[Ext/dev] Old Addon Manager

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Exalm
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Re: [Ext/dev] Old Addon Manager 0.1

Post by Exalm »

Hmm, maybe the debugging thing is missing in 2.33, I tested it in nightlies. Let me check...
Edit: Exactly. Fixed and updated link.
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Frank Lion
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Re: [Ext/dev] Old Addon Manager 0.1

Post by Frank Lion »

Thanks, works fine now.

** Theme Preview pic should show theme currently in use and not wait until a theme is manually selected before showing it.

On other stuff, just so I'm clear, is the intention to be a strict replication of the FF3 Addons Manager window and functionality. or do you intend to incorporate any Addon Manager type improvements that have been made since that time, as well?
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
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Exalm
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Re: [Ext/dev] Old Addon Manager 0.1

Post by Exalm »

Frank Lion wrote:Thanks, works fine now.

** Theme Preview pic should show theme currently in use and not wait until a theme is manually selected before showing it.
Yes, I was planning to do that. BTW if you select some extension and then switch to Themes tab, you can see its screenshot. :)

On other stuff, just so I'm clear, is the intention to be a strict replication of the FF3 Addons Manager window and functionality. or do you intend to incorporate any Addon Manager type improvements that have been made since that time, as well?
Mostly the former, however it does retain some things like auto-updates. I don't know any other notable improvements that aren't just differences in philosophy. If you'd like to see other things, please tell me which ones. For example, some things from Details may be incorporated into About dialog, I think.
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Philip Chee
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Re: [Ext/dev] Old Addon Manager 0.1

Post by Philip Chee »

Exalm wrote:A question: if I want to fix many really small things in the themes (mostly long-standing 2.0 regressions, like missing sidebar tab "grippy" texture in classic or lack of menubar grippy press effect or blurry home button in modern etc), do I have to open bugs for each of those (there will be really many of them) or is it ok to do something like "Classic theme regressions" and "Modern theme regressions"?

The rule is One bug per issue. Don't try to cram too much stuff in one bug. You can open a "meta" bug and then add more bugs in the depends section.

Phil
Exalm
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Re: [Ext/dev] Old Addon Manager 0.1

Post by Exalm »

Philip Chee wrote:The rule is One bug per issue. Don't try to cram too much stuff in one bug. You can open a "meta" bug and then add more bugs in the depends section.

Phil
Okay.
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Frank Lion
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Re: [Ext/dev] Old Addon Manager 0.1

Post by Frank Lion »

Exalm wrote: I don't know any other notable improvements that aren't just differences in philosophy. If you'd like to see other things, please tell me which ones. For example, some things from Details may be incorporated into About dialog, I think.

The only one that screams out at me, is to have a 'More' link pointing the the addon's About dialog window as discoverability there is essential.

A simple link with 'More' on it is a pretty crude (and easy) way of doing it, but the world and his wife are used to it and that's what counts. If you wanted to fancy it up a bit, then instead do, what I'm surprised Firefox didn't do, a proper button there called 'Details' or something. 'More' link works for me though.

Apart from that, simpler the better I reckon and maybe, as you say, add some of Details to About.

Looks good already to me. :)


...the days of the massive Theme preview pics returns at last, haha - http://franklion.co.uk/GEN-LINKS/Screenshot300.png :P
Last edited by Frank Lion on July 2nd, 2015, 2:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Exalm
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Re: [Ext/dev] Old Addon Manager 0.1

Post by Exalm »

Frank Lion wrote:
Exalm wrote: I don't know any other notable improvements that aren't just differences in philosophy. If you'd like to see other things, please tell me which ones. For example, some things from Details may be incorporated into About dialog, I think.

The only one that screams out at me, is to have a 'More' link pointing the the addon's About dialog window as discoverability there is essential.

A simple link with 'More' on it is a pretty crude (and easy) way of doing it, but the world and his wife are used to it and that's what counts. If you wanted to fancy it up a bit, then instead do, what I'm surprised Firefox didn't do, a proper button there called 'Details' or something. 'More' link works for me though.

Apart from that, simpler the better I reckon and maybe, as you say, add some of Details to About.

Looks good already to me. :)
Well, the one thing that I personally like about the Fx3 addon manager is that it's very clean and simple. Ironically, that's what Firefox was and is heading, yet they replaced it.
Because of that, I try not to add too much links/buttons to it. :)
I'll experiment with it though, maybe something like making addon name clickable would do the thing.

Also note that the about dialog will get less useful when I modify the list item bindings so that selected addon displays full multiline description.
But before heavily changing the bindings (there are lots of differences I have to replicate!) I have to implement global restart/undo notifications instead of per-addon ones.
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Frank Lion
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Re: [Ext/dev] Old Addon Manager 0.1

Post by Frank Lion »

Exalm wrote:Well, the one thing that I personally like about the Fx3 addon manager is that it's very clean and simple.

Same here, which is why I was suggesting that it be returned to SM a short while back.

viewtopic.php?p=14166131#p14166131

I'll experiment with it though

Do my '5 o' clock' test. Get up at 5 in the morning and within 2 minutes go into the program. If you cannot instantly navigate the UI then the UI is wrong.

It works and replicates the reality of what it's like for many users 24/7, who aren't as heavily involved/familiar with software as we are.

