first time test drive questions

User Help for Seamonkey and Mozilla Suite
brynn
Posts: 51
Joined: November 28th, 2017, 5:08 am

first time test drive questions

Post by brynn »

Hi Friends,
I've just installed SM, and trying to configure the browser to my needs. Wow, this info about addon compatibility and migrating from Firefox faq should be on the main SM website. Anyway, I'm not very tech-savy, so I have a few questions.

What order should I do these things? Install the addons mentioned in the migration from firefox faq first? Then I'll know what other addons I need to get?

I don't understand how to use the addon converter. Is it something I download? When I visit the referenced page (at http://addonconverter.fotokraina.com/) it doesn't offer something to be downloaded. Instead, it asks me to upload something. Do I upload my addons? Where do I find the files? When I installed addons in Firefox, I never really discovered where the files were kept. I just started using the functionality.

I don't suppose there's any way to use my Firefox addons which were just recently disabled? They must still be existing on my computer somewhere?

Regarding the warning about testing converted addons with a different profile - I don't understand about browser profiles. I only know about system profiles. So does it mean to set up a new system profile, install SM in it, and test converted addons there? Or else, how do you make a new browser profile?

The main reason I'm looking for a new browser, is because I'm sick and tired of having to stop what I'm doing, whenever Firefox sends out an update, and reconfigure various things to work again, after the update changed something. And with this version 57, so-called Quantum update, it's permanently disabled ALL my addons!

A few months ago, I actually disabled the Ff updates, so I could work in peace! But then yesterday, I got a message saying firefox is dangerously out of date. And when I allowed it to go through, bam - addons permanently disabled. NoScript reset everything to defaults, so I have to reset every site when I visit. Although it's pretty hard to visit many sites with all my favorites wiped out!

I did notice, when I was researching browsers today, that Firefox market share has been steadily declining over the last 10 to 15 years. I guess we'll see a big dip in that downward sloping line after this week! I really do wonder what they're thinking over there. They seem to entirely disregard their users' needs.

So anyway, when we get Sea Monkey updates, are there big changes to deal with? Will I still have to go around and fix this and that, before I can get back to work? How often do updates happen?

Thanks for your help :)
brynn
Posts: 51
Joined: November 28th, 2017, 5:08 am

Re: first time test drive questions

Post by brynn »

Good news! I found info on profiles, and whole other place with help and support info. When posted the op, I had only found the Community and Support section of the website, which seemed pretty sparse. But now I found Documentation and Help section. Oh wow, and now I just found a wiki!

So now my revised questions - well, there's just one major question for now, and that's how to use the addons compatibility converter.
1 - Where do I find the files to upload to the converter?
2 - After I upload them, what happens?
3 - Would there be any problem trying my addons which were recently disabled by the quantum57 update?

Thanks!
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-Px-
Posts: 480
Joined: April 20th, 2011, 1:56 am

Re: first time test drive questions

Post by -Px- »

1. You can either take them from your profile extensions folder, or download as files from Add-Ons site
2. You should receive a converted extension file (I never use it actually, but this is how it should work)
3. No
brynn
Posts: 51
Joined: November 28th, 2017, 5:08 am

Re: first time test drive questions

Post by brynn »

Even better news! I found AMO Browsing for SeaMonkey, which really streamlines the process.

But for installing the old addons, it probably won't help. You said I can get them from my profile extensions folder? So you mean Firefox has the same kind of folder, and that's where I'll find them?

And so, since I have the quantum57 version, which disabled the addons, would they have been removed from the profile directory? Would I have to revert to the last version before 57, to get them? Or are they still sitting in the profile directory?

Omg, I can't tell you how excited I am, after finding all the help info! Granted, it will take some time to customize it. But hopefully I'll be using SM full time within a week.

Now, I only worry for NoScript. Does anyone know offhand whether NoScript can be converted? I wouldn't care if it was the last version, since I don't like this new one (which came with 57). Oh right -- I saw a list somewhere. Maybe I can find out myself.....

Happy Camper :D
frg
Posts: 1361
Joined: December 15th, 2015, 1:20 pm

Re: first time test drive questions

Post by frg »

NoSript 5.x still works fine. I am using 5.0.10 in a local 2.49.2 and 2.53 build.

NoScript 10.x is a web extension. SeaMonkey doesn't support these yet.
isaacschemm
Posts: 270
Joined: January 20th, 2015, 12:29 pm

Re: first time test drive questions

Post by isaacschemm »

frg wrote:NoSript 5.x still works fine. I am using 5.0.10 in a local 2.49.2 and 2.53 build.

