There was a time the web users mostly resorted to IE and the web development professionals also built apps and made sites with IE in mind. This is no longer the case. In the last few years rival browsers like Chrome and Firefox have wooed away a section of IE users. The market share of Opera has also grown in this phase. Despite having many killer features much before IE or others could introduce them, Opera did not get huge success among the web users owing to some compatibility issues and lack of backing. However, things have changed for the better and Opera is poised to play a role in the future of web programming and development.

The latest version of Opera 11 is out and the Norwegian company has also released the first official version of its web developer toolkit named Dragonfly. It was available in beta version earlier but now the web development professionals can take advantage of the stable release. It has got thumbs up from the industry experts and boasts of some unprecedented features the web programming and development pros can benefit from.

At first glance Opera’s Dragonfly may appear like other debugging tools but it has some cool features like color palette and zooming color picker. The revamped JavaScript debugger is also worth trying. The innovative remote debugging feature working through Opera Mobile is also a nice addition. To debug a website in a smart phone supporting Opera Mobile the developers need to enable remote debugging in the desktop version. Then Dragonfly will connect to the opera Mobile browser and debug the website on the phone directly. It works with the phones and tablets that support Opera Mobile. As it is well known, Opera Mobile is supported by a lot of Android smart phones and those phones running on Symbian OS. Therefore, it would be prudent to say that Dragonfly will spearhead mobile web development.

Opera recommends the use of the newest version of the browser but all versions starting from release 9.5 are supported. The Mac owners can obtain the benefits but Opera Mobile does not run on iPhone and iPad. With Dragonfly, the web developers can check font and style changes on the go. It also makes debugging Scalable Vector Graphics and JavaScript easier than ever before. Dragonfly also enables the web developers to track network loads, storage and usage. The developers can see how cookies function and the way media elements affect website performance. Being a product from the stable of Opera, Dragonfly is easy to use and developers can get their hands on it quickly.

Opera calls Dragonfly a hybrid web application and the nice thing about it is that the users need not update it at all. The update gets downloaded and installed automatically. The tool will also remain compatible with the upcoming versions of Opera, as per the company. While there are other debugging and development tools available for browsers like Firefox and Chrome, the addition of Dragonfly definitely widens the scope for web development.