Is the HTML shown via 'View Source' different from the HTML shown in (Firebug) developer tools?

html browser rendering firebug
sergserg picture sergserg · Oct 25, 2012 · Viewed 17.9k times · Source

I'm using Firefox alongside Firebug Developer tools.

Is the HTML shown in View Source (Ctrl + U) different from the HTML I see when inspecting elements using Firebug?

What are the differences between the two?

Answer

Rik picture Rik · Oct 25, 2012

Yes they are different.

View source shows you the original HTML source of the page.

The inspector shows you the DOM as it was interpreted by the browser. This includes for example changes made by javascript which cannot be seen in the HTML source.

Oh and this also counts for the developer tools that allow you to view the DOM in other browsers, like the Chrome Web Inspector and Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar. The HTML source will always be the same across all browsers, the generated DOM might differ as it is an interpretation and render engines are not all the same (unfortunately).

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