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

[David.P]

Hi Josep,

thanks very much for the hints!

The sidebar really looks very good now.

I was just wondering whether it is possible to also remove the thumbnails close buttons...?

Just in order to be able to read more of the title...

Thanks again and cheers,

David

[Old joseprio]

Hi Josep,

thanks very much for the hints!

The sidebar really looks very good now.

I was just wondering whether it is possible to also remove the thumbnails close buttons...?

Just in order to be able to read more of the title...

Thanks again and cheers,

David

Sure, add this to your userChrome.css file

Code: Select all

.thumbnail .showcase-tab-close-button {
  display: none;
}


[David.P]

Very cool -- thanks!



David

PS: I was wondering whether you already had the chance to consider my above feature idea:

And here comes one more little feature request. The following would be great: if a certain thumbnail is clicked on for the *second* time, the *previously* active tab should be restored. This way, it is much easier to come back to the previous tab instead of having to look which tab actually was active before. That's the same behaviour as shown by e.g. the windows taskbar.

[Old joseprio]

Very cool -- thanks!

David

PS: I was wondering whether you already had the chance to consider my above feature idea:

And here comes one more little feature request. The following would be great: if a certain thumbnail is clicked on for the *second* time, the *previously* active tab should be restored. This way, it is much easier to come back to the previous tab instead of having to look which tab actually was active before. That's the same behaviour as shown by e.g. the windows taskbar.

The behavior you described is caused by the fact that each window has a "depth" information: when selected, it will go to the "top", and when clicked again, it will minimize and show the previously selected. However, that behavior is not the same with tabs (all have the same "depth", hence it's not trivial to duplicate this in Firefox.

After giving it some thought, I believe that this would be best implemented as a button. Have your heard of the Custom Buttons extension? Instead of using multiple mini-extensions, this extension allows to easily create additional buttons with the desired functionality. If you want, I can easily implement a couple of buttons that will allow you to move on your "tab focus" history.

[David.P]

Hi Josep,

The behaviour you described is caused by the fact that each window has a "depth" information: when selected, it will go to the "top", and when clicked again, it will minimize and show the previously selected.

You are of course right making this differentiation between the Windows Taskbar Buttons and the Firefox Tabs.

The thing is, I remembered that I used to have this feature already for a long time somewhere in a browser (possibly even before I started using Firefox when I had Maxthon as my standard browser). Anyway, as it turns out, there are at least two Firefox extensions that have exactly this feature (which I think is great btw ):

Tab Mix Plus:



and FLST aka "Focus Last Selected Tab":



Obviously that feature is being called "Tabflipping".

Neither FLST nor Tab Mix Plus, however, seem to be able to enable Tabflipping with the thumbnails created by showcase.

This is probably due to the fact that the showcase thumbs are not just a different kind of tabs but some proprietary UI element as I suppose.

But maybe there is a way to make one of the above extensions compatible with Showcase?

That would be great,

Thanks again,

David.

[Old joseprio]

Hi David,

You are of course right making this differentiation between the Windows Taskbar Buttons and the Firefox Tabs.

The thing is, I remembered that I used to have this feature already for a long time somewhere in a browser (possibly even before I started using Firefox when I had Maxthon as my standard browser). Anyway, as it turns out, there are at least two Firefox extensions that have exactly this feature (which I think is great btw ):

Tab Mix Plus:

and FLST aka "Focus Last Selected Tab":

Obviously that feature is being called "Tabflipping".

Neither FLST nor Tab Mix Plus, however, seem to be able to enable Tabflipping with the thumbnails created by showcase.

This is probably due to the fact that the showcase thumbs are not just a different kind of tabs but some proprietary UI element as I suppose.

But maybe there is a way to make one of the above extensions compatible with Showcase?

That would be great,

Thanks again,

David.

Thanks a lot for those references. I just added the code to integrate Showcase with that feature, and added new preferences to control it. It will automatically detect Tab Mix Plus or FLST, and use their functionality.

