DOM Inspector is a web developer tool created by Joe Hewitt

Joe Hewitt (programmer)

Joe Hewitt is a software programmer who is best known for his work on the Firefox web browser and related software development tools like Firebug and DOM Inspector....

 and was originally included in Mozilla Application Suite

Mozilla Application Suite

The Mozilla Application Suite is a cross-platform integrated Internet suite. Its development was initiated by Netscape Communications Corporation, before their acquisition by AOL. It is based on the source code of Netscape Communicator...

 as well as versions of Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...

 prior to Firefox 3. It is now included by default in SeaMonkey

SeaMonkey

SeaMonkey is a free and open source cross-platform Internet suite. It is the continuation of the former Mozilla Application Suite, based on the same source code...

 and is an installable extension

Extension (Mozilla)

]Add-ons are installable enhancements to the Mozilla Foundation's projects, and projects based on them. Add-ons allow the user to add or augment application features, use themes to their liking, and handle new types of content.-Extensions:...

 for subsequent versions of Firefox and other Mozilla-based applications. Its main purpose is to inspect and edit the Document Object Model

Document Object Model

The Document Object Model is a cross-platform and language-independent convention for representing and interacting with objects in HTML, XHTML and XML documents. Aspects of the DOM may be addressed and manipulated within the syntax of the programming language in use...

 (DOM) tree of HTML

HTML

HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

 and XML

XML

Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....

-based documents.

A DOM node can be selected from the tree structure

Tree structure

A tree structure is a way of representing the hierarchical nature of a structure in a graphical form. It is named a "tree structure" because the classic representation resembles a tree, even though the chart is generally upside down compared to an actual tree, with the "root" at the top and the...

, or by click

Point-and-click

Point-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device...

ing on the browser chrome. As well as the DOM tree viewer, other viewers are also available, including Box Model, XBL

XBL

XBL is an XML-based markup language used to declare the behavior and look of XUL-widgets and XML elements.XBL was developed by the Mozilla project for use in the Mozilla Application Suite; the language is not currently described by any formal standard and is thus proprietary to Mozilla, with the...

 Bindings, CSS

Cascading Style Sheets

Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics of a document written in a markup language...

 Rules, Style Sheets, Computed Style, JavaScript

JavaScript

JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....

 Object, as well as a number of viewers for document and application accessibility. By default, the DOM Inspector highlights a newly selected non-attribute node with a red flashing border.

Similar tools exist in other browsers, e.g., Opera's

Opera (web browser)

Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by Opera Software with over 200 million users worldwide. The browser handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, chatting on IRC, downloading files via BitTorrent,...

 Dragonfly, Safari's

Safari (web browser)

Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. and included with the Mac OS X and iOS operating systems. First released as a public beta on January 7, 2003 on the company's Mac OS X operating system, it became Apple's default browser beginning with Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther". Safari is also the...

 Web Inspector, the Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar, and Google Chrome

Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or...

's inspector.

See also

• Firebug, another web development extension more recently created by Joe Hewitt

External links

• DOM Inspector extension for Firefox
• DOM Inspector at Mozilla Developer Center
  Mozilla Developer Center
  Mozilla Developer Center , started in early 2005, is the official Mozilla Foundation website for development documentation and news about Firefox, Thunderbird, and other Mozilla Foundation projects. It is intended to supplant the community-driven aspect of documents authored for the mozilla.org...
  
  
• XPather - A DOMi extension that adds XPath support