Testing Internationalization Support for an ASP.NET Web Application using Google Chrome

If you are testing Internationalization/Localization support for your ASP.NET Web Application, you may be wondering how to change the Language settings for Google Chrome.  This might especially be the case because most examples for Internationalization/Localization focus on changing Language settings in Internet Explorer.

Thankfully, changing the Language settings for Google Chrome is surprisingly easy!

1. From the Google Chrome menu, select Settings
2. From the Settings dialog, click on Show advanced settings
3. Click on the button for Language and input settings
4. Click on the Add button to add any additional language
5. Move the desired language for testing to the top of the list
6. Click on "Done" to close the Language and Input Settings dialog
7. You will have to restart the Google Chrome browser in order to display content in the newly selected language
8. That is it!!

Debugging Kendo UI with Google Chrome

If you are developing with Telerik Kendo UI, you may want a few more tools to help you out in your development with Kendo UI.

Fortunately, the Kendo UI team has released an extension for Google Chrome to allow you to do just that!

You can download the Google Chrome Extension from here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/telerik-kendo-ui-chrome-i/npcmgpnfknjmndbbakdhchgibaajnlpe?hl=en

If you want to learn more about how to use the Kendo UI Chrome Extension, you should check out this article: http://developer.telerik.com/products/say-hello-to-the-kendo-ui-chrome-inspector/

Mozilla Firefox 64-bit vs. Google Chrome 64-bit

Ever since Mozilla Firefox FINALLY released a 64-bit version of their browser, I began comparing my usage of numerous tabs open in Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

After closing and re-opening Firefox numerous times, I had no trouble re-loading Firefox even with 100+ tabs open.

However, as soon as I attempted to accomplish the same thing with Google Chrome with even only 50+ tabs open, I got the following error message:

I could neither kill the offending tab nor wait a sufficient time for the browser to finally load the page!

This problem effectively deadlocked my Google Chrome browser and prevented it from loading any other pages making my Google Chrome browser COMPLETELY USELESS!!

I tried closing and re-opening Google Chrome numerous times in order to rectify this problem, but it seemed to make no difference.

Needless to say, Google Chrome does not handle a large number of tabs open simultaneously very well.

I looked at how Google Chrome was storing my browsing data and I found this:

The amount of data that Google Chrome was storing and caching significantly slows down the browser after a period of time and prevents pages from loading quickly.  Until you clear out your cache and browsing history, Google Chrome will continue to run very slowly!

I will continue to use Google Chrome as part of my development processes and testing, but I will now more heavily rely on Mozilla Firefox 64-bit to handle my MAJOR web researching and browsing needs!!

Google Chrome debugging tools for Kendo UI

If you use Google Chrome like most developers nowadays, you will be happy to know that Telerik offers a free Google Chrome Extension that allows you to more easily debug your Telerik Kendo UI applications!

You can download it from the Google Chrome Web Store here: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/telerik-kendo-ui-chrome-i/npcmgpnfknjmndbbakdhchgibaajnlpe?hl=en

Cookie Expiration Times in Google Chrome Developer Tools

I was recently using Google Chrome Developer Tools to examine Cookie Expiration Times and noticed that the expiration times were completely unexpected based on how I had configured my cookies!

Well, as it turns out, Google Chrome Developer Tools is displaying the Cookie Expiration Times in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)!

Unfortunately, there does not appear to be a setting to allow Google Chrome Developer Tools to display the Cookie Expiration Times in local time.