A link with 'More' on it ain't pretty, but there's no learning curve to it and it can be changed/dropped later on. Plus, you avoid endless Support questions about the same thing over and over again. (which is always a very good reason for doing things :))
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Exalm
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Re: [Ext/dev] Old Addon Manager 0.1

Post by Exalm »

Frank Lion wrote:
Exalm wrote:Well, the one thing that I personally like about the Fx3 addon manager is that it's very clean and simple.

Same here, which is why I was suggesting that it be returned to SM a short while back.

viewtopic.php?p=14166131#p14166131

I'll experiment with it though

Do my '5 o' clock' test. Get up at 5 in the morning and within 2 minutes go into the program. If you cannot instantly navigate the UI then the UI is wrong.

It works and replicates the reality of what it's like for many users 24/7, who aren't as heavily involved/familiar with software as we are.

A link with 'More' on it ain't pretty, but there's no learning curve to it and it can be changed/dropped later on. Plus, you avoid endless Support questions about the same thing over and over again. (which is always a very good reason for doing things :))
Well, I can't. It's 4 o'clock now. :)
I agree that "More" link is simpler for non-technical users, but the reality is that nobody of them would use this addon anyway. Even if someone should stumble upon it, he/she would just shrug and close the addon page. Even if it gets integrated into SM, as Phil suggested, SM is still mainly used by technical people.
Anyway, I'll try both approaches when I change the bindings.
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Re: [Ext/dev] Old Addon Manager 0.1

Post by patrickjdempsey »

I think in terms of working towards something to patch into SeaMonkey, most of those "modern" kind of features should be retained, just in the old-fashioned formatting. There's a balance there that I think is what SeaMonkey is all about, and what makes it really a great browser.
Tip of the day: If it has "toolbar" in the name, it's crap.
What my avatar is about: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamonkey/addon/sea-fox/
Exalm
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Re: [Ext/dev] Old Addon Manager 0.1

Post by Exalm »

patrickjdempsey wrote:I think in terms of working towards something to patch into SeaMonkey, most of those "modern" kind of features should be retained, just in the old-fashioned formatting. There's a balance there that I think is what SeaMonkey is all about, and what makes it really a great browser.
Maybe, but again, what features?
I'll experiment with More link, autoupdate is supported, but what else? For now the only features actually removed (without alternatives) are built-in AMO browser, which, in my opinion, is absolutely useless, various info from AMO, which I can easily readd to the About dialog and Recent Updates.
Maybe I should also add back Recent Updates, hidden under the Find Updates dropdown.
Edit: Hmm, also local search and search sorting, but the search purpose is quite different in Fx3 addon manager than in the new one, so I think it's ok.
Exalm
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Re: [Ext/dev] Old Addon Manager

Post by Exalm »

Dammit, Firefox doesn't allow to manually install telemetry experiment addons (I used this one). There are really many hooks in the addon manager code for that type of addons, so I have to test it. :/

Code: Select all

1435923221724   Browser.Experiments.Experiments   WARN   Experiments #0::onInstallStarted cancelling install of unknown experiment add-on: fx-searchtest-tr-release35@mozilla.org

Edit: I've managed to do this.
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Frank Lion
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Re: [Ext/dev] Old Addon Manager 0.1

Post by Frank Lion »

Exalm wrote:Maybe, but again, what features?
I'll experiment with More link, autoupdate is supported, but what else?

SeaMonkey-wise, I honestly don't think there's much else. I think it's fine as it is, well, once you've fixed the outrage of my Theme preview pics not immediately showing, of course. :)

Maybe step back for a day or two from it and figure out exactly who you're making this for and exactly what it should do? Phil would be able the phil you in on any 'must haves' that it should include if/when it becomes part of SM.
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Exalm
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is when you disable or deletRe: [Ext/dev] Old Addon Manager

Post by Exalm »

Frank Lion wrote:SeaMonkey-wise, I honestly don't think there's much else. I think it's fine as it is, well, once you've fixed the outrage of my Theme preview pics not immediately showing, of course. :)

Maybe step back for a day or two from it and figure out exactly who you're making this for and exactly what it should do? Phil would be able the phil you in on any 'must haves' that it should include if/when it becomes part of SM.

Well, I would be perfectly fine with Fx3 manager without anything else, but my use may vastly differ from your, for example. :) I personally never use neither details nor about dialog, but for you More link is important. Maybe someone else needs other thing I decided to be useless and removed.

^The themes thing is fixed, yes. It autoselects the first link now everywhere except Get Addons/Search view (a bug). Since the selected theme is always on top, it works.
Another funny bug: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/367 ... cation.gif
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Frank Lion
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Re: is when you disable or deletRe: [Ext/dev] Old Addon Mana

Post by Frank Lion »

Exalm wrote:I personally never use neither details nor about dialog, but for you More link is important.

For me personally I don't care about the More link. I mean it's not like I have a 30 second memory and am going to forget where the addons About dialogs are.

No, my only reason for mentioning it is that I know, from experience, what users will focus on as being 'a bad thing' if it's missing. Don't forget, even technical people miss things as well - viewtopic.php?p=14219411#p14219411

Must say, I think text links in UI look cheap and rushed, so if it was me, I'd change all of them by pointing the button code at them (just need to add padding) and I'd do 'More' to start with and change that to 'Details' on later versions.

Here's the Browse Addons link done like that and it took 5 minutes to do and now looks like proper UI should...well, I reckon so :) -

Image

(...I'll drop the size of those .category-name sometime, I think.)
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
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