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Which browsers support viewing source code?

besides IE

         

Marcia

9:27 pm on Jun 15, 2004 (gmt 0)

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I'd like to find an alternative to IE to use, but need to check source code frequently.

Any others have that capability?

MatthewHSE

9:40 pm on Jun 15, 2004 (gmt 0)

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I think most (all?) browsers support viewing the source. At least, I've never used one that doesn't support it.

DrDoc

9:40 pm on Jun 15, 2004 (gmt 0)

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I have yet to encounter a browser that does not offer this functionality...
Some offer better functionality than others. Mozilla, for example, lets you view the source for a selected section of the page (which is really convenient).

isitreal

12:19 am on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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If you download Firefox 0.9 and then install the extension 'Web Developer Tool bar 0.8' I think it is, you will have on the toolbar a button that lets you view source instantly. If you use 'tab browser extensions' extension you can make the source come in a tab, otherwise it will pop up in its own window. That's invaluable, I also view source frequently, especially when I'm trying to figure out how sites are getting search engine positioning, tabbed browsing and the web developer tool bar make that a breeze.

<added>Opera lets you pick your own source viewer too, last I checked, which is very convenient if you have a preferred viewer, something a little better than notepad or frontpage. I don't know if it offers the view source in a tab feature.

tedster

2:16 am on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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Opera's easy assignment of "View Source" is one of many intelligent features that I love about that browser.

I set View Source open the html document in Homesite - and that one simple action has saved me so much time every day, both in development and in research. I almost always have Opera and Homesite open, and it's like browsing the web with a surgery kit close at hand.

Marcia

2:31 am on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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view-source: like in the IE address bar is what I need.

I use view source with notepad, but you can't view the source in notepad if you're being redirected away from the page, but view-source: in the address bar does it with IE in those cases.

For example, this page has a 302 redirect also so I can't see the actual page at all no matter what, but I can see the source code anyway with view-source:http://www.comain.com

<META Http-equiv="refresh" Content="0; Url=http://www.somedomain.com"> <a href="http://www.otherdomain.com">Click here if you see this</a>

Do any of those work the same way?

vkaryl

2:42 am on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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So far, I haven't found any browser which won't let me right click on the page and select "view page source" or whatever whichever one I'm using calls it. They all open the source in notepad.

I'm thinking that opening source in notepad is a selectable somewhere - like in the html options, or something?

[As to your Meta http statement, I haven't tried it in a browser addy.... so maybe I'm basically not seeing what it is you're after....]

Birdman

3:07 am on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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I usually hit 'stop' at the right time to catch the redirect page if I need to see the source. Also, hitting back sometimes will leave you at the redirect page, but I don't think that's the case with meta refresh. Sorry I couldn't give you a real answer.

DrDoc

3:16 am on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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view-source:

Mozilla does...
And Netscape 3 and 4 too ;)

andthereitgoes

5:15 am on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)



I think most of all

tedster

5:31 am on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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you can't view the source in notepad if you're being redirected away from the page

You can easily reset Opera preferences so it will NOT perform redirects. If any code gets sent to your browser, you can view it.

You also have right-click access to "view frame source". That can be a helpful feature as well.

Marcia

6:27 am on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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I haven't been able to *not* get redirected; I've never been fast enough to catch stop in time, no matter how hard I try, and unless you're on the page you can't right click because you're on the other page by that time.

There's some cloaked pages I want to dig into and those particular ones are the very type I'm afraid to get near with IE - and just because I can't it's driving me crazy.

I'll download Mozilla and give it a try. And Opera, I don't have it on this machine and that's what I've always used to easily turn of JS - so those weren't a problem. But I didn't know you could stop redirects - especially 301 or 302.

Thanks!

Purple Martin

7:07 am on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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Mozilla, for example, lets you view the source for a selected section of the page (which is really convenient).

You can do this in IE too - you have to download and install "Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 Web Developer Accessories" from the MS website. The documentation states that it only works in IE5.5, however I know from experience that it works just fine with IE6 as well. Once installed, you can highlight a portion of the page then right-click and select "View Partial Source". It also gives you the option to view the Document Tree (as interpreted by IE). Both are very handy features. It's a small download and easy install.

victor

8:06 am on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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They all open the source in notepad.

Mozilla uses its own editor, with colored syntax highlighting. Pretty and neat.

DrDoc

8:08 am on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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And Opera uses WordPad...
They can all, however, be configured (even IE) to use whatever editor you want.

photon

12:28 pm on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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I haven't figured out how to use SciTe with IE. It only offers a dropdown list to choose from, and SciTe's not listed.

BlobFisk

12:42 pm on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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You need to get TweakUI (it's part of the Windows PowerToy applications). That will allow you to assign the View Source on IE to Scite...

HTH

Leosghost

1:10 pm on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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You need to get TweakUI

I thought it was part of the "default" install of all forms of 'doze since 98?

DrDoc

2:45 pm on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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You can also edit the registry yourself, if you're familiar with how that works.

photon

3:30 pm on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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Excellent. Thanks for the tips.

DrDoc

3:44 pm on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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Here's how you do it manually:

Key Name 
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Default HTML Editor
Value Name
Description
Value Type
REG_SZ
Value Data
"Notepad"

Key Name
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Default HTML Editor\shell\edit
Value Name
Default
Value Type
REG_SZ
Value Data
"&Edit"

Key Name
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Default HTML Editor\shell\edit\command
Value Name
Default
Value Type
REG_SZ
Value Data
"C:\\WINNT\\notepad.exe %1"

isitreal

4:09 pm on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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I thought it was part of the "default" install of all forms of 'doze since 98?

Au Contraire, I believe MS pulled that feature out of fear that users would play around too much and break the installation then pester tech support (remember when they offered that?). It was a toolkit addon in 98SE, and I believe not on the disks at all as of w2k and w2k consumer, ie xp.

BlobFisk

4:12 pm on Jun 16, 2004 (gmt 0)

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isitreal is right, since Win2K it's no longer part of the Windows install. You need to get it from the MS site itself and see the usage warning!

photon

1:18 pm on Jun 17, 2004 (gmt 0)

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Thanks for the details DrDoc. That will make life better at work where I'm required to use IE (at home I'm an Opera guy). :)

R1chard

6:30 pm on Jun 17, 2004 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Yeah, in Mozilla/Netscape/Firebird you just press Ctrl+U and you get a nice little window with colored syntax highlighting and resizable text... It's been there since the beginning.

Oh, and there is also "Reload Source", which does as expected, and is an excellent resource for testing pages.

Or, even better, you can select some text and then
Right-click > View Selection Source, if you only want a few lines.

You might also try Amaya (it has line numbers)

brakthepoet

7:39 pm on Jun 17, 2004 (gmt 0)

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but you can't view the source in notepad if you're being redirected away from the page

Have you tried using Lynx? Just tried it out myself.

Made a page pagetoredirect.htm with the following line: <META Http-equiv="refresh" Content="0; Url=http://www.mydomain.com/page-im-redirected-to.htm">

In a graphical browser, I was redirected to the page-im-redirected-to.htm. In Lynx, I stayed on pagetoredirect.htm.

Use the " \ " key to view source.