Browser development/testing

Firebug + YSlow

This priceless tool packs it all, element/script editing, logging, connections and it’s own plugins! The Yahoo extension YSlow analyses your DOM and gives it a page load rating a must for any e-commerce developer. Download Firebug and YSlow

Web Developer

Packing another knockout blow is the Web Developer Toolbar with some fantastic functionality. Clear session cookies or re-size window anyone?

ColorZilla

Sweet colors are just a click away.

Selenium IDE

This is my favorite extension by far! Fed up of completing the checkout form to test PayPal? Registering a new user is a burden on your soul? Record a test in Selenium IDE and press play! When you play your first test it feels like you’ve just hacked the gibson. If you want to take things to the next level and destroy the gibson kernal, check out Selenium RC and Bromine.

Spell Checker

Nice simple plugin for checking spellings. No nonsense.

Tamper Data

I use this plugin with selenium to test validation and security. Tweek your headers, POST and GET data.

Poster

Poster simply throws data at a URI. Epic for testing Web Services.

PHP/Apache

Xdebug

White screen of pain? sweet nothing? Configure your PHP ini to use Xdebug to view variables in scope, stack traces and load times.

PHP Hints

Find a good editor which your comfortable with. Komodo IDE, Eclipse PTD, Zend Studio and Netbeans IDE are pretty dedicated, but Dreamweaver CS5 is catching up with some nice class and variable hinting but still forgetting about functions!

php.net – http://httpd.apache.org - http://docs.magentocommerce.com

Docs rock!

There we go for my favorite tools! What are yours? Tweet the fox (@magentofox) or leave a comment below!

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