Hobbes. Firefox Extension Idea.

Giblet

I've tried editing this myself but it doesn't work.

The idea is to add a right click menu with contains the boards.ie forums. I use this for SA. It's quite hand, especially when you are off-site.

http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/extfirefox/GoonMenu_0.3.1.xpi

NotMe

I was messing around with this ( I don't know anything about javascript or XUL btw) and I'm after messing up firefox. It won't even start in safe mode. It shows up in processes but I can't see it. I've tried reinstalling and it still doesn't work. I'm using Opera now. :rolleyes:

Giblet

Delete you're application data folder, and reopen. Save your bookmarks folder

NotMe

I just renamed the extensions folder and its working but now I have to install all my extensions again.

Hobbes

Yea that is one of the dangers of breaking an XPI file. I've managed to hose FF twice. Most of the FF destroying is due to XUL/XML files corrupted/incorrect. Javascript won't kill FF but will stop the extension from working.

I posted up an FAQ some time ago..
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=212605

It covers a tutorial, reference guides and a build kit (although a dated kit. Certain reasons currently prevent me from releasing the latest version). The advantage of the build kit is you don't have to edit every file only 2-3 files to build your extension. The kit takes care of the rest (requires ANT or Eclipse).

I would also recommend you go look at other extensions. If you take the Biki Search from [wiki]Firefox Extensions[/wiki] and look at its overlay code it shows you how to create right click menu items.

eg.

<popup id="contentAreaContextMenu">
  <menuitem id="bikisearch" label="Search Biki" accesskey="S" insertafter="context-stop"   			
  		oncommand="bikisearch();" image="chrome://@project.name@/skin/biki.png"/>
  <menuitem id="bikicreate" label="Create Biki" accesskey="C" insertafter="context-stop" 
  		oncommand="bikicreate();" image="chrome://@project.name@/skin/bikir.png"/>
</popup>

Hobbes

With regards to the original question (thats what I Get for not reading fully). I'll have a looksee at the extension and see if I can create one for boards.

NotMe

Lots of good links there. I'm interested in this now. I have the menu working with all the forums in it, now I just have to type out a million links.

*edit* 303 to be exact so if anyone wants to help...

NotMe

Check it out:
http://members.boards.ie/notme/boardsmenu.zip

parasite

great stuff, fierce handy altogether
did you have to type out all the addreses by hand, mmm tedious
it would be nicer if it opened pages in new tabs by default ...

a must for every boards ninja !

NotMe

Yeah I had to type them all out. Open links in a new tab yeah I'll look into it, I'm new to all this stuff.

Hobbes

NotMe wrote:

Yeah I had to type them all out. Open links in a new tab yeah I'll look into it, I'm new to all this stuff.

Haven't used it yet (will this evening) but have a look at the source of the Private message monitor, the latest one.

It has code for opening in different windows. You could even add a preferences part.

As for all the names, possibly a better solution is to read the main page and parse the links from the menu. Admins (if they ever get free time) might even do up a special page with the list.

NotMe

Hobbes wrote:

Haven't used it yet (will this evening) but have a look at the source of the Private message monitor, the latest one.

It has code for opening in different windows. You could even add a preferences part.

I'll have a look at that.

As for all the names, possibly a better solution is to read the main page and parse the links from the menu. Admins (if they ever get free time) might even do up a special page with the list.

Yeah that would be a good idea because at the moment if a new forum is added then the extension will have to be updated. Anyway all I've done is modify the SA extension. I'm going to read up more on Javascript and XUL.

Hobbes

Had a look at the code. It would be a lot better pulling the list from the server. All you need is the forum name and its id code. Not the URL. You could avoid creating accesskeys as well.

NotMe

Is there any way to test the code without having to zip it all up and install it each time? Or just to parse it for syntax errors even?

Giblet

Works, but one problem. It overwrites the goon menu!!

And.

User CP FAQ Members List Calendar Journals New Posts Search Quick Links Log Out


Under a tools menu.

Hobbes

Giblet wrote:

Works, but one problem. It overwrites the goon menu!!

