Easy Firefox

Archive for August, 2009

The Mozilla Add-ons team has release AMO 5.0.9, with updates to Recommendations, Collections, and Contributions! For more information, read the AMO blog post, excerpted below:

Add-on Recommendations

Some things go great together: peanut butter and jelly, popcorn and movies, Firebug and YSlow. Starting today, when you’re looking at an add-on’s listing, you’ll see several other add-ons that are often used together. We base these recommendations on the add-ons our users have grouped together in collections.

Contributions

Last month we launched our Contributions pilot, a way for add-on authors to accept monetary donations from users of their add-ons. We’ve gotten great feedback from users and developers, and are now expanding the reach of contributions on AMO. Add-ons that have turned on Contributions will now have contribution boxes in search results and category browse listings, where many installations take place.

While these new boxes help surface the existence of contributions, some users aren’t likely to make a donation without first testing the add-on to ensure it’s useful to them. With this release, developers have a new way to accept donations after a user has tried the add-on by simply pointing users to their add-on’s new about page.

Collections

Since the launch of Collections in June, add-on fans have created almost 30,000 collections, resulting in more than 6.5 million add-on downloads. This release includes many new features to make Collections even more useful.

Logged-in users can now rate collections and sort by those ratings to help the best collections bubble to the top.

To help determine the popularity of a collection, authors can now access a collection statistics dashboard that shows information on the number of subscribers, ratings, and downloads over time.

We’ve also added a treat for users of browsers that support localStorage (including Firefox 3.5): recently viewed collections. When browsing through the collection directory, users can now easily get back to a collection they saw, without having to log in.

Public Stats

In early 2008, we gave add-on developers their first look at the shiny new Statistics Dashboard for each add-on hosted on AMO. Currently some dashboards are public and some are private, but we’ve never offered an in-depth look at the aggregate statistics for all add-ons hosted on AMO.
Today we’ve launched a detailed view of AMO as a whole, with data on add-ons, downloads, active users, users, reviews, and collections. Go on, check it out!

Add-on Validation

Earlier this month, we announced the arrival of the new add-on verification suite on AMO. At the time it was an optional tool developers could choose to run for their files. With this release, the tool will automatically be run when uploading a new file, and the results of the tests will affect the submission process. Editors will see the test results and any flags when reviewing the add-on. We hope to help developers catch common problems before an editor’s review.

Go to Source

A couple of items to report this week from the Developer Tool’s group here in the labs: First, we released Bespin 0.4.2 code-named “H. E. Pennypacker” over at http://bespin.mozilla.com. H. E. Pennypacker is a bug-fix release focused on patching issues in our still-fairly-new collaboration engine. More details on the release are available on my blog.

Short-term Bespin Roadmap

We’re busily working away on firming up longer-term plans for Bespin, but for those of you curious about our shorter-term plans, we recently published a roadmap through the end of September. Please take a look and let us know what you think.

Test Swarm!

On Wednesday, John Resig on our team pushed out an alpha release of his most recent labor of love, Test Swarm. The project allows developers all over the world to contribute their browser to a swarm that continuously tests code. This allows projects like jQuery to run tests on a large variety of browser / operating system combinations without having to setup test labs and servers, etc.–an effort beyond the reach of most open-source projects.

We’re all very excited about the potential of Test Swarm to increase the quality of JavaScript code in projects world-wide. Read more over at John’s blog.

- Ben Galbraith, on behalf of the Bespin and Test Swarm teams

Go to Source

I can not get enough of the Mushroom Kingdom theme for Firefox.  In version two, a lot of the icon work has been re-done to make it even more colorful and unique.  As the author of the theme said, “All of the icons are new, but kept close to the originals to remain familiar to previous users.”  Personally, I like the changes.

This is a very worthy tribute to Nintendo for sure.  Go check out my thoughts on the previous Mushroom Kingdom theme for Firefox, or go grab this all-new edition!

Add me on Twitter! Come follow my daily antics, links, tips and more @mitchkeeler on Twitter!

© Mitch Keeler 2008 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!

