Firefox toolbar: please post questions/comments/bugs etc here

[Bookworm]

It's like everything else, honey, it's not what you have, it's what you do with it.

[MrTWS]

Okay I'm trying out the new toolbar. I will let you know it's okay. I don't usually like toolbars on browsers, because they tend to slow things down like browsing but I'll give it a try

 

If it mucks up I'll erase its a$$

[dave]

It's like everything else, honey, it's not what you have, it's what you do with it.

 

Indeed it is.

 

...though God knows how you manage to use it all, what with all and sundry using it for you through all that spyware!

[tifo]

the 'Threads' link does not bring anything down (should it?) and the password does not seem to get saved properly.

 

i always use Firefox and never IE.

[WebMaster]

'Threads' just shows threads that you're subscribed to (so if you're not subscribed to any...)

 

The reason why the password doesn't seem to be saving correctly could that it's stored as an md5 hash. When you bring up the 'options' dialogue a second time (ie after having entered your username/password) it's shows the starred-out 32 char hash. If you click 'cancel', no problems; but if you click 'ok', it'll hash the existing hash.

 

The solution (for the moment, we'll do something about this in the next release) would be not to click 'ok' in the options dialogue if you have already set your login details. If you're setting your login details for the first time, you're not affected

[tifo]

the md5 ckecksum hash i understand.

 

i'm subscribed to around 400 threads so some should show up?

[WebMaster]

It should yes, (although we limited it to the 30 most recent subscriptions). I've grepped through the logs, but don't see your username making any requests (it wont attempt to fetch your subscribed thread titles if the username/password aren't set)

[tifo]

i've put my username and password in the 'Options' tag.

 

the PM and Options tabs seem to work fine.

 

anyway, it's OK, i use the main site.

[barracad]

i've put my username and password in the 'Options' tag.

 

You need to restart Firefox after you do this - have you done that?

[JOSH_IOU]

It's like everything else, honey, it's not what you have, it's what you do with it.

 

wonder how she wants to use it.

[JOSH_IOU]

one has to ask the question

[tifo]

'threads' link works now.

 

i did restart firefox after installing the toolbar yesterday.

[Spiceskull]

I have a gripe - I have cag.xpi v4 installed (LOL,) and now see that we are up v.7 (very fast work indeed)

 

Us manic and ardent FireFoxers make full use of the "update all extensions" function, and this results in a search being made of the FFExtensions repository...surprisingly my cag.xpi v4 did not find any updates...

 

Can I suggest that the extension is hosted somewhere here, to enable automatic updates, rather than the manual efforts?

 

Cheers M'Dears...

[gh2008]

Would it be possible to be able to middle click on a thread in the drop down threads list to open it in a new tab?

 

Also would it be possible to use Google as the search engine?

I use Google add-ons that nicely remove all the ads and number the results so I just need to hit a number to go to that result - and lots of other little nice things

[JOSH_IOU]

I have a gripe - I have cag.xpi v4 installed (LOL,) and now see that we are up v.7 (very fast work indeed)

 

Us manic and ardent FireFoxers make full use of the "update all extensions" function, and this results in a search being made of the FFExtensions repository...surprisingly my cag.xpi v4 did not find any updates...

 

Can I suggest that the extension is hosted somewhere here, to enable automatic updates, rather than the manual efforts?

 

Cheers M'Dears...

 

Its not a gripe its a very good suggestion.

[WebMaster]

gh: good idea, we'll definitely add this to the next version.

 

We have actually uploaded the add-on to the URL that you mentioned, Spicey

. It's sandboxed at the moment (until they've reviewed it), which I assumed would just mean it didn't appear in the listings, but could still be accessed via the direct URL ... Seems not though.

 

The other advantage to having them host it is that mozilla.org is a trusted domain - so FF won't automatically attempt to block the installation, as it does at the moment

[gh2008]

only other points I can think of at the moment would be to move the options button into the list of add-ons (Tools -> Add-ons - highlight extension and click the options button)

It would normally only be used once and then left, it otherwise takes up valuable space.

 

Could you also incorporate the 'Quick Links' list onto the toolbar?

 

I am using it more & more, but as with anything like this the more you use it the more you want it to do

[WebMaster]

I hear what you're saying about the options button. I'll have to figure out how to move it to the add-on preferences menu. In the meantime I'm removed the text 'options' (so just the icon) so save a bit of space.