NoScript 10.x is a web extension. SeaMonkey doesn't support these yet.
The next version of AMO Browsing for SeaMonkey will show you old versions of add-ons like these :)
I'm waiting to release it until Thunderbird (and SeaMonkey) add-ons move to their own site, so I can be sure it works there too.
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James
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Re: first time test drive questions

Post by James »

As said only the NoScript versions before 10.0 will work and are listed in https://addons.mozilla.org/seamonkey/ad ... /versions/
brynn
Posts: 51
Joined: November 28th, 2017, 5:08 am

Re: first time test drive questions

Post by brynn »

Ok, I've created a test profile, where I can start trying out various addons with compatibility converted. I found the Firefox profile folder, and I've found 3 items in the extensions folder, although I had 6 to 8 extensions which were disabled - maybe are somewhere else? But for those 3 that I found, I don't see any XPI files, which is what the converter is asking for.

Where can I found the XPI files?
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therube
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Location: Maryland USA

Re: first time test drive questions

Post by therube »

I've found 3 items in the extensions folder
They should be .xpi files, no?
If not, what are they?

You can upload a local file, .xpi, from your computer to the Extension Converter.
Or you can point to a webpage URL on AMO, like, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... bar-tweak/.
Fire 750, bring back 250.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110420 SeaMonkey/2.0.14 Pinball CopyURL+ FetchTextURL FlashGot NoScript
brynn
Posts: 51
Joined: November 28th, 2017, 5:08 am

Re: first time test drive questions

Post by brynn »

I found one XPT file, but not XPI. But let me get you a screenshot, instead of trying to type it all out. Maybe I haven't found the right profiles yet?

In this screenshot, you can see the filepath in the titlebar, and I have open the folder with the XPT file. None of those other folders has XPI file.

I can see that some other extensions have their own folder, outside of the extensions folder, such as Chatzilla.

And great. Since FireFTP is one of the disabled addons, I'll just use my forum's attachment feature until I find a replacement :roll:

https://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/ind ... 2292;image

Edit - Oh cancel that - I found them!

Back to work, sorry for the noise :oops:
brynn
Posts: 51
Joined: November 28th, 2017, 5:08 am

Re: first time test drive questions

Post by brynn »

Ok, the one I want to try converting the most is called Plain Old Favorites. It uses IE's Favorites in Firefox (I came to Ff from IE). Here's another screenshot showing the XPI files that I found. But some of them are just named by a random string of characters. I don't know how it identify POF.

https://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/ind ... 2294;image
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raj_bhaskar
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Re: first time test drive questions

Post by raj_bhaskar »

Unfortunately, when installed, extensions are named with their internal ID (mostly) rather than their name. You could unzip the xpi file (it's just a renamed zip) and look in the install.rdf file which will have the name somewhere. But if the extension still exists on AMO, you might be better looking there and pasting the URL of the page into the addon converter.
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therube
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Location: Maryland USA

Re: first time test drive questions

Post by therube »

about:support should show the corresponding "pretty name" to "guid".
Or you could "open" the .xpi (its only a ZIP file) & glean some information - from the icon, from install.rdf or manifest.json or similar.
Fire 750, bring back 250.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110420 SeaMonkey/2.0.14 Pinball CopyURL+ FetchTextURL FlashGot NoScript
brynn
Posts: 51
Joined: November 28th, 2017, 5:08 am

Re: first time test drive questions

Post by brynn »

Ok, I unzipped and found which ones are the unnamed ones, but neither is POF.

It looks like the Plain Old Favorites extension is the one in my first screenshot. It's a folder instead of a single XPI file. But I don't see an XPI file inside the folder (unless XPT?). Could it be called by a different name? Let's see, there's PlainOldFavorites.DLL, .JAR, .SPT, .JS, (and some other files that don't start with PlainOldFavorites).

Any hope with those?

I did try searching the SM Addons site, and found a similar one called Windows Favorites. It went through the converter, apparently successfully. And installed without any error messages. But it doesn't seem to work. I restarted SM, just to be thorough, but it doesn't work. Should I give up on it? Or would a computer restart be necessary?

Actually I think I might have accidentally installed it in the other profile the other day. I thought I was switched over, when I tried it, but, but when I opened SM today, it wasn't there. Could having it installed in 2 profile cause a problem? It doesn't seem like it should, but I don't really know much about it.
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therube
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Location: Maryland USA

Re: first time test drive questions

Post by therube »

Is this it, https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... favorites/ ?

I forgot, some extension uncompress themselves rather then remaining in a .xpi.
With those, they are uncompressed into a separate directory, with the "guid" name.

And certainly not all extensions can be converted (successfully).
Fire 750, bring back 250.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110420 SeaMonkey/2.0.14 Pinball CopyURL+ FetchTextURL FlashGot NoScript
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