IE Tab, open IE-only pages in "embedded IE"

Duke D · Post by **Duke D** » October 10th, 2005, 5:59 pm

XerBlade wrote:Mainly... or entirely... because I was bored, I uploaded my repacked XPI file for this extension which installs directly in Beta 2 to my website. Actually, there are a couple other slight modifications I made... but they are so slight that I forgot what they even were.
Oh yeah... there was one major one, I did a makeshift integration of the plugin install, so this should be should work on its own without another XPI. However, I've technically only tested this on 3 computers with nearly identical setups. Also, I basically threw it together as a random hack job for no real reason in a few minutes, so it should be thoroughly full of bugs, but, the interesting thing is, I haven't seen any. Then again, that's just me.
But still, if you're afraid of your computer bursting into flames, yeah, maybe stay away from that thing.
P.S. It's only in a ZIP file because Tripod does funny things to it if it isn't, and it's only in a page because Tripod doesn't allow direct linking of files. And I'm too lazy to go sign up for a proper file server.

So this is a modified version of the plugin that doesnt require ieview?

XerBlade · Post by **XerBlade** » October 10th, 2005, 6:46 pm

Duke D wrote:
XerBlade wrote:Mainly... or entirely... because I was bored, I uploaded my repacked XPI file for this extension which installs directly in Beta 2 to my website. Actually, there are a couple other slight modifications I made... but they are so slight that I forgot what they even were.
Oh yeah... there was one major one, I did a makeshift integration of the plugin install, so this should be should work on its own without another XPI. However, I've technically only tested this on 3 computers with nearly identical setups. Also, I basically threw it together as a random hack job for no real reason in a few minutes, so it should be thoroughly full of bugs, but, the interesting thing is, I haven't seen any. Then again, that's just me.
But still, if you're afraid of your computer bursting into flames, yeah, maybe stay away from that thing.
P.S. It's only in a ZIP file because Tripod does funny things to it if it isn't, and it's only in a page because Tripod doesn't allow direct linking of files. And I'm too lazy to go sign up for a proper file server.

So this is a modified version of the plugin that doesnt require ieview?

It hasn't required IE View for a long time.
Anyway...
I got even more bored... so I've integrated the updates in IE View 1.2.6 into it now. It's on the same page I already linked to, but it's a different file, the second one. Now, I like just finished putting it together and testing it briefly a few minutes ago. So it's bound to be buggy.
Now I need to got take something for this headache. It had been months since I'd looked at JS, or any type of code, that intensively....

Edit: Wait, just so we're clear, since there's no telling where all misinterpretations might lie, that XPI installer installs both the IE Tab plugin and the extension. In other words, it's both XPIs which previously had to be installed in sequence combined. Though, basically, it's just coded to run the instructions of that first XPI first and then immediately run the instructions that were in the second XPI....

A quick note to all those who tend to mention that stuff:
Functionality in embedded IE with the back and forward buttons working as well as ActiveX options and all that would have to be dealt with in the plugin rather than the extension. The same plugin which has basically not been modified since its original release.... And plugins are made in very different ways from extensions, even though you can get a XPI to install either.

Static_Nexus · Post by **Static_Nexus** » October 10th, 2005, 10:35 pm

sounds great XerBlade give us a direct download link to try it out

you say you added activex options? how do we access them?

Duke D · Post by **Duke D** » October 11th, 2005, 12:06 am

Yeah im confused which are we supposed to downlaod?

pdschmid · Post by **pdschmid** » October 11th, 2005, 12:07 am

works great

Found a few issues with it (I've Tabbrowser Preferences installed btw).
- it replaces IEView on install (don't mind, just noticed it)
- in Options, Advanced tab is empty
- back and forth buttons don't always work (esp. across Firefox and IE)
- set *.microsoft.com to always in IE. http://www.windowsupdate.com will give me a page asking me to get IE. http://update.microsoft.com though works
- any way to alter the tab so that it doesn't say "IE Tab - "?

btw, the location for the download is: http://xeras.tripod.com/cpu/ietab.html (in case you missed the embedded link in XerBlade's post)

Duke D · Post by **Duke D** » October 11th, 2005, 12:09 am

yea pds but theres two versions, which are we supposed to download?

coolynx · Post by **coolynx** » October 11th, 2005, 12:20 am

If I get ir correct from the post - the right one is the last one and it has a beta in its name...

Lazlo Woodbine · Post by **Lazlo Woodbine** » October 11th, 2005, 5:13 am

pdschmid wrote:- set *.microsoft.com to always in IE. http://www.windowsupdate.com will give me a page asking me to get IE. http://update.microsoft.com though works

Since that is completely expected behaviour, why do you consider it an issue?

XerBlade · Post by **XerBlade** » October 11th, 2005, 5:48 am

StaticRage wrote:sounds great XerBlade give us a direct download link to try it out you say you added activex options? how do we access them?

Like I said, I did NOT fix that. I only attempted to add the features of the most recent IE View in. I didn't mess with the plugin features. That's out of my area of expertise.

I fixed the blank Advanced tab issue. That was just me taking more code from IE View than I needed to. The Advanced tab on IE View only holds an option which does not apply to IE Tab, being the always close Firefox after redirect option, last I checked.
Plus, I cut it down to only one file link to cut down on confusion....
http://members.tripod.com/xeras/cpu/ietab.html
It would be nice if someone could upload it somewhere where it could be direct linked and stuff.

ImTheDudeMan · Post by **ImTheDudeMan** » October 11th, 2005, 9:38 am

I have IEview opening my IE pages in firefox perfectly. Too bad that I can't use the tab key to move between fields.
The only website I use in IEView has 4 user/pass fields you must fill in and it would be great if I could get FireFox to save passwords for the pages that I use IEView to access. Is this possible?

