[ext] Stay-Open Menu

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custom.firefox.lady
Posts: 407
Joined: February 28th, 2008, 3:48 am
Location: PA

Re: [ext] Stay-Open Menu (New – for Firefox 3 only)

Post by custom.firefox.lady »

Stay-Open Menu version 1.5.2apha with the left-click option is available for testing, as requested. Thanks to makondo for helping test.

Wai_Wai wrote:Thanks for tiny but very useful addon. I have a related request.
Is it possible to have the menu stickied (stuck) until I deliberately close it?

Most welcome. It may be possible, but I am really unlikely to ever attempt it.
Wai_Wai wrote:1) Sometimes I want to perform a series of action on the menus (e.g. click on context menu -> click on different items to perform different tasks at once)
2) Some addons use menus to manage things and settings. It's sort of bad design so you have to open menu -> click -> open menu -> click -> open menu -> click. Much time is saved if the menu can be stickied.
3) I would also like to inspect the menus/popups with DOM Inspector.
However the menu will display by the time I click on the DOM inspector icon to do the inspection.

Perhaps you might find the Bookmarks sidebar and the Library helpful for some of this. For #2 I recommend contacting the authors and requesting better design, ie if typical usage should require leaving the menu open, than that's what they should do. I will consider special requests like the one for Boox 'Mark read' that was added in 1.5.1 and in cases where leaving the menu open might be desirable. For #3 I am not certain what you mean, but see if https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3276 would be helpful.
makondo
Posts: 1961
Joined: October 18th, 2007, 5:26 pm
Location: Rocky Mountains

Re: [ext] Stay-Open Menu (New – for Firefox 3 only)

Post by makondo »

^ Thanks! That IS a good one, a keeper! (the Inspect... ext. that is ;-) )
Wai_Wai
Posts: 166
Joined: July 26th, 2004, 1:05 am

Re: [ext] Stay-Open Menu (New – for Firefox 3 only)

Post by Wai_Wai »

For #2 I recommend contacting the authors and requesting better design, ie if typical usage should require leaving the menu open, than that's what they should do.

I'm not a coder but sometimes developer told me it's difficult to move them to a separate dialog, or perhaps they don't know how, or they don't have time (maybe it's not as easy as we imagine).
That's why it has its uses here to workaround the problem mentioned above.

For #3 I am not certain what you mean, but see if https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3276 would be helpful.

Thanks but it can't do what we want.

Take a look at this:
Image

For example I would like to inspect the context menu itself! If it doesn't close itself, I can tell the DOM inspector to inspect the context menu.
The addon only adds "inspect" to the context menu, but clicking on it doesn't inspect the context menu itself!
custom.firefox.lady
Posts: 407
Joined: February 28th, 2008, 3:48 am
Location: PA

Re: [ext] Stay-Open Menu (New – for Firefox 3 only)

Post by custom.firefox.lady »

Wai_Wai wrote:I'm not a coder but sometimes developer told me it's difficult to move them to a separate dialog, or perhaps they don't know how, or they don't have time (maybe it's not as easy as we imagine).

If you are willing to post (or PM me, as desired) specific examples of what extensions and what items in them should keep the menu open, I will (when I get time) see if there is any way I can help. Very possibly this may be significantly easier than implementing your original suggestion.

Wai_Wai wrote:For example I would like to inspect the context menu itself! If it doesn't close itself, I can tell the DOM inspector to inspect the context menu.

See this thread about DOMi and contex menus:
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1245445
supernova_00
Posts: 4832
Joined: June 24th, 2004, 8:03 pm
Location: Maryland, USA

Re: [ext] Stay-Open Menu (New – for Firefox 3 only)

Post by supernova_00 »

I'm not sure if it is the same person but I received an email this morning asking about that with my undo closed tabs button extension. The user wants the menu-button menu to stay open while undoing closed tabs. I don't think it is intuitive myself since but if there is some easy code I can add that only keeps the menu open when stay open menu is installed, I'll think about adding it.
custom.firefox.lady
Posts: 407
Joined: February 28th, 2008, 3:48 am
Location: PA

Re: [ext] Stay-Open Menu (New – for Firefox 3 only)

Post by custom.firefox.lady »

supernova_00 wrote:...The user wants the menu-button menu to stay open while undoing closed tabs. I don't think it is intuitive myself since but if there is some easy code I can add that only keeps the menu open when stay open menu is installed, I'll think about adding it.

I'd agree that this would not be 'typical use' in this case.

Just leaving the menu open is very easy, but it causes an issue because the list of items in the menu is not refreshed until the next time the menu is shown. This leaves menuitems which represent tabs that have already been reopened (rather than recently closed) and re-clicking them would have no effect.