The reason for that is simple enough to fix. Basically each extension requires its own GUID. If you check the links I provided it explains how to fix this.

NotMe

Ok I fixed that problem with the goon menu. It wasn't actually a problem with GUIDs, it was because I didn't change the name of the menu so both menus were called 'forums-menu'.
And I added a tools menu.
http://members.boards.ie/notme/boardsmenu.zip

Giblet

They both work together now, except, none of the boards.ie links work DOH!

NotMe

:eek:

(Back in a minute)

Ok it works now I promise.

Giblet

Great, works exactly as it should.

Maybe hobbes could make a package of extensions that has all his extensions.

There's another great one made by the guys at somethingawful for their forums. Basically is tells you which posts you've read, which of the ones you've read have new replies, which ones you've replied to, and has links to the last post you've read in each thread.

NotMe

Hobbes wrote:

Had a look at the code. It would be a lot better pulling the list from the server. All you need is the forum name and its id code. Not the URL. You could avoid creating accesskeys as well.

I wrote a bit of javascript to get this page:http://www.boards.ie/javascript/dhtmlmenu.js using XMLHttpRequest, parse it for the names of the menus and output them. It's takes a long time to parse the whole page though and if it has to do this every time you right click...
Can you think of a better way to do it?

My parsing code is:
[PHP]
var beginPos = 0; var endPos = 0;
while((beginPos = page.indexOf("text=", endPos)) != -1)
{
endPos = page.indexOf(";", beginPos);
document.getElementById("output").innerHTML += page.substring(beginPos
+ 5, endPos) + "<br/>";
}
[/PHP]

Hobbes

You should be able to parse out the menu using the IDs at each menu.

If you reinstall Firefox and do a custom install and install the DOM inspector you can find what in the DOM can be referenced to be pulled out.

More information here...
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=239271

Maybe hobbes could make a package of extensions that has all his extensions.

Its better to keep them seperate as not everyone would want everything. When notme feels happy with a good release we/he can add it to the [wiki]Firefox plugins[/wiki] wiki page.

Incidently I was in the process of writing the same plugin (with more options) but notme is doing a good job and looks like hes learning lots. So its all his.

NotMe

Hey if you do decide to write the plugin I'd be very interested in what you come up with.
And yes I am learning a lot through doing this. Thankfully javascript is a lot like Java so it's easy for me to pick up. I just went through the tutorial at http://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp

Hobbes

Well what you have is fine but I think there are way too many forums that a lot of people just won't be intrested in.

So something like this.

1. Preferences option. Does a one time call to the search page, parses out all the forum names/url and stores it in an RDF.

2. The can then select what menu options they want to appear.

Beyond that can't think of anything else.

XULplanet and the Mozillazine wiki are good places to read as well.

NotMe

Yeah that sounds like a good idea. Ah yes I hadn't noticed that the search page has a handy list of all the forums and codes.

Say I have the page downloaded and stored in a variable called 'pageText'
The first menu item is:
[PHP]<option value="506" class="fjdpth1" >    Anime / Manga</option>
[/PHP]
How do I access the value? Is it something like:
[PHP]var x = pageText.getElementsByTagName("option");[/PHP]
and then
[PHP]x.item(0).getAttribute("value");[/PHP]
I can't get it working.

Hobbes

You need to access it as a DOM model then use the getElementById method.

NotMe

I have:
[PHP]var url = "http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/search.php";
...
result = new XMLHttpRequest();
result.open("GET", url, true);
...[/PHP]
and then:
[PHP]page = result.responseText;[/PHP]
To access it as a DOM model I would need (?)
[PHP]page = result.responseXML; [/PHP]
but I think that only works with xml files and not html.
When I tried that it said in the javascript console:

Error: result.responseXML has no properties

Matthewthebig

I just installed itand how do i get to said context menu?

NotMe

Right click.

Matthewthebig

Thanks i see it and i like

Hobbes

Your HTML page is nearly always supplied to you as a DOM.

I've only done it before from reading the page loaded into the window like so...

var page = window._content.document;
  var myAelems = page.getElementById("lnk3"); // Link menu element

You can then read the childnodes off that.