Maintainer's 2009-10 note: This page is becoming rather dated. I keep my personal list of recommendations on my rants pages, and suggest checking that page's list of suggested Firefox extensions and "about:config" fixes.




Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 13:30:28 +0100
To: Irish Linux Users Group <ilug@linux.ie>
From: Kevin Lyda <kevin+dated+1123936243.75318b@ie.suberic.net>
Subject: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

I think I tried to get this thread started once before, but I'll try again.

What's the Firefox extension(s) that you find the most useful?

Personally, I like the Mozex extension that allows me to edit textareas with vi. It does other things, but that's what I use it for. and I'm looking into a proxy switcher one.

Kevin




Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2005 13:35:12 +0100
From: Niall Sheridan <niall@evil.ie>
To: Irish Linux Users Group <ilug@linux.ie>
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

Niall





Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 13:36:47 +0100
From: Cian Cullinan <cian.cullinan@gmail.com>
To: ilug@linux.ie
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

SessionSaver, couldn't live without it: http://kb.mozillazine.org/SessionSaver For all the times I accidentally kill Firefox, or my machine crashes, or I just want to reboot, it saves all my open tabs and when I start up again there they all are. I have had some trouble when I have multiple copies of Firefox open at the same time and closed them in the wrong order (or even in the right order if I shut them down after each other) as it only saves the most recently closed copy.




Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 13:48:38 +0100
From: Lars Hecking <lhecking@users.sourceforge.net>
To: ilug@linux.ie
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

I have used Proxyswitcher on my laptop, but it developed some strange problems (minute-long delays in loading Web pages), so I ditched it: http://www.proxyswitcher.com/




Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2005 14:06:07 +0100
From: Gareth Eason <bigbro@skynet.ie>
To: ilug@linux.ie
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

Lars Hecking wrote:

| I have used Proxyswitcher on my laptop, but it developed some strange
| problems (minute-long delays in loading Web pages), so I ditched it.

I also had issues with this so I now use ProxyButton - which only allows turning a proxy on and off - but that's exactly the functionality I want :-)

My extension list (in case anyone cares :-) ):




Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2005 15:18:03 +0200
From: Bernhard Rohrer <graylion@sm-wg.net>
To: ilug@linux.ie
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

Lars Hecking wrote:

> I have used Proxyswitcher on my laptop, but it developed some
> strange problems (minute-long delays in loading Web pages), so
> I ditched it.

I am using and loving Tabbrowser Prefs and Bookmarks Synchronizer:
http://216.55.161.203/theonekea/tabprefs/
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&id=14





Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 19:52:11 +0100
From: Sarunas Vancevicius <svan@redbrick.dcu.ie>
To: ilug@linux.ie
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

On 13:48, Mon 08 Aug 05, Lars Hecking wrote:

> I have used Proxyswitcher on my laptop, but it developed some strange
> problems (minute-long delays in loading Web pages), so I ditched it.

Actually, I think I had very similar problem. The problem was that the plugin would check is there any updates on its homepage, which went down for some time. Solution was just to turn off update checks in its configuration.




From: David O'Callaghan <david.ocallaghan@cs.tcd.ie>
To: ilug@linux.ie
Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2005 13:51:15 +0100
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

I responded last time, and not much has changed.




From: "Michele Neylon :: Blacknight Solutions" <michele@blacknight.ie>
To: 'irish linux users group' <ilug@linux.ie>
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 13:54:55 +0100
Subject: RE: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...





Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2005 14:03:11 +0100
From: Kae Verens <kae@verens.com>
To: irish linux users group <ilug@linux.ie>
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

As a Web developer, I find these ones very helpful:





Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 14:37:34 +0100
From: Ken Guest <ilug@ken.guest.cx>
To: ilug@linux.ie
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

On Mon, Aug 08, 2005 at 02:03:11PM +0100, Kae Verens wrote:

> Never got the hang of it, but I'd like to learn more about Venkman

Yeah, Venkman is very useful for JavaScript testing/debugging and the View Rendered Source one is very handy for making sense out of scrunched up/uBer optimised HTML. :)




From: "ccostelloe@flogas.ie" <ccostelloe@flogas.ie>
To: ilug@linux.ie
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 14:39:02 +0100
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

Venkman. Easily copes with the sloppiness of JavaScript (though you do need to read a tutorial to get the best out of it).




Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2005 14:49:41 +0100
From: Stephen Shirley <diamond@skynet.ie>
To: irish linux users group <ilug@linux.ie>
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...




From: Justin Mason <jm@jmason.org>
To: ilug@linux.ie
Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2005 09:48:06 -0700
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

GM in particular is great fun. Don't like the look and feel of a Web page? fix it yourself!





Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 19:16:19 +0100
From: bobb <bobb@redbrick.dcu.ie>
To: ilug@linux.ie
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

In Some Random order, lowest best

Kevin Lyda hath declared on Monday the 08 day of August 2005:

> Personally I like the Mozex Extension that allows me to edit textareas
> with vi. It does other things, but that's what I use it for. and I'm
> looking into a proxy switcher one.

Apart from mozex+vi(m), what do people use for editing wikis (MediaWiki in particular)... ?





From: David Golden <david.golden@unison.ie>
To: ilug@linux.ie
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 19:28:51 +0100
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

Ketjap - so that Konqueror-style "google:search terms" pseudoURLs can be persuaded to work* instead of having to either enter them into the stupid tiny search box or (the horror) actually go to the Google homepage.

