View Full Version : Custom Firefox Extension for nV News Forums
Version History
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nV News Menu 1.0.1
Fixed invalid link to NVIDIA ForceWare Drivers forum.
Thanks go out to forum member Kelldane for finding this bug.
nV News Menu 1.0.0
Initial public release.
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I've been meaning to write an extension for Firefox but didn't really have a good idea of what to write. Today I stumbled across GoonMenu (http://roachfiend.com/archives/2005/03/03/goonmenu/). My wheels then started turning and I came up with my first Firefox extension (should work for versions 0.8 through 1.01):
nV News Menu v1.0.1 (http://nvnewsmenu.mozdev.org/nvnewsmenu.xpi) updated 03.09.05 - changed link to new host at http://nvnewsmenu.mozdev.org/
Once it installs you will need to close Firefox. Then, start Firefox back up and the nV News Menu will have taken affect (see screenshot below) whenever you right click anywhere in Firefox (except for on an image of course).
http://www.nvnews.net/temp/clay/nvnewsmenu_ss.gif
That's about it for now. I welcome any feedback/questions/suggestions.
Hope some of you find this useful.
I might host this project at mozdev.org but for now it'll just be in this thread regarding any future updates, notes, etc.
Oh yeah, and for those of you that favor keyboard input over mouse input don't forget that you can just hit Shift+F10 to bring up the right click context menu. From there you can quickly bang out the access keys (underlined) of your choice. For example, to get to this "Feedback Forum" you could just do the following: SHIFT+F10, V, right arrow, W, F
EDIT: I just noticed my first bug, I've got some non-unique accesskeys (Home and Hardware Forums as one example). I'll get that fixed and updated soon.
-=Gib-McFragger=-
03-03-05, 10:33 PM
It works great! I owe you a beer n BJ. I am gonna have to get Vamps mom to help you with that second part though... :D
*Hands Clay a beer*
Thats awesome! BTW I will help with the second part :condom: Post this at the front page!!!
w00t ! works like a charm :super:
more extensions are welcome as well Clay ! :D
Thats awesome! BTW I will help with the second part :condom: Post this at the front page!!!
Thanks guys, glad you like it. I find it to be handy when you're at the bottom of a page and are too lazy to scroll back to the top for a needed link. :)
GlowStick
03-03-05, 11:36 PM
Hah, just installed it its great! Ive allways hated havieng to wait for the forum selector page to load heh.
|JuiceZ|
03-03-05, 11:47 PM
Simply sweet man, just what the doctor ordered :cool:
Hey Clay! This extension totall r0x0r5 man!
EverGreen
03-04-05, 07:32 AM
It seems it won't work with the Firefox update 1.01, get an error that installed file was already build in Firefox and after restarting i won't pop-up what it should be...
Only when i do a 2th installed i can choose from update or delete, remarkble the demo pic off what must be seen is never there in Firefox.
Could it be that Firefox 1.01 update been the problem ?
? works fine with me and 1.01! :)
saturnotaku
03-04-05, 08:55 AM
Works great for me, too. Nice work. :thumbsup:
It seems it won't work with the Firefox update 1.01, get an error that installed file was already build in Firefox and after restarting i won't pop-up what it should be...
Only when i do a 2th installed i can choose from update or delete, remarkble the demo pic off what must be seen is never there in Firefox.
Could it be that Firefox 1.01 update been the problem ?
I developed it under Firefox v1.01 and it seems others here have no problems. Maybe you missed a step in the installation instructions? I'll see if I can reproduce the error you are getting.
Version 1.0.1 update notice. See top of initial post (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=558213#post557879) for details.
|MaguS|
03-04-05, 09:52 AM
Pretty awsome! Only issue I had was when I used the menu it loaded up the forum without my login saved. I can just login but would be great if it took the bookmarked or cache login already... just a slight annoyance but nothing too troubling.
