Hey everyone,
Picture this: you’ve just pushed a small change to a user settings page. It’s a simple fix, maybe a single line of CSS. Now, you need to test it.
You open the browser, navigate to the page, and are greeted by a form with ten fields: First Name, Last Name, Email, Password, Confirm Password, Address, City… you get the picture. You sigh, and begin the monotonous task of tabbing and typing.
We’ve all been there. This isn’t the exciting part of development; it’s the boring, repetitive grind that kills our momentum and drains our focus.
The Real Cost of Manual Form Filling
It’s easy to dismiss this as „just part of the job,“ but the cost is higher than we think:
It’s Incredibly Slow: The 60 seconds it takes to fill out that form, 20 times a day, adds up to hours of wasted time by the end of the week.
It’s Error-Prone: Did you meet the password requirements? Is that a valid email format? Making a typo means starting all over again.
It Breaks Your Flow: The biggest cost is context switching. You go from a deep „code focus“ state to a mindless „data entry“ state, and getting back into the zone is hard.
It Makes for Poor Testing: When it’s painful to fill out a form, we unconsciously avoid testing edge cases. We use the same simple data every time, leaving bugs undiscovered.
The Common „Solutions“ (That Don’t Really Work)
We try to fight back, of course. Maybe you use:
Browser Autofill: Great for your home address, but terrible for test data. It can’t handle multiple test users (Admin, New User, User with long name, etc.) and offers zero randomization.
A notes.txt file: You keep a file with test user credentials. It’s better than nothing, but it’s messy, you have to copy/paste every field, and it’s impossible to share with your team.
LastPass/1Password: These are password managers, not test data managers. They aren’t built for generating varied, realistic data on the fly.
I was so frustrated with this cycle that I decided to build a proper solution for it.
Introducing a Better Workflow with Fillr
I created Fillr, a Chrome extension built specifically to solve this problem for developers and QA engineers.
It’s a smart form filler that not only saves your form configurations but also generates high-quality, realistic test data for you.
Here’s how it transforms the workflow:
- Stop Typing, Start Clicking
Instead of manually typing, you can save any form’s configuration as a „Fillr“. The next time you visit that page, you can populate the entire form with perfectly valid data in a single click.
- Generate Realistic Test Data Instantly
This is the real game-changer. The power comes from the sheer variety of data available. We’re not just talking about basic names and emails. Fillr supports over 100 different data types, giving you the ability to handle any testing scenario.
You can instantly generate everything from the essentials (company names, addresses, user bios) to highly specific and creative data sets like vehicle makes, airport codes, RGB colors, zodiac signs, and even Pokémon. This allows for truly robust testing of edge cases and complex validation rules without ever leaving the browser.
[Insert a GIF here showing the user scrolling through the impressive list of data types in the Fillr menu, perhaps highlighting a few unique ones like „Airport Code“ or „Vehicle“. This is your „wow“ moment.]
- Make Localization (i18n) Testing Trivial
If you’ve ever had to test an app for different countries, you know how painful it is to find valid addresses and phone numbers. Fillr has a built-in generator for country-specific data. Need a valid German address and phone number? It’s two clicks away.
This workflow has personally saved me countless hours and, more importantly, saved my sanity. It keeps me in a state of flow and allows me to focus on what I actually enjoy: building and shipping features.
If you feel this pain too, I’d love for you to give Fillr a try. It’s a new project, and I’m actively looking for feedback from the community on how to make it even better.
You can grab it from the Chrome Web Store and check out the landing page for more info.
➡️ Get Fillr on the Chrome Web Store
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/fillr-smart-form-filler-t/peppngdnnhjpchacodkdadojgnafepdd
➡️ Landing Page:
https://fillr.app/
Thanks for reading, and I hope this helps you reclaim some of your productivity!