If you want to add this to 'Undo Closed Tabs Button', I would really rather that you make it an option of your extension rather than making it dependent upon whether Stay-0pen Menu is installed. This is because your addition will likely not work in conjunction with Stay-Open Menu's auto-closing feature and other Stay-Open Menu options, and I'd rather you not make them look broken. If you want it to work only if Stay-Open Menu is installed, it would be better for me to add it to Stay-Open Menu. If you are willing to address the refresh of menuitems issue in your extension, I'd be willing to add the few bits to Stay-Open Menu to make it keep the menu open (in a manner consistent with Stay-Open Menu's behavior) when used with your extension's button. Feel free to PM me or use my contact form.
supernova_00
Posts: 4832
Joined: June 24th, 2004, 8:03 pm
Location: Maryland, USA

Re: [ext] Stay-Open Menu (New – for Firefox 3 only)

Post by supernova_00 »

Eh, it would just be easier for users to ctrl+shift+t or the button itself to keep opening up closed tabs. Also, in my next release that is waiting review (avail on uctb.googlecode.com) there is an option to open all the closed tabs. Too much trouble for something I don't see needing too much.
custom.firefox.lady
Posts: 407
Joined: February 28th, 2008, 3:48 am
Location: PA

Re: [ext] Stay-Open Menu (New – for Firefox 3 only)

Post by custom.firefox.lady »

I just noticed that Stay-0pen Menu causes improper behavior when using History > Recently Closed Tabs with multiple selections (while keeping menu open) due to the same sort of menu-not-refreshing issue. I'll add that to 'Known Issues' and hopefully have a fix for the next version.
MillmoorRon
Posts: 11
Joined: June 19th, 2009, 5:25 am

Re: [ext] Stay-Open Menu (New – for Firefox 3 only)

Post by MillmoorRon »

Excellent add-on.

Any chance of an option to determine whether the new pages become immediately active?
custom.firefox.lady
Posts: 407
Joined: February 28th, 2008, 3:48 am
Location: PA

Re: [ext] Stay-Open Menu (New – for Firefox 3 only)

Post by custom.firefox.lady »

Thanks. Whether the selected bookmarks open in foreground (what you refer to as immediately active, I presume) or background depends on whether the 'Shift' key is pressed, and upon the hidden Firefox preference browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInBackground, modifiable via about:config (http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config). Stay-Open Menu tries to respect this, only changing whether the menu remains open.

Is that helpful, or are you asking for a UI Option added to Stay-Open Menu for modifying this pref directly?
MillmoorRon
Posts: 11
Joined: June 19th, 2009, 5:25 am

Re: [ext] Stay-Open Menu (New – for Firefox 3 only)

Post by MillmoorRon »

Thanks - changing that setting setting does have the effect I'm after.
But what other effect does this have?
I can't see what else is affected by this!
custom.firefox.lady
Posts: 407
Joined: February 28th, 2008, 3:48 am
Location: PA

Re: [ext] Stay-Open Menu (New – for Firefox 3 only)

Post by custom.firefox.lady »

It's purpose is to determine whether bookmarks loaded into new tabs load in the background or not. See browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInBackground at the following links for additional information:

http://www.techspot.com/guides/44-firefox2-tweak-guide/page17.html (refers to fx 2, but applies to fx 3 too)
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/firefox/tabs_config.htm
http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries

Which setting is *recommended* for this pref is basically a matter of opinion and personal preference.
custom.firefox.lady
Posts: 407
Joined: February 28th, 2008, 3:48 am
Location: PA

Re: [ext] Stay-Open Menu

Post by custom.firefox.lady »

Announcement: Stay-Open Menu 1.5.2 beta is now available for testing

Significant changes since previous 1.5.1 version:

* Boox-related option now also works with Boox 2.5 (currently in beta)
* Fixed: Memory Leak when using multiple windows in 1.5 and 1.5.1
* Fixed: Recently Closed Tabs bug (see my post from 18 Jun)
* Added: Option to keep menu open with left-click (added in 1.5.2alpha)
* Added: Additional Boox-related functionality (mostly applies to Boox 2.5)

See http://www.shadetreeapiary.com/extension/Prerelease/ for details and to download. Comments welcome.

Thanks to Joliclic (author of Boox) for patch updating Boox-related features present in Stay-Open Menu 1.5.1 for compatibility with his new Boox 2.5. While helping test 1.5.2, he not only reported the memory leak bug mentioned above, but also supplied a patch for it! Good things happen for our users when extension authors cooperate. :D
custom.firefox.lady
Posts: 407
Joined: February 28th, 2008, 3:48 am
Location: PA

Re: [ext] Stay-Open Menu (New – for Firefox 3 only)

Post by custom.firefox.lady »

Announcement:
Stay-Open Menu 1.5.2 beta 3 is now available for testing. Users of previous beta and alpha are not automatically updated to beta 3.

Significant change since previous beta (for changes since 1.5.1 see previous post):
* Most Option changes no longer require restarting Firefox. (Affected code rewritten to workaround Firefox 3.5 bug - this rewrite supersedes Memory Leak Patch added in beta 2)

See http://www.shadetreeapiary.com/extension/Prerelease/ for details and to download. Comments welcome.
custom.firefox.lady
Posts: 407
Joined: February 28th, 2008, 3:48 am
Location: PA

Re: [ext] Stay-Open Menu (New – for Firefox 3 only)

Post by custom.firefox.lady »

Announcement: Stay-Open Menu 1.5.3 beta is now available for testing.

Significant changes since previous 1.5.2 version:

* New: All tabs' Menu stays open when middle-clicking items. (The currently selected tab's item in the menu is italic and blue, rather than the default Firefox's bold black, to avoid resizing the menu's width while the menu is open.)
* Fixed: 'Smart Location Bar' bug (when using shift-middleclick, pressing [Esc] cleared the location bar of the current tab's URL)
* Fixed: Incorrect behavior on Smart Location Bar (aka awesomebar) when using with [Shift]. (Stay-Open Menu now follows Firefox's default foreground/background behavior when opening new tabs from 'Smart Location Bar' entries.)
* Compatible with 'Hide Caption' extension.
* General code improvements

See http://www.shadetreeapiary.com/extension/Prerelease/ for details and to download. Comments welcome.
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