[Ext] PrefBar - The all in one button container

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DinkumOil
Posts: 1
Joined: September 5th, 2016, 1:49 am

Re: [Ext] PrefBar - The all in one button container

Post by DinkumOil »

... would very much miss being able to toggle core browser features and clear cache with a single click. Needing to hunt down and evaluate separate addons for each one of these things doesn't sound attractive...
That's my opinion too. PrefBar is a great addon because it increases productivity in Firefox a lot. I use its features extensively, buttons as well as checkboxes and menulists.

I created some buttons and checkboxes by myself to toggle browser features or start external programs. That's only possible because of PrefBar's capabilities to easily create these UI controls. I would really, really miss that feature.

Also PrefBar displays its toolbar in a very compact maner so I can integrate the most used buttons/checkboxes/menulists in a way that they are accessible very quickly. Controls that doesn't fit into the window are automatically put in a menulist, a very comfortable behaviour too. I'm afraid that both of these can not be achieved after dividing PrefBar into a set of independent addons.

Please simply continue your very good work in the way you did in the past years. Don't try to modernize things that are already perfect. Of course there is some modernization required by newly introduced or abandoned technologies in Firefox but please don't change the basic concept of PrefBar.
M-Reimer
Posts: 76
Joined: July 2nd, 2013, 4:29 am

Re: [Ext] PrefBar - The all in one button container

Post by M-Reimer »

DinkumOil wrote: I created some buttons and checkboxes by myself to toggle browser features or start external programs. That's only possible because of PrefBar's capabilities to easily create these UI controls. I would really, really miss that feature.
This already only is possible for "Pro users". The PrefBar builtin help system does not provide enough information to create own buttons. But if someone already understands how the Mozilla API works, it would be better if he directly creates his idea as new Addon to publish it to addons.mozilla.org.
Also PrefBar displays its toolbar in a very compact maner so I can integrate the most used buttons/checkboxes/menulists in a way that they are accessible very quickly. Controls that doesn't fit into the window are automatically put in a menulist, a very comfortable behaviour too. I'm afraid that both of these can not be achieved after dividing PrefBar into a set of independent addons.
Works. Just place some buttons in a Firefox toolbar and reduce the window width and you'll see that Firefox has a builtin feature to group buttons, that don't fit on the toolbar, to some "overflow menu".
Please simply continue your very good work in the way you did in the past years. Don't try to modernize things that are already perfect. Of course there is some modernization required by newly introduced or abandoned technologies in Firefox but please don't change the basic concept of PrefBar.
It won't work in the same way. For example there will be no longer something like a "Preferences system". All preferences will be managed using dedicated API functions for each setting.
https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebExtensions/FAQ has some info about access to preferences and about:config.

The new WebExtension API will most probably also contain some "privileges system". So each Addon will have to request the permissions, it needs, to do its work. I'm almost 100% sure that something like PrefBar, which would basically need all possible permissions to work, will a) not attract many users (why do you need all those permissions??) and b) most probably will not pass any review.

My current idea is to provide something like a "Preferences menu" which covers the settings, available to Addons. As I think that this API will be quite limited, I'll just cover 100% of all possible settings. So there will be no need for users to add own items. This will be to get somewhat quick access to some not-so-often needed settings. For more often needed settings, a dedicated Addon would be the better idea to get a new toolbarbutton for this specific setting.

As far as I see all this is pretty far in the future. The API does still miss many things and even the rules behind it may change until that. I just wanted all users to know that there will be changes in future and that I need feedback so I can decide how to create alternatives for required features.
Alfred001
Posts: 247
Joined: July 9th, 2011, 9:36 am

Re: [Ext] PrefBar - The all in one button container

Post by Alfred001 »

I posted this in another thread:
In about:preferences#content -> colors there is a dropdown menu titled "Override the colors specified by the page with my selection above" and you got three options: Never, Always, Only with High Contrast themes.

I'm wondering whether there's any way to toggle between Always and Only with High Contrast themes (or all 3 of the options if it isn't possible to limit it to those two) using a hotkey.
Someone suggested PrefBar might be able to do this. Now, I installed PrefBar and when I untick "colors" in the bar under the address bar nothing happens. I'm wondering is there some way to get it to do what I need?
Nimrod_189
Posts: 3
Joined: March 14th, 2017, 11:23 am

Re: [Ext] PrefBar - The all in one button container

Post by Nimrod_189 »

Hallo Folks,

I use the first time the Prefbar and have a question about this. Is it possible to add an icon to a button? This looks more professional.

Many Thanks.
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dickvl
Posts: 54139
Joined: July 18th, 2005, 3:25 am

Re: [Ext] PrefBar - The all in one button container

Post by dickvl »

Nimrod_189
Posts: 3
Joined: March 14th, 2017, 11:23 am

Re: [Ext] PrefBar - The all in one button container

Post by Nimrod_189 »

Thank you for your help.
I will test it once and if I do not go further, I will report again.
Nimrod_189
Posts: 3
Joined: March 14th, 2017, 11:23 am

Re: [Ext] PrefBar - The all in one button container

Post by Nimrod_189 »

It does not work.
I have done everything as it is described. It is with me but only the button text deleted and the icon is not displayed.