Go to Source

We’re getting close to Mozilla Service Week — it’s just 18 days away!  We’ve had over 4,300 hours pledged and over 2,200 volunteer opportunities posted.  We’re in the process of rolling out action templates for Service Week and OneWebDay for those that would like to create their own opportunities or need a little more flexibility   They’re sets of actions and resources that you can use to help non-profits, organizations and individuals improve their experience online and allow them to better leverage the Web.  Check them out:

• Internet Health Check:  Online privacy and security are major concerns for everyone.  The Internet Health Check provides four easy steps to update a computer’s browser and plug-ins.  You can perform Internet Health Checks for an organization or friends and family.
• Digital Marketing:  The Digital Marketing Template was created to help Service Week volunteers get organizations set up with a preliminary social media marketing framework (see Chelsea Novak’s blog for more details).  Social Media tools can greatly help an NPO connect with its community, donors and the general public – for free!

We’re hoping these templates make it easier for you to act!  If you have any ideas on new ones or would like create some, please comment here.  A few ideas to keep in mind if you’d like to use these templates or others:

• Take a moment to pledge your hours.
• Share your plans or stories on Mozilla Service Week’s site — it will help provide inspiration for others.
• Challenge your friends to do this as well using PledgeBank (i.e. I will perform 10 Internet Health Checks if 20 of my friends do so as well).

And, remember to have fun!

Go to Source

Weave Sync is a prototype that encrypts and securely synchronizes the Firefox experience across multiple browsers, so that your desktop, laptop and mobile phone can all work together. It is part of the Weave project, which aims to integrate services more closely with the browser.

Major Features

What is Weave Sync all about? In short, Weave Sync lets you securely take your Firefox experience with you to all your Firefox browsers — including our mobile browser, codenamed Fennec. It currently supports continuous synchronization of your bookmarks, browsing history, saved passwords and tabs, as well as form-field history and preferences. For example:

• Get the same results on the Smart Location Bar on each of your Firefox browsers, so you can get to your favorite sites with just a few keystrokes
• Continue what you were doing: have the ability to open any tab you have open on any of your Firefox browsers
• Keep the same list of bookmarks on all of your Firefox browsers
• If you use Personas, your currently selected Persona can be synchronized across your Firefox browsers
• Easily sign in to all your favorite sites using your saved passwords (this is especially handy on mobile phones, where it’s hard to type in complex passwords)
• Do it all securely: Weave Sync encrypts user data before uploading it to Mozilla’s servers, so that only you can access your data

What’s new in 0.6?

If you have not looked at Weave recently, now is a great time to jump in and try it out! In this release we did a major overhaul of the user experience, as well as major improvements in terms of reliability and performance. A few of the major changes are:

• Brand-new UI, allowing for most set-up, configuration, and status to be done from a single streamlined interface
• Major performance improvements during upload and download
• Better error handling and reporting

Getting Involved with Testing and Development

• Install Weave 0.6 (requires Firefox 3.5 or higher)
• Learn more about Weave
• Discuss, debate, and add to the design in the Weave forum
• Join us in #labs on irc.mozilla.org

– Dan Mills, on behalf of the Weave development team

Go to Source

Want to tweak the way the download manager from within Firefox works?  You can now tweak the way downloads are handled in a number different ways with the Download Manager Tweak add-on for Firefox.

The main thing you might notice, right off the bat, is the ability to changes download manager’s appearance and allow the download manager to be opened in a window, tab, or sidebar.

A few more options available to you are:

• The ability to always ask where to save a file or always save files to one default location
• Open the download manager after a delay of X milliseconds
• Show or hide the toolbar on the bottom of the window
• Show or hide the infobar, attached to the folder
• Disable or enable the download manager theme changes
• and much more!

This is an add-on for Firefox I could seriously see adding to my default add-ons list I put on every personal Firefox install I do, it is that cool.  The Download Manager Tweak extension is free to download, so give it a shot – and let me know how much you enjoy it.

Add me on Twitter! Come follow my daily antics, links, tips and more @mitchkeeler on Twitter!

© Mitch Keeler 2008 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!

Go to Source

Sage was once one of the more popular RSS feed reading add-ons for Firefox.  However, time went by, years went on and these days it is not making much news.  However, if you still need a lightweight feed reader, there is now Sage-Too.  This is a continuation of the original project to keep it up to date with today’s Firefox browser versions. 

