Chrome extensions for QA testers.
QA Testing Extensions
Bug Magnet
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.
Clear Cache
Quickly clear your cache with this extension without any confirmation dialogs, pop-ups, or other annoyances. You can customize what data and how much you want to clear on the options page, including App Cache, Cache, Cookies, Downloads, File Systems, Form Data, History, Indexed DB, Local Storage, Plugin Data, Passwords, and WebSQL. Cookies can either be removed globally for certain domains or for everything except for certain domains.
Awesome Screenshot: Screen Video Recorder
A full-page screen capture and screen recorder 2-in-1 extension that allows you to share screencast video instantly. Capture your screen with Awesome Screenshot & Screen Recorder, a powerful tool for screen sharing, used by millions of users. Save screen recordings & screenshots to awesomescreenshot.com and share your videos and images instantly with unique shareable links.
Spell Checker for Chrome
Spell Checker extension for Chrome. It's fast and easy to use, allowing users to define shortcuts and colors. This extension supports 12 languages for spell check: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish.
Download Spell Checker for Chrome
Ghost Inspector
Ghost Inspector is a web browser automation and monitoring tool. It allows you to record UI actions on your website within your browser. After that, you can sync them to the Ghost Inspector service and run them continuously as a regression test. You can always save back recorded tests on your staging server and execute them via Ghost Inspector API whenever there is a change in the application. Alternatively, you can redirect to your live site and set to run on a specified schedule or after a specified interval.
Window Resizer
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.
Lorem Ipsum Generator
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
Lightshot Screen Capture
This app is very intuitive with no learning curve. Comparatively speaking, we’ve tried many other screenshot tools and found it to be extra user-friendly. Lightshot is the fastest of the must-have Chrome extensions for testing which captures screenshots on your command. It bundles the following key features:
- Capture a screenshot instantly and share it in a few clicks.
- Dynamically select any part of the page.
- Allows editing screenshot in-place.
- Save to disk or transfer to the cloud.
- Search for similar screenshots.
Download Lightshot Screen Capture
BlazeMeter
Record Selenium and HTTP traffic to create a load and functional tests in less than 10 minutes (Apache JMeter Compatible). BlazeMeter Chrome extension enables you to - Record, Browse, Upload, and Run.
The Chrome extension records all of the HTTP/S requests and actual user interactions that your browser sends, creates a synced JMeter and Selenium scripts, and automatically uploads it to BlazeMeter, where you can execute it with a single click. No need to install JMeter nor Selenium to record or run your performance test, the Chrome extension will create the JMeter and Selenium scripts automatically.
Accessibility Extensions
Siteimprove Accessibility Checker
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. This is why it is one of the top chrome extensions available for Accessibility testing.
Download Siteimprove Accessibility Checker
Axe Dev Tools
Find and fix accessibility issues on your website by using the axe DevTools Chrome extension. This extension automatically catches accessibility defects while you code, allows you to track your progress, and has guided tests for you to use. The axe DevTools browser extension for Chrome is a fast, lightweight accessibility testing tool powered by the world’s most popular accessibility testing engine; axe-core.
Benefits of building accessible sites include:
- Better user experiences for all, including people with disabilities.
- Expanded addressable market.
- Reduced risk of accessibility-related lawsuits.
- Search engine optimization.
- And more.
WAVE Evaluation Tool
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. It 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.
Test Automation Extensions
Selenium IDE
Selenium Record and Playback tool for ease of getting acquainted with Selenium WebDriver. The new Selenium IDE is designed to record your interactions with websites to help you generate and maintain site automation, tests, and remove the need to manually step through repetitive takes. Features include:
- Recording and playing back tests on Firefox and Chrome.
- Organizing tests into suites for easy management.
- Saving and loading scripts, for later playback.
- Support for Selenium 3.
Selenium Page Object Generator
A nimble and flexible Selenium Page Object Model generator to improve agile testing process velocity. Selenium Page Object Generator is an essential tool to improve your workflow. It will generate a Page Object Model on the active Chrome tab with a single click, provided that the template and all of the options are configured. The generated Page Object Model will be saved to a pre-configured Chrome download folder. It strives to reduce manual involvement, but manual tweaks are still recommended. As this is an early BETA release, it is expected to have rough edges and limited functionality. It currently supports 3 different targets: Java, C#, and Robot Framework.
Download Selenium Page Object Generator
Katalon Recorder
Selenium IDE alternative to record and export Selenium scripts. Katalon Recorder is the most UI-friendly and simplest extension for Record and Playback on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. It's a great alternative web recorder to Selenium IDE.
Take advantage of these top Chrome extensions to speed up your QA testing. All the extensions in this post are free and useful for testers. They are also easy to add or remove; just type in chrome://extensions/ to manage your extensions. Reach out to us if you need any help testing websites and web browsers!