Must the PNG file have a specific format?

Path: C:\Users\Büro\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\s8c3byuk.default
\Chrome

Code: Select all

<userChrome.css>
#prefbar-buttons toolbarbutton[id$="idpasswort"] {
    color: rgba(0,0,0,0) !important;
    background: url('icons/passwort.png') center no-repeat;
}
</userChrome.css>
\Chrome\Icons
passwort.png


The userChrome.css is loading.
M-Reimer
Posts: 76
Joined: July 2nd, 2013, 4:29 am

Re: [Ext] PrefBar - The all in one button container

Post by M-Reimer »

What does your button do?
I don't recommend to use PrefBar for any new stuff at all as it will not survive Firefox version 57.
I tried to communicate this several times. Last time here: http://prefbar.tuxfamily.org/
The way to go is to create the button as WebExtension.
If I like your button idea, I may try to create this button.
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notonymous
Posts: 157
Joined: November 6th, 2002, 6:57 pm
Location: Beyond the fringe

Re: [Ext] PrefBar - The all in one button container

Post by notonymous »

Hello Manuel -

I use PrefBar mainly for toggling various Fx configuration parameters using check, extcheck and extlist objects. I do have a couple of buttons but they are of secondary importance to me.

Will it be possible for you to port the check, extcheck and extlist capabilities to Fx 57?
M-Reimer
Posts: 76
Joined: July 2nd, 2013, 4:29 am

Re: [Ext] PrefBar - The all in one button container

Post by M-Reimer »

No, there will be no check, excheck or extlist capabilities with Fx 57! It wouldn't even be possible if someone wanted to do it.

The way to go is to port each individual checkbox or list to separate addons.
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Frank Lion
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Location: ... The Exorcist....United Kingdom
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Re: [Ext] PrefBar - The all in one button container

Post by Frank Lion »

Nimrod_189 wrote:It does not work.
I have done everything as it is described. It is with me but only the button text deleted and the icon is not displayed.
Yep, that's right, it's not going to show.

url('icons/passwort.png') is looking for a sub folder in the chrome folder called icons and it would seem that you have named those -
\Chrome\Icons
passwort.png
This stuff is case sensitive. Even then, leaving off the !important; on that line is not going to help things.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
.
vinean-angel
Posts: 2
Joined: May 21st, 2017, 5:49 am

Re: [Ext] PrefBar - The all in one button container

Post by vinean-angel »

I use ESR, so PrefBar should work untill 59.

PrefBar is the only addon in use. JavaScript check and Cookies menulist are the used buttons.

Can you make a button?
M-Reimer wrote:No, there will be no check,
Is there another way to solve this?
M-Reimer
Posts: 76
Joined: July 2nd, 2013, 4:29 am

Re: [Ext] PrefBar - The all in one button container

Post by M-Reimer »

vinean-angel wrote: PrefBar is the only addon in use. JavaScript check and Cookies menulist are the used buttons.
"Cookies menulist" is currently still impossible as the required API is not available, so far.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1291841

Same goes for Javascript which also requires the "contentSettings" API.
M-Reimer wrote:No, there will be no check,
Is there another way to solve this?
It can be solved by individual Addons for settings.

And not all of them have to be toolbar buttons.

I'm currently working on the "Colors" checkbox which has ben requested several times and it will be no toolbar button, but will be added to the browser context menu. I don't think that someone really needs this that often, so it will be more handy to have it hidden in the context menu.
The new "Colors" Addon will be a tab dependent setting. So if you disable "Website colors" in one tab, you can surf the "difficult to read" website in this tab while other tabs aren't changed at all.

I think migrating each feature to separate Addons is a good thing, as each feature can be packed with more features or nice additions while on PrefBar it could be just a checkbox, list or button.

I'll prepare a "PrefBar migration plan" website next weekend which will list all buttons and my planned migration path. Many of them will be just discontinued, but this could change if some button is requested by many users.
M-Reimer
Posts: 76
Joined: July 2nd, 2013, 4:29 am

Re: [Ext] PrefBar - The all in one button container

Post by M-Reimer »

Initial version of the migration website is online:
http://prefbar.tuxfamily.org/migration.html
And this will be the replacement for the "Colors" checkbox (as soon as it got reviewed by Mozilla):
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addo ... itecolors/
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dickvl
Posts: 54139
Joined: July 18th, 2005, 3:25 am

Re: [Ext] PrefBar - The all in one button container

Post by dickvl »

I notice that the colors extension uses basic colors like text color:black the background-color:white and link color blue.

Would it be possible to make it possible to customize the colors as there are a lot of people that have a problem with such a high contrast and would prefer less contrast like color:#444 and background-color:#eee ?

Will it be possible to port DocShell type framescript buttons to a WebExtension like allowJavascript and allowImages and allowMedia?
https://developer.mozilla.org/Mozilla/T ... sIDocShell

I have a lot of PrefBar buttons to invoke JavaScript bookmarklets via a keyboard shortcut.(PlacesUtils.keywords.fetch(keyword)), but such action won't be possible anymore I assume as well as buttons that run privileged code like the Scratchpad in Browser mode allows.

Is it possible to come up with a WebExtension to have a Tab List of all open tabs and windows?
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