[Ext] Session Manager 0.4 to 0.4.3

[Schrade]

SessionSaver: old, buggy and problematic.
Tab Mix Plus: Good, stable and decent features but doesn't save session cookies
Session Manager: Good, Stable and decen features and does save session cookies
Google Browser Sync: unknown.. wouldn't ever use it.

[gssq]

Doesn't look like Google Browser Sync does form boxes. Session Manager is still the best, I feel.

[rahnee]

Bug fix: Session saving/restoring was broken when a page contained certain non-ASCII characters in the title

You don't know how grateful I am for that fix. All those Japanese web pages open and the only way I knew to save my sessions properly was to crash the browser... o_O

Thank you~

[alta88]

well, i can only imagine what went on behind the scenes in including Session Manager functionality in Fx2, but the result is a very pale imitation of zeniko's version.

I wouldn't call it a "pale imitation".

lack of named sessions makes it a pale spoon for me. that is an enormous productivity and workflow managment usability feature.

i'd rather not load the entire extension if much of your code is already there, but named sessions are vital. perhaps (if you're interested) an idea would be to separate that function into an extension, leveraging the code Fx2 did take from the original..

[SevenSeven]

version 0.4.2.3+ has a bug with saving which appears after using Fx for some time:

If Save Current Window, a window pops up showing the same error as in the JC:

Error: aWindow has no properties
Source File: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Mozilla/Firefox/extensions/%7B1280606b-2510-4fe0-97ef-9b5a22eafe30%7D/components/crashrecovery.js
Line: 761

If Save Session, no popup and nothing is saved either.

Fx 2.0b2 20060913

ETA: I think another extension was causing the problem.

[MortTheJoat]

(A) SessionManager v0.4.3 was locking up Firefox/1.5.0.7 when more than 30 items were in the sessions folder - I backed up the folder's contents and deleted the earliest 18 entries (simply named backup-#.session).
(B) While checking/copying the filename format above (in the backup folder), I noticed there is a ".session" item, which appears in the session list as "1) "; it was created 09-15, and, as it is a recent anomaly, it may have something to do with the misbehaviour as well.
(C) When I hover or click on Tools > Session Manager, nothing happens for a while - and I do mean NOTHING. After some time passes, a message about a script being busy or some such (sorry, have not captured it yet - I will try) appears, offering the option to StopScript or Continue. StopScript sometimes unfreezes Firefox.

(D) *BIG ONE* I had three Firefox windows open. I went to Tools > Session Manager > Brooklyn Weather Reports [a window I saved some time ago - it looks at a couple of different sites, specifying my home location to each]. The next thing I knew, I had ONE Firefox window containing the Brooklyn Weather Reports tabs! The contents of the previous 3 windows appear to be gone.

[Speckmade]

- The sorting of the list of saved sessions should be by time, not alphabetically - would make much more sense in my eyes.
- The german name for the last session is "Vorhergehende Sitzung" (means "Preceding Session") - this is misleading since you can't tell what it precedes - maybe the "Ältere Sitzung" ("Older Session") is meant? - especially when the list is sorted alphabetically and "Ältere Sitzung" is listed before "Preceding Session"...

(Hope I've found a good place to leave my suggestions - I probably will look in again only if I stumble upon another issue - so probably/hopefully not anymore ...)

[old zeniko]

(A) SessionManager v0.4.3 was locking up Firefox/1.5.0.7 when more than 30 items were in the sessions folder

It can indeed happen that under certain conditions (dozens of sessions, huge sessions, slow computer) Firefox hangs while Session Manager updates the list of present sessions. This is an unfortunate side-effect of the fact that sessions are stored in individual files without additional meta-data and can currently (i.e. until somebody else fixes the issue) only be remedied by simply avoiding the named conditions... This was certainly also the reason for your point C (and maybe for point B as well).

(D) *BIG ONE* I had three Firefox windows open.

That's by design. If you don't want your current session discarded (i.e. having all windows closed) when restoring another session, press the Shift key while clicking. Note that Session Manager doesn't distinguish between multi-window sessions and single-window sessions (saved through "Save Current Window") - both are treated like full sessions.

- The sorting of the list of saved sessions should be by time

Your wish has already been granted: You can change the sorting order in the Options dialog.

- The german name for the last session is "Vorhergehende Sitzung" (means "Preceding Session") - this is misleading since you can't tell what it precedes

The "Previous Session" is just that - the session previous to the current one, whereas the "Older Session"s are automatically saved sessions older than the current and the previous one. Being more specific IMO just makes it harder to read, but feel free to make a suggestion, in case anybody takes over development...

[SteveSobel]

My apologies for the newbie question...

