Developer OneNote » Web

List of dev and test tools for IE8

emma — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:31:24 +0000

From http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/readiness/testing-tools.aspx

Here is a list of convenient development and test tools to help test and modify applications to run on Internet Explorer 8:

Debugging websites

Debugging User Agent String Changes
This program produces a report on Internet Explorer’s current User Agent String, along with scripts to simulate User-Agent Strings for other Internet Explorer versions and links to MSDN User-Agent String articles.

Internet Explorer Developer Tools
Internet Explorer 8 includes tools needed by web developers to efficiently debug and profile their sites directly in the browser.

Fiddler
This is an HTTP Debugging Proxy that logs all HTTP traffic between a computer and the Internet.

Process Monitor
Process Monitor is an advanced monitoring tool for Windows that shows real-time file system, registry and process/thread activity.

Process Explorer
This program displays information about which handles and DLL processes have opened or loaded (Vista and Windows XP SP2).

W3C Validator HTML/XHTML
This is a W3C service to check the syntax of HTML and XHTML.

W3C Validator CSS
This is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) service to check the syntax of CSS.

RSS Feeds Validator
This is a W3C service to check the syntax of RSS feeds.

Windows Internet Explorer Testing Center
Test pages that we developed in conjunction with World Wide Web Consortium working groups.

IE Compat Test Tool
The Internet Explorer Compatibility Test Tool (IECTT), part of the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT), helps identify application and website compatibility issues on Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 7. The IECTT identifies your web-based issues, uploads the data to the ACT Log Processing Service, and shows your results in real time. These tools help customers lower their costs for application compatibility testing, prioritize their applications, and deploy Internet Explorer more quickly.

SuperPreview
Expression Web SuperPreview for Internet Explorer is a visual debugging tool that makes it easier to migrate your websites from Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 7 or 8.

Designing/Creating websites

Expression Web
Microsoft Expression Web is a professional design tool to create modern, standards-based sites that deliver superior quality on the web.

Visual Web Developer Express
Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition is a free, easy to use, and easy to learn program that allows everyone—from the novice to the professional developer—to create ASP.NET websites.

Install Local WordPress Environment on Windows

emma — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:14:11 +0000

WordPress is one of most popular blog applications. This application is very easy to use however setup a local environment for theme or plugin development on windows system is not that easy for bloggers. In this post, I will walk thru you how to setup local WordPress environment using Microsoft Web Platform Installer 2.0 with just a few clicks. (I am using 64bit Windows 7 in this tutorial but same steps work windows server 2008 as well)

1. Install latest Web Platform Installer 2.0 from Microsoft download site

2. Launch Web Platform Installer 2.0, click Windows Application tab and check WordPress, the PHP option will be automatically selected

The cool thing here is that Web Platform Installer 2.0 is smart enough to know all the dependencies for WordPress and it will automatically download and install all the required components for you. Take my Win7 system as example, Web Platform Installer will download and install MySQL 5.1 and PHP 5, it also configures IIS settings prior to WordPress installation.

3. Click Install to start the installation.

4. Input root password for MySQL administrator when you are asked to.

5. Web Platform Installer will download and install all necessary dependencies seamlessly.

6. Once Installation is done, Web Platform Installer will ask your input for an one time site configuration.

In Step 1, Web Site drop down,
- If Default Website is selected, Web Platform Installer will create local WordPress site using http://localhost/wordpress
- If New Website is selected, Web Platform Installer will create local WordPress site using http://localhost/
In step 2, you can get security keys for http://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/ for Unique Key for Passwords, Unique Key for Secure Passwords, Unique Key for Authentication, Unique Key for Secure Authentication.

7. Click Continue and now you should see a WordPress installed successfully screenshot:

8. Click Launch WordPress link and you will see the famous file minute WordPress installation process. Have fun!

Fiddler

emma — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:23:56 +0000

Overview

Fiddler is an HTTP debugging proxy that logs all HTTP traffic between your computer and the Internet. Fiddler enables you to inspect all HTTP traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data. Fiddler is much simpler to use than NetMon or other network debuggers because it exposes only HTTP traffic and does so in a user-friendly format.

Installtion

Fiddler can be downloaded from http://www.fiddlertool.com/

More Information

MSDN Library: Fiddler PowerToy – Part 1: HTTP Debugging
MSDN Library: Fiddler PowerToy – Part 2: HTTP Performance