[Ext] Firefox Showcase 0.9.1 : 1-16-2007

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Old joseprio
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[Ext] Firefox Showcase 0.9.1 : 1-16-2007

Post by Old joseprio »

Showcase provides a new way to manage your Firefox tabs and windows by showing them as thumbnails in a single window, tab or sidebar. Includes a find bar that will filter the thumbnails, and the capability to select the thumbnails in the same way you would select files in your system.
Description - Screenshots - Download

Changelog for this version:
  • Typing in the Showcase window will automatically invoke the find bar.
  • Increased search performance in most cases (specially when the number of tabs is very high).
  • Selection box ends if mouse is moved outside the window.
  • Thumbnail rendering speed increased in some situations.
  • Closing the find bar will reset the search.
  • Fixed crashing bug when minimizing the window or making it too small.
  • Fixed scrolling problem when Showcase window is not focused.

Full Changelog
Last edited by Old joseprio on June 1st, 2007, 4:40 am, edited 13 times in total.
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iricigor
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more features

Post by iricigor »

- open in tab
- more thumbnails in one row (customizable number)

Very well done job =D>
Igor Belgrade
Old joseprio
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Re: more features

Post by Old joseprio »

iricigor wrote:- more thumbnails in one row (customizable number)


Right now, space is distributed in the best possible way, so it calculates the best number of thumbnails per row for the current window dimensions. Anyways, adding the option to specify the number of thumbnails per row can be useful for some people! Will keep it in mind for next version.
kryten4b
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Post by kryten4b »

Hi

THis is a great product I enjoyit... One other item to add maybe..

I use IE TAB for those pages that dont load well in firefox. These come up as blnks in the thumb nail view..

p2
Old joseprio
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Post by Old joseprio »

kryten4b wrote:Hi

THis is a great product I enjoyit... One other item to add maybe..

I use IE TAB for those pages that dont load well in firefox. These come up as blnks in the thumb nail view..

p2


Unfortunately, the method I use to paint browser windows, which is built in Gecko/Firefox, won't paint PDF or the embedded Internet Explorer in IE Tab...

If the Gecko/Firefox team improve that method, then it will be able to print that kind of embedded content... Anyways, I'll take a look! I think ColorZilla uses an alternative way to do that, so I'll check.
kryten4b
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Post by kryten4b »

thanks for looking
Old joseprio
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Showcase vs. Reveal

Post by Old joseprio »

Just found a really nice extension for Firefox called "Reveal" (which can be found at https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/m ... on=firefox ). This extension contains 3 different features, and one of them (the one that appears when you press F2) it's very similar to the "Local" (single window) mode of Showcase.

I would appreciate if people could try them both and tell which one they liked more and how can I improve my extension! For now, I see that keyboard navigation is a must :)
master_yoda_v
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Post by master_yoda_v »

I see someone has already found the problem with IE tab. I sure was hoping it could be fixed. Sure was hoping this could be fixed, not that big of a deal though. This is a great extension. I have noticed that it's not unique to this extension. All of the thumbnail extensions out there that I know about have this same problem.
Old joseprio
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Post by Old joseprio »

master_yoda_v wrote:I see someone has already found the problem with IE tab. I sure was hoping it could be fixed. Sure was hoping this could be fixed, not that big of a deal though. This is a great extension. I have noticed that it's not unique to this extension. All of the thumbnail extensions out there that I know about have this same problem.


Yes, you're right about it, but I readed that it's possible to use another method to obtain an image... Now I've been working quite a lot in the new version (which should be released today, by the way), and after that I'll look on this issue. Even if it's slower, the idea would be to apply it only for "embedded" stuff like IE Tab or PDF.
gorgias
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Re: Showcase vs. Reveal

Post by gorgias »

joseprio wrote:Just found a really nice extension for Firefox called "Reveal" (which can be found at https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/m ... on=firefox ). This extension contains 3 different features, and one of them (the one that appears when you press F2) it's very similar to the "Local" (single window) mode of Showcase.

