Microsummaries

Post by **BenBasson** » May 14th, 2006, 4:19 am

Are there any microsummary testcases out there? I'd quite like to play with this feature, but I can't even find a fully-working example. Is the UI even ready for it?

sciguyryan · Post by **sciguyryan** » May 14th, 2006, 4:32 am

I don't know of any but you could probably make one yourself easy enough using the example they have given on the page there.

http://www.melez.com/mozilla/microsummaries/tests/

May prove interesting though.

Cheers,

Ryan Jones

Post by **BenBasson** » May 14th, 2006, 4:33 am

Thanks, that's the kinda thing I'm looking for.

sciguyryan · Post by **sciguyryan** » May 14th, 2006, 4:36 am

OK great - if anything else turns up I'll post and let you know :-)

Cheers,

Ryan Jones

dazzle · Post by **dazzle** » May 14th, 2006, 6:01 am

I've put a test one up on my webpage which takes the latest news headline when you bookmark my page.

1. Goto http://www.edazzle.net/
2. Click on 'Bookmark this page'
3. Change 'Don't Display Summary' to the summary and save the bookmark on the bookmarks toolbar

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The only problem I have when it does work is that the bookmark display on the toolbar isn't long enough to display the full summary.

Try it out and let me know.

Post by **BenBasson** » May 14th, 2006, 6:06 am

Sweet. I just created a simple installable generator for eBay UK (price and time remaining for a given item).
[Edit] Using XPath Checker makes this a lot easier.

http://www.cusser.net/microsummaries/ and
eBay.co.uk: Firefox - Clint Eastwood

This feature is going to rock. I can't wait until there's an official distribution point (presumably Mozilla Update).

Dazzle: Nice example of an embedded generator. That rules.

a;skdjfajf;ak · Post by **a;skdjfajf;ak** » May 14th, 2006, 6:09 am

While I can set the 'display' I can't get anything to display. Is it supposed to give something on 'hover' or ?

Also, I'm using Minefield, is the Microsummary feature even enabled yet in Minefield?

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/20060513 Minefield/3.0a1,Firefox ID:2006051304 [cairo]

Post by **BenBasson** » May 14th, 2006, 6:10 am

No idea, I'm testing with 2.0a2. Seems to work best when dragged to the bookmarks toolbar. The actual bookmark description itself should be replaced with the summary.

Post by **BenBasson** » May 14th, 2006, 7:30 am

If anyone wants it, this is the code for my eBay summary, which takes into account their bizarre node-swapping/removing.

Code: Select all

<generator xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/microsummaries/0.1"
           name="eBay Item">
  <pages>
    <include>http://cgi\.ebay\.co\.uk/.*</include>
  </pages>
  <template>
    <xsl:transform xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
      <xsl:output method="text"/>
      <xsl:template match="/">
        <xsl:value-of select="id('FastVIPDetails')/table/tbody/tr[2]/td[2]/b/text()"/>
        <xsl:choose>
          <xsl:when test="id('FastVIPDetails')/table/tbody/tr[5]/td[2]/b/font/text()">
            <xsl:text>(</xsl:text>
            <xsl:value-of select="id('FastVIPDetails')/table/tbody/tr[5]/td[2]/b/font/text()"/>
            <xsl:text>)</xsl:text>
          </xsl:when>
          <xsl:otherwise>
            <xsl:value-of select="id('FastVIPDetails')/table/tbody/tr[5]/td[2]/text()"/>
          </xsl:otherwise>
        </xsl:choose>
      </xsl:template>
    </xsl:transform>
  </template>
</generator>

sciguyryan · Post by **sciguyryan** » May 14th, 2006, 7:41 am

Thanks for posting that Cusser, this will be a reall useful technology (expesially for things like E-bay and stuff).

Cheers,

Ryan Jones

canary · Post by **canary** » May 14th, 2006, 7:55 am

What is an embedded generator?
Is a microsummary something that contacts a page every 30 minutes or so?
I think the big problem will be that one microsummary takes so much space that I need a whole new toolbar for it, certainly now the searchbox has become so wide.
Until a few weeks ago I could do with 2 toolbars, but now I need 3 of them. I don't like that

Post by **BenBasson** » May 14th, 2006, 8:01 am

canary wrote:What is an embedded generator?

An embedded generator is one linked from a web page. For example, eBay could provide their own generators (several types of microsummary, showing different information, or the same information in a different order/style), and then tell Firefox that these are available through standard HTML methods.

An installed generator is like the one I created. You install it from a repository somewhere (Mozilla Update, presumably) and they are created for use with specific sites. This gives users the choice between:
- The standard generators included with Firefox 2.0 (I assume there will be some).
- The embedded generators, linked from various sites.
- User-created / external generators, available from a repository.

canary wrote:Is a microsummary something that contacts a page every 30 minutes or so?

The idea is that it checks periodically, yes. I don't know the actual time that has to pass, but presumably it'll be similar to Live Bookmarks.

canary wrote:I think the big problem will be that one microsummary takes so much space that I need a whole new toolbar for it, certainly now the searchbox has become so wide.
Until a few weeks ago I could do with 2 toolbars, but now I need 3 of them. I don't like that :?

Well, they fit right on the bookmark toolbar (or as bookmarks themselves). There's no reason that they can't be sorted into folders, etc. I don't think this is any more of a problem than the current bookmark system.

Old Regis · Post by **Old Regis** » May 14th, 2006, 11:14 am

Cusser, your e-bay demo is cool

I tried myself to create one that displays Green / Red / Orange count for Peter(6)'s thread. I also borrowed your HTML install page to create a PHP script which generates "install xxxxxxxxx" for each .xml he finds in its directory (I can provide the php source if someone is interested -> PM me).
The remaining problem is the with of bookmarks label on the place toolbar (~20 chars) is small ..

dazzle · Post by **dazzle** » May 14th, 2006, 11:15 am

Micorsummaries in a folder on the bookmarks toolbar:

<img src="http://www.edazzle.net/images/micro.png"/>

Post by **BenBasson** » May 14th, 2006, 11:39 am

Regis wrote:I also borrowed your HTML install page

I just borrowed it from http://www.melez.com/mozilla/microsummaries/tests/
Will probably add a link when I develop that page into something that is more than two minutes worth of effort ;)