Document Object Model Inspectors

Available for both FF https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1806/ and IE in the IeWebDeveloperToolbar

these allow you to inspect the CSS cascade order.

In FF Ctrl-Shift-I brings the page up, though on my laptop there is no menu option for it!

-- Contributors: MartinCleaver

Discussion

DOM inspectors are useful for anyone developing templates, to examine the construction of a web page. Where they really come into their own is when you are debugging JavaScript that modifies the generated pages (example: JSCalendarContrib). I personally use "Hypertext DOM Browser 1.0.2" because it's the only one I found that tells you all the facts, though it is harder to navigate than some.

JavaScript developers should also look at the Mozilla 'Venkmann' debugger and the Microsoft Script Debugger, both free, easy to install, and very useful.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 18 May 2006