An extension challenge: a successor to Easy Copy

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bluelake
Posts: 9
Joined: October 3rd, 2014, 8:35 pm

An extension challenge: a successor to Easy Copy

Post by bluelake »

I left Firefox when it forced the switch to webextensions and wiped out the extensions that made it so useful. I just spent the last two hours searching around to see if it had recovered enough to return to, and ... it hasn't yet, at least for me.

I'll issue a challenge for some type of successor to Easy Copy, or any extension with similar functionality. (Or, to say the same thing in different words: I'll point out a great opportunity, since many others sound like they need such a tool as well.)

In summary:

* on the press of a shortcut key (we no longer have keyconfig, either, but I can bend to whatever shortcut key you want to use to trigger the action below)
* fill the clipboard with the current tab's title, it's URL, and any selected text on the page (you could go crazy making this configurable, allowing delimiters, freeform order and format (like some configuration version of sprintf), optionally include surrounding HTML tags, etc., etc., but please just so the three elements mentioned can be present, in simple text form, but on separate lines or otherwise parsable from each other ...)
* that's it -- just what's described above, that's all that's needed for a minimum win

(Hopefully I don't offend anyone, but I was sincerely surprised no one has needed this functionality before now; or, I should properly say, filled that need with a tool to suffice it.)

For extra credit:

* same thing (keyboard shortcut copies critical info to clipboard) for Thunderbird, placing Subject, From, To, DateTime (pick any datetime from the message that you want to, and I'll go with whatever you pick), and any text selected in the email message -- just simple text, but able to be parsed separately from each other (e.g. on separate lines, with the selection last since it may run to multiple lines)

The closest to the above looks to be Text MultiCopy, but it requires at least some mouse clicks, and two steps (one to mark it, one to copy it to clipboard), it looks like, and I really want to be able to trigger it with a just a shortcut key.

I really loved Firefox (you certainly don't use something you don't like for ten years), and would still like to at least partially return. But I'd need at least the above, and I think from reading the folks discouraged from Easy Copy's loss that many others feel likewise.

Thanks for listening,
--John
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malliz
Folder@Home
Posts: 43796
Joined: December 7th, 2002, 4:34 am
Location: Australia

Re: An extension challenge: a successor to Easy Copy

Post by malliz »

What sort of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.
"Terry Pratchett"
bluelake
Posts: 9
Joined: October 3rd, 2014, 8:35 pm

Re: An extension challenge: a successor to Easy Copy

Post by bluelake »

Thanks for the recommendation, malliz. It looks like that extension will indeed save the URL with the selected text (though not the page title, or on the Thunderbird side, the Subject, From, To, DateTime).

However, it looks like it is just for pasting back into forms within Firefox, rather than actually updating the clipboard with the information? It looks like you can export your marked selections, but that's several steps more for the simple "give me the important page/tab info and the selected text" functionality that I'm looking for.

Thank you, though!
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