Opera Dragonfly is a web development tool that was integrated into the

Opera web browser Opera is a multi-platform web browser developed by its namesake company Opera. The current edition of the browser is based on Chromium. Opera is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS (Safari WebKit engine). Opera offers two mo ...

from Opera versions 9.5 through 12.18, similar to Firebug and development tools built into

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curren ...

and

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, an ...

. It supports debugging

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior. Web browsers have ...

, viewing the DOM, monitoring network traffic, previewing resources, editing colors, etc. It also supports remote debugging, which allows using the features of Dragonfly to be used when debugging a mobile phone, TV, or another desktop computer. Opera Dragonfly must be downloaded on first usage, and functions offline thereafter. Opera Dragonfly automatically updates to the latest version available, when connected to the Internet. Opera Dragonfly is compatible with Presto 2.1 and later, specifically

Opera Mobile Opera Mobile is a mobile web browser for smartphones, tablets and PDAs developed by Opera. History The first devices to run a mobile edition of Opera were the Psion Series 5, Psion Series 5mx, Psion Series 7, and then Psion netBook. They ...

9.5 and above, and Opera Desktop 9.5 and above. The Scope transport protocol (STP) is used for communication between the Opera browser and Opera Dragonfly.

History

Development of Opera Dragonfly started in May 2008. When the development started Opera Dragonfly was using the

BSD license BSD licenses are a family of permissive free software licenses, imposing minimal restrictions on the use and distribution of covered software. This is in contrast to copyleft licenses, which have share-alike requirements. The original BSD lic ...

, but later on it was changed to the Apache License 2.0. On 21 September 2011, the Opera Dragonfly team announced that from then on releases would be more focused on improvements to individual components, e.g. the DOM inspector or the UI framework. As soon as a feature for a certain component was implemented, it would be put on the experimental path for some initial testing. As part of the new release strategy, they switched over Opera Dragonfly to a new version scheme: . Inclusion of Opera Dragonfly ended after Opera 12.x, when Opera switched from the

Presto layout engine Presto was the browser engine of the Opera web browser from the release of Opera 7 on 28 January 2003, until the release of Opera 15 on 2 July 2013, at which time Opera switched to using the Blink engine that was originally created for Chromium. ...

Blink Blinking is a bodily function; it is a semi-autonomic rapid closing of the eyelid. A single blink is determined by the forceful closing of the eyelid or inactivation of the levator palpebrae superioris and the activation of the palpebral por ...

and a

Chromium Chromium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6 element, group 6. It is a steely-grey, Luster (mineralogy), lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium ...

base. Subsequent versions included Chromium's DevTools instead. As of 2019, Dragonfly has not been reintroduced, although in 2013, indication was given that it might at some point return.

References

{{JavaScript Opera Software Web development software

History

See also

References