When Firefox downloads a file, it sets the file modification time to be the current time. This is pretty much how every browser behaves. However, some will point out that this behavior is actually wrong (though it's a matter of opinion).
This extension allows Firefox to preserve the modification time, that is sent by the server, when you download a file. This should work for any file downloaded via http://, file://, or ftp:// (Firefox 4.0+ and SeaMonkey 2.1+) so long as the server sends the proper information.
Known Issues
- Not a bug. Ignores files downloaded by Save Page As "Web Page, complete". Doing this uses a different mechanism.
- The page is not re-downloaded, so the server information is not available to the download manager
- The downloaded page is changed by the browser, invalidating the server's modification time
- Information for the additional files downloaded is not available through the download manager
- Firefox bug. If you click on a link to start a download, and the download finishes before you choose where to save it, the required server information is discarded before this extension is notified you downloaded a file (details here). To work around the problem, use the following methods to start a download:
- File -> Save Page As...
- Right-Click -> Save Page As...
- Right-Click -> Save Link As...
- Right-Click -> Save Image As...
- Right-Click -> This Frame -> Save Frame As...
- The first time the SeaMonkey "download" preferences dialog is opened after installing PDMTS, the "Preserve file modification times when possible" check box does not have the correct state. However, toggling the check box will change the preference correctly. After closing and opening the dialog, or restarting SeaMonkey, the check box will show the correct state.
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Check out the code! PDMTS is now on GitHub:
https://github.com/SparkyBluefang/PDMTS
Want to provide a translation? Status-4-Evar can be found on BabelZilla:
http://www.babelzilla.org/forum/index.p ... topic=6531
Please do not email me for support/help/bug reports. I will not respond and will probably just delete it. The preferred way to contact me is to post in the official support topic on MozillaZine or create an issue on GitHub.
Developer Comments
Users that have installed the development/beta version: because you are on the beta channel, you will not receive automatic updates for non-beta releases. I will only post new beta releases when I start development on the next version. So if you want the most recent version, you will have to manually install it.
On that same note: be careful about installing the beta/development version. I know there is a tempting link just below, but it is often older than the current released version. I would hide the link, but Mozilla removed the option to do so...
Change Log
Version 2013.05.11.19b
* Drop support for Firefox 19 and older.
* Drop support for SeaMonkey 2.16 and older.
* Add support for per-window peivate browsing changes in Firefox 20.
* Add support for X-Archive-Orig-Last-Modified (used on archive.org).
* Move to S4E build system. Support install.rdf localization.
* Added locales ja-JP
* Updated translations for: de, fr, pt-BR, sr, sv-SE, zh-CN
Version 2011.03.21.22
* Added locales fr, zh-CN
Version 2011.03.07.00
* Added locales de, el, pt-BR, sr, sv-SE
Version 2010.09.12.18
* Handle when null request data is passed to the network state listener (see Known Issue #2).
Version 2010.09.12.01
* Default log verbosity is now "Info" (was previously "Warning")
* Simplify timestamp caching during download
* Support localization of both the preference UI and logging output
* Support Private Browsing. When private browsing, only show "Error" and "Warning" messages in the log. Also, do not show any download information (source URL and download destination)
* Added a preference to hide download information in the log
Version 2010.09.08.22
* Make sure debug output is still shown if the HTTP header is missing (catch the exception)
* Ignore files downloaded by Save Page As "Web Page, complete". It uses a different mechanism, file information is not available through the download manager, and it changes the downloaded page (invalidating the server's modification time).
Version 2010.09.08.18
* Fixed the "Windows bug" with browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone (details here). If you changed browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone to work around this bug, you can now change it back.
Version 2010.09.07.03
* Add support for Firefox 3.5+ and SeaMonkey 2.0
Version 2010.09.04.02
* Add some more debugging messages
Version 2010.09.01.19
* Added proper logging infrastructure and a preference to control verbosity.
* Added back the extension's options dialog. Can now be enabled/disabled in the extension's options dialog and in the downloads section of the application's options dialog.
Version 2010.08.31.20
* Add preference to SeaMonkey download preferences.
Version 2010.08.31.19
* Minor name change
* Move the preference to be with the rest of the download options in the main Firefox preferences
Version 2010.08.31
Initial Release
* Basic functionality
* Preference to enable/disable during runtime