Useful Web Development Tools

[Akash Mehta]

What sort of standard web development tools do you use? Everything from IDEs to browser plugins and third party utilities. This list now includes non-web development as well.

Current list:

Database

• MySQL Front
• MySQL Query Browser & MySQL Administrator
• Oracle
• SQL Server 2000 dev edition
• SQL Server 2005 dev edition
• SQL Server Enterprise Manager + Query Analyser
• SQL Server Management Studio
• Toad

Design

• Axure
• Enterprise Architect
• Fireworks
• Inkscape
• Irfan View
• JRuller
• Photoshop
• Style Master
  
• TopStyle 3
• XML Spy

Debugging

• Burp Proxy
• CLR Profiler
• Fiddler
• IIS Diagnostics
• Reflector
• WinDbg
• Windump
• Wireshark
• XDebug

Deployment

• Core FTP
• CuteFTP
• FileZilla
• FireFTP

Development

• ASP.NET AJAX
• Altova Missionkit Enterprise
• Altova Umodel
• Dreamweaver
• Expression Studio
• Expresso
• Homesite
• IntelliJ 6
• Komodo Edit
• Notepad++
• Netbeans
• PHP Designer
• SciTE
• Sharpdevelop
• Spket IDE
• SourceSafe 6/2005
• Telerik rad controls for ASP.NET
• Textmate
• The Regulator
• Visual Basic 6
• Visual C++
• Visual Studio 2003
• Visual Studio 2005
• Vim
• Visual Studio Team Suite
• Zend Studio

Testing

• Firefox
• Internet Explorer
• Lynx
• Opera
• WAMPserver
• WebLOAD
• XAMPP
• XP IIS Pro Admin

Version Management

• Bazaar
• CVS
• Meld Diff Viewer
• Mercurial
• Subversion
• WinDiff

Miscellaneous

• Bash 3.0
• CSS Tidy
• HTML Tidy
• Http Weazel
• Memento
• Putty
• Unlocker
• WinHTTrack

[Moridin8]

Here are a few... kinda got bored...

• Active Ports
• All the tools from MSDN not otherwise mentioned here
• Altova Umodel
• Axure
• CLR Profiler
• CVS
• Dreamweaver
• Enterprise Architect
• Expresso
• Fiddler
• Firefox (with too many things to mention)
• FreeRAM
• Homesite
• Http Weazel
• IIS Diagnostics
• Memento
• MySQL
• Netbeans
• Office 2003/2007
• Opera
• Oracle
• Orcas Beta 1
• Photoshop
• Reflector
• Sharpdevelop
• SourceSafe 6/2005
• SQL Server 2000 dev edition
• SQL Server 2005 dev edition
• SQL Server Enterprise Manager + Query Analyser
• SQL Server Management Studio
• Stellent (owned by Oracle now)
• Toad
• TopStyle
• Unlocker
• VB6
• VC++
• VS2k3
• VS2k5
• WinDbg
• WinDiff
• WinDump
• Wireshark
• WRSSA
• XML Spy
• XP IIS Pro Admin

[Akash Mehta]

What do you use for testing / debugging?

[twistie]

I use

• PHP Designer
• Dreamweaver (Coding Interface)
• FireFTP
• Core FTP
• A local testing server running: apache, mysql, ruby, perl and php
• Photoshop
• Inkscape
• Notepad
• Opera
• Firefox
  
  • Web Developer Toolbar
  • Colorzilla
  • Adsense Notifier
• IE (Versions 3-7 with Multiple IE)
• Lynx

[Moridin8]

What do you use for testing / debugging?

All the dev applications I mentioned above have the facilities to do all the testing and debugging I require.

[littlebobek]

I've bought Dreamweaver but I still prefer HomeSite. I can't find out why.

[mainlink]

Anyone using UltraEdit here?

[Akash Mehta]

Dreamweaver's great for prototyping interfaces and basic server side scripting, but I find for full web development it just doesn't cut it.

I've heard of UltraEdit but never tried it. It looks pretty good, I'll take a look at the trial.