 

Anyway, I've just uploaded a new version (0.8). The changes are:

 

* Removed text 'options' from options button

* Middle-clicking on items in the News/Links/Threads menu causes them to open in a new tab

* Clicking on the inbox and search icons now opens a new tab by default

* Pressing enter in the search box performs a web search (no need to click the button)

 

Here's the direct link: http://consumeractiongroup.co.uk/cag.xpi (paste the link into a new window)

 

 

gh, what did you mean about incorprating the Quick Links onto the toolbar? Do you mean like the default Firefox 'bookmarks' toolbar (under View > Toolbars)?

 

I also remembered why I'd given up on the Mozilla add-on repository: they only consider add-ons for inclusion if they are of use to the community in general. I think we're a bit to specialist.

[barracad]

 

gh, what did you mean about incorprating the Quick Links onto the toolbar?

 

I assume this means can we have an additional 'Quick Links' menu which has the same Quick Links as on CAG - i.e. today's posts, mark forums read, open buddy list... etc.

[gh2008]

I assume this means can we have an additional 'Quick Links' menu which has the same Quick Links as on CAG - i.e. today's posts, mark forums read, open buddy list... etc.

 

That's the one, sorry I didn't make myself clearer

[gh2008]

 

* Removed text 'options' from options button

Yep that works more space

 

* Middle-clicking on items in the News/Links/Threads menu causes them to open in a new tab

Links works fine, left & middle working as expected.

Threads - broken not left or middle clicking, the mouse highlights the line, but the click does not create any action

News - I've never had anything listed there

 

* Clicking on the inbox and search icons now opens a new tab by default

Yep, all work, much better , well for me anyway, I like tabs

 

* Pressing enter in the search box performs a web search (no need to click the button)

works as expected

 

One tiny point, on mouse over the Threads pops up the message "Latest News from CAG"

 

Also, I haven't got a clue how it's done, but would it be possible to get the toolbar to allow other items to be placed on the end, or make the toolbar a finite length i.e. not full width? I don't know whether with an option or something you can tell FF how much space to allocate to a toolbar?

 

I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong here, but now the toolbar is less than 1/2 screen width, I'd actually like to shuffle one of my other bars up beside it, but i can't drop it on the end of anything nor can I drop anything toolbars, buttons, separators on it. IYSWIM.

[WebMaster]

Hmm, it'll partly depend on your screen resolution. I tried to design the toolbar to fit nicely at 1024x768, with the ability to adjust the search box width for those at lower resolutions. I'll have another fiddle around.

 

I didn't realise it was possible to merge two toolbars onto the same horizontal bar. Again, I'll look into it

[gh2008]

Hmm, it'll partly depend on your screen resolution. I tried to design the toolbar to fit nicely at 1024x768, with the ability to adjust the search box width for those at lower resolutions. I'll have another fiddle around.

 

I do appreciate that I am being really fussy/personal with these requests and please feel free to tell me at any time to "get on and write my own one" not that I can

 

I didn't realise it was possible to merge two toolbars onto the same horizontal bar. Again, I'll look into it

 

I think it's maybe more to do with allowing the user to modify the existing one, e.g. I've just installed the Google bar to demonstrate. In this picture, http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii184/gh2008_photos/fftoolbars.jpg you can see I have inserted a Roboform tool bar into the middle of the Google one (the bit between the red envelope and the send to label)

and the bookmarks toolbar is on the end of the menubar etc.

 

atb

gh

[WebMaster]

Ah, interesting. That would be good, yes.

 

It's good to have some feedback and suggestions, so I don't mind at all. I'll probably aim to get these things added in a week or so (bit hectic at the moment)

[Hippy-chick]

 

Finally, this is just the first release so we are looking for ways to improve it, so I would throw the question back to you, and ask what features would you like to see on the bar to encourage you to install and use it?

 

Well, in my case - nothing - I can't think of anything that would encourage me to install it. I've never needed to bother with a Boolean search on threads, if I'm not on CAG I'm too busy to care about instantly being told about messages (and, anyway, one can turn on one's emails so that one gets alerted to that) ... and, generally, I can find my way around the site quickly and easily on my own.

 

But that question was not really aimed at me, was it? What features would members like to see?