Best QA Tools - Part 3 - Small Tools That Have a Big Value for your Workflow

Jan 4, 2017 • 8 min read

Here comes the next part of our blog post series about our favourite QA tools!

After the presentation our favourite screenshot tools, we continue the discussion on the Chrome extensions which make our never-ending hunt for bugs more productive and efficient. The tools we present below are small and light-weight, but they will make a big difference for your workflow. All the extensions are completely free and for you to install in your browser!

SessionBox

SessionBox has one simple but incredibly useful feature – it allows for creating multiple sessions in one browser. This is priceless when you want to test interactions between various users and types of accounts. With SessionBox you will no longer have to struggle with multiple browsers, incognito windows or logging in and out just to test e.g. the exchange of messages between two users.

Advantages:

Quick and easy-to-use
Marks various session tabs with different colours within Chrome

Disadvantages:

In some cases, the sessions might influence each other

Dimensions

Dimension is a perfect tool for quick measurements of pixel distances between objects on the screen. The power of this extension lies in the fact that it automatically identifies distinct objects on the screen and treats them as boundaries for the measurement. The extension can be activated with a keyboard shortcut, which makes it so fast to use. You do not have to select any area or even click – the extension will measure the distance by itself.

Advantages:

Extremely quick and very handy
Might be more precise than manual ruler-like extensions, since it automatically identifies objects and their boundaries

Disadvantages:

If there are any distinct areas within the measured distance, the extension will stop at the closest object. This might be quite problematic, especially if you have a background photo and want to measure the space between two buttons on the background. In such case, the extension will work poorly as it will probably mark other distinctive areas within the background.

EditThisCookie

EditThisCookie will be extremely handy for you if you perform any activities related to cookies. This extension is a cookie manager which allows for very intuitive and user-friendly access to cookies in your browser. It gives you a chance to block, edit, delete, and perform other actions with the cookies stored in your browser.

Advantages:

Fast and easy access to cookies in your browser
Very intuitive interface

JavaScript Errors Notifier

The extension monitors the responses of your browser and any time it comes across a JavaScript error, it displays a small exclamation mark in the lower right corner of your browser. When you click on the mark, you get a description of the error. It is very convenient to have such notifications, since constantly looking at the console might be quite problematic and you might not notice some errors at first glance.

Advantages:

Stays on the watch and makes sure you do not overlook any errors

FormFiller

If you struggle with countless forms during testing, this extension will save you lots of time! FormFiller, as its name suggests, fills in all fields with dummy data. It is also smart enough to guess what data to put in which field, so that name will be filled with a realistic name and e-mail address with a valid e-mail string. It works great not only with input fields but also with checkboxes, dropdowns and others. For the fastest performance you can define a shortcut key, and then you will be able to fill countless fields with a single key press!

Advantages:

Sensitive to various types of fields and input requirements

Disadvantages:

Does not always provides correct input for all kinds of fields
No option to set which fields should be filled. It automatically fills everything, which might be problematic if you want to keep some fields empty or fill them yourself

Wapplyzer

Wapplyzer is a handy tool which easily reveals all technologies used in a visited website. The extension will provide you with detailed information concerning content management systems, eCommerce platforms, web servers, JavaScript frameworks, analytics tools, widgets and more.

Advantages:

An easy and accessible source of information on the technological stack of a visited website/application

Well, that’s all for now. Try out the extensions above and see how they can help you with your QA tasks. Don’t forget to look at the previous parts of our series (part 1 and part 2) if you haven’t seen them yet and watch out for the next episodes, where we will share more of our favourite QA tools.