I would appreciate if people could try them both and tell which one they liked more and how can I improve my extension! For now, I see that keyboard navigation is a must :)


Ok tested Reveal.
What I would really like to see in Showcase is keyboard navigation (surprise), preferably all four arrowkeys and with good feedback/highlighting of selected tab. Not so important but cool would be to not use a separate window or make it transparent (or whatever reveal does) and dim the background in some way.
Old joseprio
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Re: Showcase vs. Reveal

Post by Old joseprio »

gorgias wrote:Ok tested Reveal.
What I would really like to see in Showcase is keyboard navigation (surprise), preferably all four arrowkeys and with good feedback/highlighting of selected tab. Not so important but cool would be to not use a separate window or make it transparent (or whatever reveal does) and dim the background in some way.


Good news: next version (which is ready, and will be available today or tomorrow) features keyboard navigation with cursor controls (or keypad), space for zoom, delete for closing, and enter to select. Also, you can invoke showcase by URL, so it's "embedded" in the browser as a tab.

Making the background darker and show the thumbnails sounds nice, I'll check what can be done :)
gorgias
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Post by gorgias »

Cool!
Old joseprio
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Re: Firefox Showcase 0.5.7 : 2-9-2006

Post by Old joseprio »

joseprio wrote:Showcase is an extension thought to easily locate and select any open browser window in your system.
Description - Screenshots - Download

Changelog for this version:
- Added keyboard controls: cursors to select the desired thumbnail, space to zoom, delete to close and enter to select. Works with keypad too.
- Changed the thumbnails' label. Now a close button is added, and the lack of border will allow bigger thumbnails. Old style is available as a configuration option.
- Single window showcase ("local mode") is now embedded into browser by default as a tab (configurable).
- Added the option to remember last position relative to invoking window
- If mouse over zoom is activated, thumbnail will be repainted when it reaches the final size if needed.
- Showcase can be invoked by a URL (so it can be added as a bookmark, for instance). The URL is "chrome://showcase/content/showcase.xul?global=true" for global mode and "chrome://showcase/content/showcase.xul" for local mode.
- Small changes in the icons to make them look more integrated in the default Firefox's theme. Also, changed the extension icon to make it look a bit better.
- Improved zoom mode, so if mouse button is released anywhere in the window, zoom mode will be terminated.
- Added a workaround to detect window list when using Linux and IceWM.
- Solved a small bug that prevented painting in some thumbnails, under some special circumstances
- Added locales for spanish (es-ES, by Proyecto Nave), french (fr-FR, by j,b), italian (it-IT, by Robert Martucci), german (de-DE, by ReinekeFux), slovak (sk-SK, by Jacen) and portuguese (pt-BR, by Teboga). Thanks a lot to the BabelZilla team! (http://www.babelzilla.org)


Well, the new version is now available. Many thanks to all the translators, and to the ones who suggested new features and reported bugs. The screenshots from the gallery are outdated, so I'll update them later.
gorgias
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Post by gorgias »

Thanks for the update! I really like the keyboard navigation. And now to the bugreports ;) The translucent mode looks very good but unfortunately it uses all cpu-power and the thumbnails take like 30 seconds to draw. P4 2.8, hyperthreading on, windows xp, if it makes any difference. Well that's it. Maybe one more request. I think it is a little confusing when you open the window and start navigating the thumbnails. It would make more sense to have the active tab in focus from the start. But maybe that's just me. Maybe you could make it optional?
Old joseprio
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Post by Old joseprio »

Yes, you're right about it being sooooo slow. Unfortunately, this is how the firefox implementation works when animating things in translucent windows... I've some ideas to improve it, and I'm planning a minor release soon with 2 more locales and improved translucent mode.

Some thumbnail settings that will help with the speed in that mode:
- Deactivate "Change size when mouse is over"
- Deactivate "Paint thumbnails after window is loaded"
- Deactivate "Update thumbnails when the content changes"
This will make the translucent mode quite fast once the window has been loaded, and if things go as expected, next version should make the loading really fast!

I like a lot the idea of focusing the active tab of the invoking window, and it's quite easy. I'll add it in the next minor version, and an option to deactive that for the version after the next.

If anyone is having problems in this version (like Showcase not showing any thumbnail), post a comment here or send me an email.
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