[honeymonster]

Tools:

• Visual Studio Team Suite (Architect+Developer+Tester+DB)
• Altova Missionkit Enterprise
• Adobe CS3 Web Premium (recently upgraded from Studio8)
• Alien skin Eye Candy 5 bundle + Splat!
• Expression Studio (because it came "free" with the MSDN subscription)
• Microsoft Office 2007: Visio, Infopath, Word, Excel, Access
• Telerik r.a.d. controls for ASP.NET
• ASP.NET AJAX extensions + controls
• The Regulator (although somewhat buggy it is the best for regular expressions)
• Fiddler (gotta love it)
• IE 7
• Firefox 2
• Electric Rain Swift 3D

Services:

• browsercam.com (for testing multiple browsers - including opera, safari etc.)
• safari books online library (most computer books online - including several SP books).

And yes, I have paid for every single one of the commercial products. Had it not been for Photoshop I would probably not have upgraded the Studio8 just yet.

[Arawn]

A few thing that haven't been mentioned:

• HTML Tidy (only for testing)
• CSS Tidy (only for testing)
• Meld Diff Viewer
• Build & ANT (although my own build/test system is in Perl)
• Gimp

I use Perl for a lot of things.

[HarryR]

• Zend's PDT IDE.
• IntelliJ 6
• various versions of Opera, Firefox, Konqueror & IE
• MySQL Query Browser & MySQL Administrator
• Vim, ncftp, shfs and other essentials.
• Burp Proxy, Firebug, other cool web debugging tools.
• XDebug and kcachegrind.
• subversion with esvn and websvn.
• Bash 3.0

I cant think of anything else really.

[Moridin8]

How does 'The Regulator' compare to Expresso?

[honeymonster]

How does 'The Regulator' compare to Expresso?

Hmm. they seem somewhat on par. The Regulator has a nicer icon (a PlayMobil like "trojan horse").

[Akash Mehta]

HTML Tidy is actually built in to a couple of my IDEs. honeymonster mentioned the important point about services - I use a number of online services in development myself. Dnsstuff.com is great for checking DNS and basic querying, along with whois.sc/domain.tld for quick whois lookups (they also have a very good SEO text browser). Sitescore from Silktide is invaluable for analysing usability and the W3 XHTML/CSS validators are essential.

[sandal]

well, here are my weapons:

• Komodo Edit
• SciTE
• Adobe PhotoShop
• Irfan View (for simple imaging task)
• JRuller (on screen ruller to measure)
• Color Picker (to get hex value of a color)
• Multiple browsers (Opera, FF2, Flock, Safari, IE6-7)
• FileZilla
• Process Killer (just in case I got my app hang'd)
• Putty

[stymiee]

Anyone using UltraEdit here?

I've been using it for about 7 years.

[mainlink]

I've been using it for about 7 years.

Good news

I like it a lot. It's mighty, lean and cheap.

[stymiee]

It really is worth every penny.

[Akash Mehta]

Judging by the screenshots and feature set, it looks like UltraEdit is the glorified text editor (useful bells and whistles aplenty!). It seems practically as feature filled as Zend Studio, my PHP IDE of choice, without all the autocompletion and code intelligence. But how do you guys find customising the editor? Is it easy to add plugins (are there plugins?) or customise the basic functionality of the editor where needed?

[stymiee]

Over the years I've tweaked mine quite a bit and it suits me perfectly. There are scripts and macros you can add to it but I never have so I can't vouch for how easy they are to set up. But based on my experience with the software overall I can't imagine it being even close to difficult.

[feistyred]

Good lists so far. Haven't heard of some so I'll have to check them out.

I currently use:

• Dreamweaver 8
• Adobe CS2 Suite
• Firefox all the way, with:
  
  Web Developer Toolbar
  Firebug
  IE Tab
  Colorzilla
  View Source Chart
  and a handful of favelets
• Netscape, Opera, Flock and now Safari Windows (for testing)
• XAMPP for local Wordpress theme dev

[Akash Mehta]

I've updated the list above. I'll see if I can add links to all the apps.

[Akash Mehta]

All linked. Please post any tools you find missing from the list above. The links were automatically generated using the yahoo apis - watch the front page of SitePoint over the next couple of weeks for details.

[Eric Suen]

Spket IDE - IDE for JavaScript, XUL/XBL, Laszlo, SVG, Silverlight and Yahoo! Widget development.

It can run as Standalone application or as Eclipse plugins.

[Akash Mehta]

Added Spket IDE. Looks like a great tool for building with silverlight. Categorised and fix all links, too.