Opera Software has launched the first beta of Opera Dragonfly, an open source suite of debugging tools for web developers and designers that downloads automatically along with the Opera browser itself. The new toolkit aims to cover the full debugging workflow, from inspecting network access and downloaded resources, to correcting JavaScript issues and examining how CSS rules apply to the DOM.
Somewhat similar in nature to Mozilla's Firebug product, Opera Dragonfly supports all the newest web technologies, including SVG and HTML5 APIs such as web storage. The toolkit is also said to incorporate a network inspector to give developers the power to examine which resources an application loads -- and in what order.
The first open source product out of the design labs for the Oslo-headquartered browser developer, the new toolkit also comes with a storage inspector for developers to update and test cookies, as well as the HTML5 web storage API.
"People ask why we chose 'Opera Dragonfly' as the name of our developer tools," said David Storey, Chief web opener, Opera Software. "Dragonflies eat bugs, and that is exactly what we want it to do for developers around the world. You spend your time making the web better for everyone. The least we can do is make life easier for you."
Developers can start Opera Dragonfly beta as follows:
- Enter opera:config#DeveloperTools|DeveloperToolsURL into your address bar.
- Change "DeveloperToolsURL" to https://dragonfly.opera.com/app/cutting-edge/.
- Click "Save".
Use the shortcut to open Opera Dragonfly: Ctrl+Shift+I (Windows and Linux) or ⌘+Shift+I (Mac).