XerBlade · Post by **XerBlade** » October 11th, 2005, 3:02 pm

I fixed the extension icon and toolbar button icon, which weren't working before (I forgot to tell the installer where to find the image file in one line). Also changed the "Visit Home Page" option to point to here. I tested every aspect of it every way I could think of. Everything is apparently running smooth now (well, as smooth as IE Tab normally is anyway, no fixes in the embedded IE, you know).
http://members.tripod.com/xeras/cpu/ietab.html
If anyone wants the "Disable Always View in IE" option for whatever reason (though I don't see much point in it personally), the only thing holding it back is an incompatibility between the IE Tab and IE View localization files at this point.

pdschmid · Post by **pdschmid** » October 11th, 2005, 4:52 pm

Lazlo Woodbine wrote:
pdschmid wrote:- set *.microsoft.com to always in IE. http://www.windowsupdate.com will give me a page asking me to get IE. http://update.microsoft.com though works

Since that is completely expected behaviour, why do you consider it an issue?

you mean windowsupdate.com does the checking of the IE version, and then forwards me to the update IE page and all of that happens before IE Tab is loaded....argh, didn't think of that

pdschmid · Post by **pdschmid** » October 11th, 2005, 4:57 pm

the forward button seems to not work? Is that an embedded IE issue?

pdschmid · Post by **pdschmid** » October 11th, 2005, 5:02 pm

one more thing I just noticed. When I use the Open in New Window command from within an IE Tab, the new window (respectively tab) will be rendered with Firefox, not IE, even if the target is covered by my always in IE settings

XerBlade · Post by **XerBlade** » October 11th, 2005, 5:50 pm

pdschmid wrote:one more thing I just noticed. When I use the Open in New Window command from within an IE Tab, the new window (respectively tab) will be rendered with Firefox, not IE, even if the target is covered by my always in IE settings

Interesting. I haven't had that issue. It will be picked up and loaded in a new tab for me, but it will load in IE if Always View in IE is set. That could be caused by like another extension or something messing with how that works, though. And I can't be totally sure which of us has it loading exactly the way the IE Tab plugin is programmed to work and which has some other thing interfering which is making it work a different way, or whatever else the issue might be.
My user agent, extensions, and plugins, if interested (generated with MR Tech Local Install):

Generated: Tue Oct 11 2005 19:47:36 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time)
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b5) Gecko/20051006 Firefox/1.4.1
Build ID: 2005100614

Enabled Extensions: [42]
- Adblock Filterset.G Updater 0.2.4
- Adblock Plus 0.5.9.20051008
- Add Bookmark Here 0.5.5
- Allow Right-Click 0.2
- BBCodeXtra 0.2.5.1
- BetterSearch 1.9
- BGM Conductor 2.0.3
- Calculator 1.0.2
- ColorZilla 0.8.3
- Console² 0.2.3
- CuteMenus 0.4
- Dictionary Tooltip 0.6.1
- DictionarySearch 0.9.3
- DOM Inspector 1.8b5
- Download Statusbar 0.9.3.1
- Fasterfox 0.7.5
- FirefoxView 0.31.2
- FlashGot 0.5.9.95
- Forecastfox 0.8.2.2
- FoxyTunes 1.1.5.3
- gTranslate 0.2.6
- Html Validator 0.7.3
- IE View (IE Tab) 1.3.6.2
- Image Zoom 0.1.9.20050928
- Linkification 1.1.5
- LiveBookmarkThis 0.2
- MediaPlayerConnectivity 0.4.6.1
- Minimize to Tray 0.0.1.2005091606+
- Mozilla SpellCheck Libraries 1.0.1.0
- MR Tech Local Install Dev 3.1.20051007
- OpenBook 1.3.4
- Popup ALT Attribute 1.3.2005092701
- QuickNote 0.6.0.2
- Reporter 1.8b5
- Smart Middle Click 0.2
- SpellBound 0.7.3
- Tab Mix Plus 0.2.5.1
- Talkback 1.4.1
- User Agent Switcher 0.6.7
- View Rendered Source 1.2.01
- Web Developer 0.9.4
- WebmailCompose 0.6.5

Disabled Extensions: [4]
- MapIt! 0.7.1
- Silver Skin 2.6.3
- Sort Bookmarks 0.6.0
- SyncMarks 0.3

Total Extensions: 46

Installed Themes: [2]
- Aquatint 1.4.8
- Firefox (default)

Installed Plugins: (14)
- Adobe Acrobat
- Adobe ESD Manager Plugin
- AOL Media Playback Plugin
- Java(TM) 2 Platform Standard Edition 5.0 Update 5
- Microsoft® DRM
- Mozilla Default Plug-in
- OpenOffice.org Plug-in
- PCMan's IEView Plug-in for Mozilla/Firefox
- QuickTime Plug-in 7.0.2
- RealPlayer Version Plugin
- RealPlayer(tm) G2 LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In (32-bit)
- Shockwave Flash
- Shockwave for Director
- Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library

P.S. About the forward button issue: Yes, that is an embedded IE issue. Firefox's navigation buttons don't integrate with the IE Tab. Notice that, while navigating an IE Tab, the URL in the Location Bar doesn't change. It stays at the original URL. Thus the back and forward buttons are not updated for changed pages within the IE Tab, so they don't even know they've happened. The same goes for the Reload button, and things like that. This pretty much happens because the embedded IE is loading within a plugin embedded in the Firefox tab, rather than being a part of Firefox itself. It's not that the rendering engine is being changed to IE, it's that it's loading a bit of IE up contained within Firefox. Notice that navigating around within a flash movie inside a web page won't exactly "work" with the back and forward buttons and such. It's a similar situation.