* with the following mouthful:
Regex: /^google:(.*)/i
Rewrite rule:
["http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q="+[URL].substring([URL].indexOf("google:"+7)]

http://www.harmenvanrossum.nl/pub/ICT/Mozilla/Ketjap/





From: Niall O Broin <niall@magicgoeshere.com>
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 19:34:42 +0100
To: Irish Linux Users Group <ilug@linux.ie>
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

On 8 Aug 2005, at 19:28, David Golden wrote:

>Ketjap - so that konqueror-style "google:search terms" pseudoURLs can
>be persuaded to work* instead of having to either enter them into the
>stupid tiny search box or (the horror) actually go to the Google
>homepage.

Like you, I find the search box too small and thanks to #linux (the ILUG IRC channel). I just found this out today - when you enter some space separated words into the Firefox URL button and press enter, it does a Google "I'm feeling lucky" search.

If you want a regular Google search, returning a page of results, use about:config and edit Keyword.URL to remove the I'm feeling lucky bit. (It's obvious.)

No more tiny search box - WOOT!




Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 22:59:21 +0100
From: Gavin McCullagh <gmccullagh@gmail.com>
To: ilug@linux.ie
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

On Mon, 08 Aug 2005, David Golden wrote:

> Ketjap - so that konqueror-style "google:search terms" pseudourls can
> be persuaded to work* instead of having to either enter them into the
> stupid tiny search box or (the horror) actually go to the google
> homepage.

I also dislike the little search box.

Out of curiosity, is this in some way better than just using Firefox's keyword and %s syntax, or do you just prefer the Konqueror syntax? Just to be clear, I have a bookmark:

Location: http://www.google.ie/search?q=%s&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&meta=Keyword: g

So that I can type "g something" into the URL bar and have "something" inserted into the URL in place of the %s.

Gavin





From: David Golden <david.golden@unison.ie>
To: ilug@linux.ie
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 00:46:27 +0100
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

On Monday 08 August 2005 22:59, Gavin McCullagh wrote:

> Out of curiosity, is this in some way better than just using
> Firefox's keyword and %s syntax, or do you just prefer the Konqueror
> syntax? Just to be clear, I have a bookmark:

hm... a few reasons:

(a) is irrelevant if you're not me.

(b) is a good, fine and interesting reason.

(c) is a reason.

(d) is me being a git.

(a) I prefer Konq syntax, simply because it's what I learned to type first and still use most, I tend to use Firefox only for sites that don't work in Konq, so I'm forever typing "google:my pants" or whatever into Firefox.

(b) Ketjap apparently hooks URL resolution and arbitrarily rewrites URLs. So you can rewrite microsoft.com into unpleasantsite.cx, if you must. *This works for links in pages, not just entered into the location bar.*

For example, one of the pre-made Ketjap rules (by Harmen van Rossum): When you do a Google image search, this makes the thumbnails on the results page link directly to the upstream image instead of going through Google's frameset:

regex: /http:\/\/images.google.(.*)\/imgres\?imgurl\=(.*)/i
rule: [[URL].substring([URL].indexOf("=")+1,[URL].indexOf("&"))]

(c) As it has the beginnings of a rule-building wizard (though you really need to know JavaScript, to do anything smart), Ketjap probably allows easier composition of sillier (i.e., more complicated) actions (as such, it might be a security hole, if somehow an attacker knew what actions you had set up and that one of them was unsafe, and had knowledge of what sites you were visting, yadda yadda... or if it's just buggy)

(d) (the flamebait reason) I, um, wasn't aware of that feature of Firefox bookmarks. To blame the tools a minute: Firefox seems to emulate the infuriating lack of discoverability of a GNOME UI - how is one supposed to know keyword bookmarks have that functionality without RTFMing? In a similar situation, the Konq "Web shortcuts" config panel (the feature is not mixed with bookmarks in Konq) displays just-in-time documentation of permitted substitutions with the usual "click on [?], click on gadget" help, and F1 (*) pops up the help pages with a more verbose description. F1 does nothing in the Firefox bookmarks dialog, at least in my installation.

(*) Amigas had "HELP" written on its own key, goddammit. You can generally assume "F1" is help on the PC... except when it isn't...





Date: Tue, 09 Aug 2005 09:18:20 +0100
From: Kae Verens <kae@verens.com>
To: ilug@linux.ie
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

David Golden wrote:
>(a) I prefer konq syntax simply because it's what I learned to type
>first and still use most, I tend to use Firefox only for sites which
>don't work in konq, so I'm forever typing "google:my pants" or whatever
>into Firefox.

just for your own information, Konqueror has a quicker keyword than that
- "gg:". another common one I use is "imdb:".




Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 19:46:41 +0100
From: Sarunas Vancevicius <svan@redbrick.dcu.ie>
To: ilug@linux.ie
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...

On 13:30, Mon 08 Aug 05, Kevin Lyda wrote:

> looking into a proxy switcher one.

It is very hard to live without SwitchProxy plugin on my laptop, since I have to turn proxy on and off manually when at the uni and home.




Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2005 20:06:46 +0100
From: fuzzix <fuzzbucket@eircom.net>
To: irish linux users group <ilug@linux.ie>
Subject: Re: [ILUG] Firefox plugin thread...