In order to view local expiration times, you can go into Google Chrome's Settings and look at the Cookie Expiration Times individually:

1. Settings-->Privacy-->Content Settings
2. All cookies and site data...
3. Select the site that you want to view
4. Click on the name of the Cookie to view the Cookie details which includes the Expiration Time

However, if you install an Add-In such as Cookie Inspector, you can get the Cookie Expiration Times to show in local time!  (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cookie-inspector/jgbbilmfbammlbbhmmgaagdkbkepnijn?hl=en)

If you are using Firebug for Mozilla Firefox, you can also directly get the local Cookie Expiration Times:

Alternatives to BrowserStack

If you want to perform Cross-Browser testing of your application and you have looked at BrowserStack, here are some things to know before you make your decision:

1. BrowserStack offers one of the shortest trials of any other Cross-Browser software vendor.  The trial is limited to a mere 30 minutes of Live testing!!  https://www.browserstack.com/question/590
2. If you choose the Freelancer option for $12.50/month (or $19/month if you choose the monthly plan), you only get a 100 minutes of Live testing per month!  https://www.browserstack.com/pricing 

Therefore, if you are looking for cheaper alternatives to BrowserStack, you will definitely want to take a look at these options:

1. Sauce Labs: https://saucelabs.com/pricing  - Sauce Labs offers a 14-day free trial and for only $12/month, you get Unlimited Manual Testing!
2. TestingBot: https://testingbot.com/pricing - While TestingBot only offers a 100-minute trial, for $12/month, you get Unlimited Manual Testing and 400 minutes of automated testing and 4 concurrent VMs (which is nearly double the automated testing you get with Sauce Labs!)
3. BrowseEmAll: http://www.browseemall.com/Buy - For the same cost of the Live tier of BrowserStack, you can get the Professional subscription ($29/month) which offers Unlimited Manual Testing as well as Unlimited Automated Testing!!
4. Mobile1st: http://mobile1st.com/pricing-purchase/ - If you are primarily concerned with Mobile Browser testing, Mobile1st offers a very cheap option of only $10/month with support for 14 different mobile devices.  

Using a CDN for your Script and Style Content on an SSL-secured ASP.NET Web Application

If you haven't already read about the SSL security features in newer browsers such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, these browsers are essentially blocking any non-secured content from being downloaded and viewed by the client.

In other words, the "Mixed content" prompt you used to receive while browsing sites with Internet Explorer will not work in browsers such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.  Instead, you will get an error like the following:

Therefore, if you an SSL-secured ASP.NET Web Site, the best thing to do is to make sure that you always use an SSL Url for your CDN.

For example, the Microsoft Ajax CDN (http://www.asp.net/ajax/cdn) does not publish any of the Urls as https:// Urls, but they are available both on the http:// and https:// protocols.

Other CDNs such as Google CDN (https://developers.google.com/speed/libraries/) and Bootstrap CDN (http://www.bootstrapcdn.com/) publish their CDN Urls as https:// by default.

Finally, other CDNs such as the jQuery CDN (https://jquery.com/download/) makes it clear that you can use either the http:// or https:// protocols since you simply prefix the Url as //code.jquery.com and do not explicitly specify a protocol.

Windows Identity Foundation Cross-Browser Compatibility Issues

I was recently building an ASP.NET MVC Web Application using .NET v. 4.5 with Windows Identity Foundation and Forms Authentication based on this article: http://brockallen.com/2013/01/26/replacing-forms-authentication-with-wifs-session-authentication-module-sam-to-enable-claims-aware-identity/

Unfortunately, I discovered a very unexpected behavior!!

I tested the following browsers:

• Internet Explorer 11
• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox 39

When I logged in with Internet Explorer 11 and navigated back and forth between 2 WIF Sites (Development and Staging), I was never being redirected from the Forms Authentication window!

When I logged in with Google Chrome and navigated back and forth between 2 WIF Sites (Development and Staging), I was never being redirected from the Forms Authentication window!  Sometimes, I would even lose my FedAuth cookies!!

However, when I logged in with Mozilla Firefox 39 and navigated back and forth between 2 WIF Sites (Development and Staging), everything worked perfectly!!

If you are also experiencing this issue, please vote on this Connect bug here: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/1693417

Bookmark all open tabs

When I am doing research as part of my Development, it is not uncommon for me to open 100+ tabs or more while I am researching various topics and solutions.