Some of the features include:

• Reads RSS (2.0, 1.0, 0.9x) and Atom feeds
• Feed Discovery
• Integrates with Firefox’s bookmark storage and Live Bookmarks
• Imports and exports OPML feed lists
• Newspaper feed rendering customizable via style sheets
• Technorati and RSS search engine integration

It also has support for the following locales: Argentine Spanish, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, and Swedish.

As they say in their own words, “It’s got more of what you need and not much of what you don’t.”  You can give it another shot, or take your first trip down lightweight RSS reading road by downloading it on the Firefox Add-ons web site.

Also, don’t forget to start your RSS feed collection with the best Firefox feed out there today, http://feeds.feedburner.com/firefoxfacts.  Never leave your RSS feed reader without it!

Add me on Twitter! Come follow my daily antics, links, tips and more @mitchkeeler on Twitter!

© Mitch Keeler 2008 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!

Go to Source

Did you know you can tidy Firefox up, with VACUUM? No, I do not mean that thing you use to clean your carpets.  Here is a way to VACUUM your places database from within the browser.

Here are the steps you need to take:

1. Open the Firefox tools menu and click on error console.
2. Paste the following command into the code box as a single line:
Components.classes["@mozilla.org/browser/nav-history-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsPIPlacesDatabase).DBConnection.executeSimpleSQL("VACUUM");
3. Hit the “Enter” key or click the evaluate button.

The user interface will freeze for a moment, but after you are done, your SQLite databases should be less fragmented than before, leading to a leaner and meaner Firefox browsing experience.

Thanks goes to Mozilla developer Jeremy Orem for this fantastic tip!

Add me on Twitter! Come follow my daily antics, links, tips and more @mitchkeeler on Twitter!

© Mitch Keeler 2008 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!

Go to Source

After a brief hiatus, we are back again for another edition of Labs Night, our monthly meetup to discuss Labs projects, your projects and the Open Web. Our August session will be this Thursday, 8/27 6-9 pm at the (still) new Mozilla HQ – 650 Castro Street, Suite 300 in downtown Mountain View. The event is open to everyone, so if you are in the area feel free to stop by.

Our featured speaker this week is Li Gong, Chairman and CEO of Mozilla Online, the Beijing based subsidiary of the Mozilla Corporation. Li will be talking about a wide variety of topics related to firefox, the mozilla community and the open web in China.

We will also hear what a lot of the Mozilla Labs projects have been working on, in 5 minute lightning talk style presentations. We’ll have a few slots open for other lightning talks as well, so if you are working on a cool project, this is a great opportunity to show and tell.

And if that’s not enough, we’ll also be providing pizza.  Please RSVP by commenting on this blog if you plan to attend. Hope to see you there!

PS: We may have another super exciting speaker this week. We will post an update once we hear confirmation.

Go to Source

Want to speed up your flash video watching?  By default, Firefox takes a sort of “snapshot” of whatever you are doing every ten seconds.  Why?  It is so that the browser can restore itself, just in case of a crash.  Now you might ask, what does this have to do with flash videos?  Well, the snapshot action is what is causing your ten second delay, at times, with watching flash videos on the Web.

So what is the solution?  Time to visit our good friend, the about:config…

The quick fix for this problem, at least for my own sake, is to increase the time between each of the saves performed by session restore. By opening about:config in your Firefox address bar, then typing browser.sessionstore.interval in the filter box, you’ll see a value of 10000, which is in milliseconds. (Meaning your session is saved every 10 seconds.) I changed this to 300000, or every 5 minutes, as I don’t have the urgent need for tab restoration. If you feel like being more on the safe side, try increasing it to something a bit lower, say 120000, or every 2 minutes.

I gave it a shot, and it might not be a life changing experiance after doing so, but it does seem to make the videos play faster, especially if you have several Firefox tabs or windows open at the same time. 

Add me on Twitter! Come follow my daily antics, links, tips and more @mitchkeeler on Twitter!

© Mitch Keeler 2008 | Check out my personal blog and my hosting podcast too!

Go to Source