There's a set of tabs I open as a group once or twice a day. Is there a way to setup a special Firefox shortcut on the desktop that will open those tabs but still have another Firefox shortcut on the desktop that just opens my homepage?

I set Session Manager to save my desired set of tabs, but if I change the Sesion Manager option to open the set of tabs on startup, then what do I do when I just want to startup with my home page.

Perhaps there is an easier way to accomplish this than with Session Manager?

I do like the extension.

Thanks

[old zeniko]

Is there a way to setup a special Firefox shortcut on the desktop that will open those tabs but still have another Firefox shortcut on the desktop that just opens my homepage?

There is: just create a batch file with the following content:

Code: Select all

REM -- adjust the path to your Firefox profile:
del "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\random.garbage\crashrecovery.dat"
REM -- you might have to adjust the path to Firefox as well:
"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

Double-clicking on this file will first remove the file from which your session would have been restored and then run Firefox as if you had set Session Manager to never restore a session at startup.

[Morac]

Having Session Manager installed disables, the recently Closed Tabs menu in Firefox 2.0 RC2. I know Session Manager has it's own undo close capabilities, but I currently have them disabled. I used the one from TMP, but in any case SM should not disable the built in functionality of Firefox 2.0.

[SevenSeven]

version 0.4.2.3+ has a bug with saving which appears after using Fx for some time:

If Save Current Window, a window pops up showing the same error as in the JC:

Error: aWindow has no properties
Source File: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Mozilla/Firefox/extensions/%7B1280606b-2510-4fe0-97ef-9b5a22eafe30%7D/components/crashrecovery.js
Line: 761

If Save Session, no popup and nothing is saved either.

Fx 2.0b2 20060913

ETA: I think another extension was causing the problem.

The bug mentioned in the above quote has occured a few times since I first mentioned it. It happens when the extension update window appears on load. Using 2.0 branch.

[MortTheJoat]

MortTheJoat wrote: (D) *BIG ONE* I had three Firefox windows open. I went to Tools > Session Manager > Brooklyn Weather Reports [a window I saved some time ago - it looks at a couple of different sites, specifying my home location to each]. The next thing I knew, I had ONE Firefox window containing the Brooklyn Weather Reports tabs! The contents of the previous 3 windows appear to be gone.

zeniko responded: That's by design. If you don't want your current session discarded (i.e. having all windows closed) when restoring another session, press the Shift key while clicking. Note that Session Manager doesn't distinguish between multi-window sessions and single-window sessions (saved through "Save Current Window") - both are treated like full sessions.

Considering the array of options offered when one right clicks a link (e.g. Open, Open in a New Tab, Open in a New Window, etc.), I was VERY surprised to have the default be destructive in this case. The general rule for the last 37 years I have been working with computers has been to have the DEFAULT action be non-destructive, OR to insist that the user make a choice.

Thanks for the ongoing work.

Peace - Mort

[old zeniko]

Having Session Manager installed disables, the recently Closed Tabs menu in Firefox 2.0 RC2.

This is the expected behavior since Session Manager completely disables the built-in SessionStore service (which is required for the Recently Closed Tabs functionality). You could try to manually re-enable that through setting the hidden pref browser.sessionstore.enabled to true and adding a new boolean pref browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash which you set to false (otherwise you might get prompted twice after a crash). Note however that Session Manager is officially not supported for Firefox 2.0 -- and won't as long as nobody else takes development over.

It happens when the extension update window appears on load. Using 2.0 branch.

So just try not to have too many extensions updating. Otherwise that's the same as above: Session Manager is only supported for Firefox 1.5.

The general rule for the last 37 years I have been working with computers has been to have the DEFAULT action be non-destructive, OR to insist that the user make a choice.

Most links you click on will cause your current page to be replaced. That's the same in this case. Note that the default action is not destructive since you can always reopen the closed windows through Session Manager (supposing you had less than 10 windows opened at the time of your mistake or that you've manually increased the number of remembered closed windows).

[MortTheJoat]

The general rule for the last 37 years I have been working with computers has been to have the DEFAULT action be non-destructive, OR to insist that the user make a choice.

Most links you click on will cause your current page to be replaced. That's the same in this case. Note that the default action is not destructive since you can always reopen the closed windows through Session Manager (supposing you had less than 10 windows opened at the time of your mistake or that you've manually increased the number of remembered closed windows).

I think we are quibbling at each other here. I will return to my earlier observation:

Considering the array of options offered when one right clicks a link (e.g. Open, Open in a New Tab, Open in a New Window, etc.), I was VERY surprised to have the default be destructive in this case.

and add that when I activated the Tools>SessionManager drop down menu, I thought of it as an extension of the right-click activated menu, rather than as a link. But I see your point about reopening the closed windows.