Therefore, it is very convenient to be able to bookmark all of my open tabs in a single operation!

Fortunately, this article describes how to do just that with the various browser platforms such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer!

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-bookmark-all-open-browser-tabs-at-once/

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/08/04/how-to-save-all-open-tabs-quickly-in-your-browser-of-choice/

However, one of the defects I found while using this feature in Mozilla Firefox is that I am always forced to "Bookmark all tabs" into a new folder.  If I want to Bookmark all my open tabs into an existing folder, Firefox does not allow me to do so.  The workaround, of course, is to accept moving them into a new folder and then later use the Bookmark Manage to re-arrange them back into the desired folder and delete the unwanted/unnecessary folder.  

Checking browser capabilities and features

If you are developing a greenfield application using today's modern web technologies such as HTML5, chances are that you want to know what browser features you can and cannot support!

Well, fortunately, this website provides a great breakdown of what features are and are not available in each of the various browser platforms: http://caniuse.com/

You can even do a browser comparison by choosing the browsers you want to compare!

This website will allow you to test the HTML5 features of your current browser and provide you with a ranking: https://html5test.com/

Where are Google Chrome's extensions located on the file system?

I recently needed to install some Google Chrome extensions on a computer that was offline so I needed to know how to Pack my Extensions and where they were stored on the file system.

Fortunately, after doing some digging around on the Internet I was able to discover that they were located at the following location (on a Windows 8.1 machine):

C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions

You can then go into Google Chrome chrome://extensions/ to view all of your extensions.

Next, you must enable Developer mode to view the IDs of all your extensions.

Lastly, you select the button for "Pack Extension" to pack your extension for exporting to your other computer.

The extension will be packed as a .crx file.  That is all there is to it!!

Removing Source Map error messages in Google Chrome Developer Tools

When you are debugging CSS or JavaScript using Google Chrome Developer Tools, you may encounter numerous source map error messages in the Chrome Developer Tools Console.

Well, fortunately, there is an easy fix to get rid of these error messages if you are not using source maps as part of your code base.

Open up the Settings of Chrome Developer Tools by clicking on the Gear icon in the toolbar:

When you open up the Settings, you will see options for the following:

• Enable JavaScript source maps
• Enable CSS source maps

You then simply uncheck those checkboxes and you will no longer see the source map error messages in Chrome Developer Tools!

 

Unable to download content from Microsoft download sites using Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome

For quite some time now, I have noticed that I am no longer able to download any content from a wide variety of Microsoft download sites such as this one for SQL Server 2014 Express when I used Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42299

This issue eluded me for a very long time until I recently encountered a problem with rendering a website that had mixed SSL and Http content.  Of course, the Firefox Developer Tools pointed me to this article: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Security/MixedContent

Of course, as you can probably guess, all of these Microsoft download sites are presenting Mixed Content!

This completely prevents me from downloading any of the executables from Microsoft's website until they fix/resolve this issue with all of their websites.

That means, for now, I am forced to download whatever I can through MSDN, or fortunately, a browser like Opera provides me with a prompt regarding the Mixed Content and provides me with an option to Unblock the content to be able to download it!

A better way to view and debug ASP.NET Cookies

If you have to write Cookies to the browser using ASP.NET, you may be searching for a better way to debug your ASP.NET Cookies to make sure they are written out correctly and work as expected.

Well, fortunately, all of the major browsers offer an excellent way to easily debug and view these Cookies.

When you install an add-on such as Firebug for Mozilla Firefox and you click on the Network tab, you can view the individual cookies for a particular request:

Similarly, when you click on the Resources tab in Google Chrome's Developer Tools and then navigate to the menu item for Cookies, you can see the individual Cookies for a particular website:

While Internet Explorer's Developer Tools functionality is not nearly as intuitive, it can also be used to view your Cookies by ensuring that you are currently capturing Network traffic and then clicking on Network-->Details:

Now you can easily troubleshoot any issues you encounter with ASP.NET Cookies!!