Pretty awsome! Only issue I had was when I used the menu it loaded up the forum without my login saved. I can just login but would be great if it took the bookmarked or cache login already... just a slight annoyance but nothing too troubling.That seems odd. So do you actually log out of the forums? As long as I don't log out of the forums I can close Firefox, open it back up, be on any other site (or at nvnews.net) and it works for me without prompting me to login. Thanks for the feedback.
EverGreen
03-04-05, 12:04 PM
I developed it under Firefox v1.01 and it seems others here have no problems. Maybe you missed a step in the installation instructions? I'll see if I can reproduce the error you are getting.
Good point Clay !
I did do all the steps from the first to the last and just get the error:
http://img228.exs.cx/img228/8207/nvmenu29fu.jpg
Okay this getting with those 1.01 update of yours, strange item indeed... :D
Looks like you clicked on the "Update" button. That will cause the message you're seeing because I have no update file in place at this time. :) That's only a means for you to check for possible updates and has nothing to do with my install instructions. If you close your browser and then reopen it you should then see the menu when you right click somewhere in your browser. Hope that helps. :)
Head_slinger
03-04-05, 12:57 PM
great extension!!
Does it take the forum names dynamically or is it hardcoded.
|MaguS|
03-04-05, 01:45 PM
That seems odd. So do you actually log out of the forums? As long as I don't log out of the forums I can close Firefox, open it back up, be on any other site (or at nvnews.net) and it works for me without prompting me to login. Thanks for the feedback.
I never log out of the forums, I have auto login and my password is saved aswell in teh browser yet when I intially used teh quick menu function to reach these boards, I was logged out. Im guessing it doesnt take from the same temp/cache file that normal typing/bookmarks do.
I need some help to install this extension. When I rename the extension to an XPI it still thinks it is a zip file. Is there something in the renaming process that I am missing besides clicking on the file to rename it. When I check the properties of this file it still says it is a zip file. :surrender http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/misc.php?do=getsmilies&wysiwyg=0&forumid=19#
surrender
Found my answer on the internet I had to uncheck hide all extentions box under view all folders. :D :p
Omega53
03-04-05, 08:17 PM
Nevermind :D
great extension!!
Does it take the forum names dynamically or is it hardcoded.Good question. :) The forum names/link are hardcoded for now. (I know, yuck) :D I did so just to get it up and running for now. I'd like to pull dynamically pull that data but need to read up on how that might be possible from vBulletin. I would assume that the forum heirarchy can be retrieved as XML in some way. One potential downside to that, though, is that it may cause some performance issues since the XUL overlay for the context menu would basically have to get regenerated dynamically either each time you right click or perhaps have it set to regenerate only when Firefox is started. Some things to toss around I guess.
I would also like to provide an options XUL overlay so that users could customize which forums appear or not in their context menu, could just be a checkbox list for example. I'm also reading up on RDF datasources. One could fashion a pretty slick tree control with an RDF datasource containing the forum info.
I never log out of the forums, I have auto login and my password is saved aswell in teh browser yet when I intially used teh quick menu function to reach these boards, I was logged out. Im guessing it doesnt take from the same temp/cache file that normal typing/bookmarks do.
Ok, so is it working for you now? I've tried to reproduce this but haven't been able to. If you are still having the problem, could you give me a breakdown that I could follow to reproduce it? Thanks. :)
Glad the rest of you guys figured out how to install it. I'm waiting on confirmation of my project request for this over at mozdev.org. If it is then I'll post the XPI file there so that it can be installed more gracefully like most of you are probably more used to.
Keep the bug reports, questions, ideas coming guys. This is for you guys so anyone that would like to make modifications to the source, please feel free. I've already received a number of PMs from folks requesting permission to use this on various forums that they frequent. This project is under the GNU Public License (GPL) so you're free to do what you'd like in accordance with the GPL.
This is really my first foray into open source development so there's a lot about the GPL and a few other things that I'm pretty much a noob about. So, I welcome anything some of you with more experience care to share. :cool:
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