Testing Mobile Applications with Firefox Plugins

From the WURFL list, some good suggestions on ways to simulate mobile browsers & test mobile-aware web apps using Firefox plugins:

Tom Thurston suggests

…the firefox “user agent switcher” extension. Just add it, and create profiles for all the devices you wish to “emulate”, i.e. use MOT-V3 and your platform will think that you are a motorola v3 hitting your site, and render xhtml-mp, and deliver the appropriate assets, even though you are on a web browser.

Alejandro Guerrieri says :

The “user agent switcher” for Firefox is a great tool. I usually combine it with 3 more plugins that can make your life happier and easier:

– “Modify Headers” -> https://addons. mozilla.org/ firefox/967/

Allows you to modify _any_ header being sent by Firefox. It can replace “user agent switcher” since you can set the header “user-agent” also, but UAS it’s quite more convenient for that (select the UA from a drop down menu). Anyway, if you want to set any other header (like some “accept” or maybe “x-msisdn”) this is the tool to do it.

– “wmlbrowser” -> https://addons. mozilla.org/ firefox/62/

Allows your Firefox to render WML pages, though some features doesn’t work like a real device (most notably “on enter forward”). Anyway, really great
to test WML-Only pages or try WURFL with “retro” devices 😉

– “XHTML Mobile Profile” -> https://addons. mozilla.org/ firefox/1345/

Adds support to mime-type “application/ vnd.wap.xhtml+ xml”, not natively supportd by firefox, which only supports “application/ xhtml+xml” .

I usually develop with those four plugins. Sometimes I also use some SDK’s from device manufacturers, but most of the time I use Firefox with that plugins enabled.

Thanks Tom and Alejandro!

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