A better Popup blocker for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome

Have you ever noticed that even when you have the Popup Blocker settings turned on in Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, some ads still manage to sneak their way in?

Well, fortunately the makers of Adblock Plus have figured out how to close those loopholes. 

In my tests on some very ad-heavy sites, Adblock Plus was able to successfully block ALL of the Popup windows on the site, thus allowing me to view the page content without any interference from any annoying Popup Ads.

You can get the Popup Blocker addon for Mozilla Firefox from here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/adblock-plus-pop-up-addon/?src=hp-dl-mostpopular

NOTE: You will still need the original Adblock Plus addon from here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/?src=search

As for Google Chrome, it seems Adblock Plus bakes the Popup Blocker functionality right into the original software: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock-plus/cfhdojbkjhnklbpkdaibdccddilifddb?hl=en-US

Google Chrome for Work

If you have downloaded Google Chrome for Work in the past, you may have noticed that they offered both a 32-bit version as well as 64-bit version of Google Chrome.

However, if you check out the latest Google Chrome for Work website, you will notice that they only offer a 32-bit version available for download: https://www.google.com/work/chrome/browser/

Well, fortunately, the old website that housed both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Google Chrome is still available, however, it is buried in links across the web and not so easy to find any more: http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/business/browser/

Alternatively, you can also find the options for downloading both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Google Chrome from the main Google Chrome website here: https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/desktop/index.html

The advantage of the 64-bit version of Google Chrome is that it can handle more memory than the limitations imposed by the 32-bit version of Google Chrome.  Since very computers nowadays ship with a 32-bit OS, it is much more beneficial to install the 64-bit version of Google Chrome vs. the 32-bit version of Google Chrome.

Google Chrome blocks download of executables and MSIs

I have been a long time user of both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, but more recently I have been using Mozilla Firefox because of the smaller overall memory footprint.

I just recently re-imaged my laptop and was surprised to discover that Google Chrome was installed by default.

Therefore, I launched Google Chrome and attempted to download my favorite zip utility (WinZip) from the following Url: http://www.winzip.com/dprob.htm

I was immediately surprised to discover the following error message when I attempted to download the files:

After reading this article: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2898334?p=ib_download_blocked&hl=en&rd=2, I discovered that I needed to change a setting in Advanced Settings-->Privacy

I needed to turn off the setting for "Enable phishing and malware protection"

Once I turned off that settings, I was once again able to download executables and MSIs on my system!!

Emulating Mobile Devices using Google Chrome Developer Tools

If you are building your website for Responsive Design, chances are that you will want to be able to test various different screen sizes for your website to determine if your website renders correctly using a variety of different device sizes.

Well, fortunately, you can do just that using Google Chrome Developer Tools!

1. Navigate to the website that you want to use for testing Responsive Design using Google Chrome
2. Hit the F12 key to open the Chrome Developer Tools
3. Click on the Mobile Device icon in the Chrome Developer Toolbar
4. Select the type of Mobile Device you want to emulate
5. You may need to refresh/reload the web page in your targeted emulated device to get the Viewport information to render correctly (by hitting the F5 key).

That is all there is to getting your website to test rendering for different mobile devices/different screen sizes!

Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome Offline/Standalone Installers

If you haven't noticed lately, Mozilla Firefox has switched to a Stub/Web Installer for downloading the latest releases of their browser platform.  Google Chrome has been doing this for a long time as well, however, their offline/standalone versions have been relatively easy to find.

Well, an online/web installer is only useful if you want to minimize your download and you are guaranteed to have an available Internet Connection.

As for me, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome are the 2 major browsers that I install on every Windows OS that I own, so it is useful for me to have the Offline/Standalone versions of these browsers.

For Mozilla Firefox, you can download the offline/standalone versions from here: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/

For Google Chrome, I prefer the MSI Installation to facilitate a quiet/silent install, therefore, I always download the Google Chrome installer from here: http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/chrome/business/browser/admin/