I guess I'll make a new release this week, but if you want to try it out before that, just send me your email address by private message and I'll send you the development version.

[David.P]

I just added the code to integrate Showcase with that feature, and added new preferences to control it. It will automatically detect Tab Mix Plus or FLST, and use their functionality.

WOW -- that was fast, thanks very much!

You have PM,

Cheers,
David

[Old joseprio]

I'm currently working in a new extension related to sidebars that will integrate nicely with Showcase... here's an screenshot of Showcase Sidebar:


I'm planning to release it soon... it's name will be MultiSidebar. Not difficult to guess what it does, uh?

[David.P]

Cool, I'm already curious what it will do...

Certainly, you must be already aware about the "All in One Sidebar" extension...?

Anyway, I'll keep the Showcase thumbnails by the side of the browser window since most websites seem to be too narrow to fill the entire window width, and at the same time longer than the window height.

Cheers,
David.P

[Old joseprio]

Certainly, you must be already aware about the "All in One Sidebar" extension...?

Anyway, I'll keep the Showcase thumbnails by the side of the browser window since most websites seem to be too narrow to fill the entire window width, and at the same time longer than the window height.

Yes, I'm aware of AIOS... it's a really nice extension, although the functionality of the one I'm doing it's quite different. Essentially, it will allow you to open several sidebars simultaneously! For instance, you could have the Showcase sidebar at the left side, and have all the other sidebars open at the right one (so it's a better replacement of the tab bar). I think it's an interesting functionality for Tab Sidebar and Showcase Sidebar users!

The way it works is by right clicking on a sidebar header (or the sidebar menu entry), and then assign the sidebar it should open on. The state of the secondary sidebars is remembered in the same way as the primary one.

I already uploaded a first version to AMO, so it should be available in some days (there are 355 extensions waiting for review, so I guess it will take a while).

[Histrion]

I've only had one problem with version 0.9.2.1 -- it doesn't seem to play well with the latest version of the "Blue Ice" theme. In particular, not only does the Showcase window appear missing elements, but so does the Options window -- in fact, on the Options window, all I get are the tabs and the Settings/OK/Cancel buttons on the bottom.

Just wanted you to know that the latest version of Blue Ice, v1.2.3, solves the problem. Cheers!

[Old joseprio]

I've only had one problem with version 0.9.2.1 -- it doesn't seem to play well with the latest version of the "Blue Ice" theme. In particular, not only does the Showcase window appear missing elements, but so does the Options window -- in fact, on the Options window, all I get are the tabs and the Settings/OK/Cancel buttons on the bottom.

Just wanted you to know that the latest version of Blue Ice, v1.2.3, solves the problem. Cheers!

Good! Anyways, it's good that I made changes to Showcase too, so it will surely not happen again with other themes

Thanks for the heads up!

[phunkydizco]

I have a suggestion for Showcase. What do you think of an extra Showcase-Button in the tabbar? When you click on this button the showcase tabview should open without an own tab. And when you click on the arrow the normal tablist should open.

On the pictures you can see how it could look like.





What do you think?

[Old joseprio]

I have a suggestion for Showcase. What do you think of an extra Showcase-Button in the tabbar? When you click on this button the showcase tabview should open without an own tab. And when you click on the arrow the normal tablist should open.

On the pictures you can see how it could look like.

What do you think?

It looks really neat I like the idea that the button would act as a "tab" in a way, but I see 2 problems: it would take some tab bar space, and it wouldn't look nice on themes other than the default one.

Right now, Showcase can be invoked using the "list all tabs" button, and the old functionality is available if you right click on that button. However, it certainly doesn't look as pretty as your idea I'll see what I can do!

[phunkydizco]

You are right, the button would take some tab bar space. But when someone needs the space the button should be detachable.

I don't use other themes, but I think the tabs and the "list all tabs" button can be skinned too. So it should be possible to make the showcase button look like the same.

It would be great if you could implement my idea