[Ext] URL Flipper 3.1.1: Decrement/Increment URLs

[kliu0x52]

URL Flipper

• Synopsis: Quickly and easily increment and decrement numbers and strings in URLs for navigating through URL sequences.
• Homepage: author's homepage
• Current Version: 3.1.1 (history)
• Compatibility: Firefox 1.5–4.0, SeaMonkey 2.0-2.1
• Download: addons.mozilla.org
• Usage Guide: http://code.kliu.org/urlflipper/usage.html

URL Flipper is a Firefox extension that allows you to easily increment or decrement a portion of a URL without having to manually edit the text in the Location Bar.

Once you have told URL Flipper which part of the URL you would like to change, you can flip through URL sequences with a single click of a toolbar button or press of a (customizable) keyboard shortcut. Great for navigating through image galleries, forum threads, etc.

[alta88]

thanks for this, you've done a very nice job. only thing i would suggest is to allow highlighting of a portion of a url in the urlbar, and upon hitting a + or - button, have it already know which piece should increment/decrement. the dialog popping up shouldn't be necessary..

[kliu0x52]

only thing i would suggest is to allow highlighting of a portion of a url in the urlbar, and upon hitting a + or - button, have it already know which piece should increment/decrement.

I'm embarrassed to say that I never thought of that. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll add that feature to the next version.

[Peuj]

Hi,

Other suggestions:

1 - It would be nice to have a button to go back to the initial url
2 - It would be nice to be able to select two parts of the url so they can be increment/decrement at the same time.
3 - It would be nice to have a main button to show/hide when needed in the toolbar the 3 currents buttons.

Thanks

[beelsr]

love the flipper, great job!

one enhancement that i can think of would make it even better: the ability to open multiple pages when incrementing decrementing.

it could either be configured to always open the specified count of tabs/windows or a click of the toolbar button would do one and ctrl (alt, whatever)-click would do the multiple opens.

either way would be wonderful.

[user01]

Hi everyone!

To kliu0x52:

Great extension! Can you make an option to highlight the last number in the URL? It highlights the first one and I always have to correct it. It would be great to have such an option.

[kliu0x52]

2009/04/11 - 2.2.0

• [Bug #57] The final sequence will now be auto-selected instead of the first.
• [Bug #105] Added support for the latest trunk builds.
• [Bug #107] Fixed the handling of escaped sequences in the URL.
• [Bug #110] Requests initiated by URL Flipper will no longer redirect.
• [Bug #112] Added 6 new translations from BabelZilla.
• [Bug #114] URL Flipper will now make use of selections in the location bar.
• [Bug #120] Improved handling of leading zeros when the width of the varying field changes.

[alta88]

hi - thanks for implementing urlbar selection. but it defeats the purpose of selecting there and then also having the dialog appear. if advanced options need to be selected, then one would just click a button or keys etc without selecting in urlbar. a urlbar selection should immediately flip - and should be smart enough to guess data type and otherwise use the default options.

goal is speed and minimal clicking..

[kliu0x52]

@alta88, I agree; I've filed that as bug #128.

@all, I also have a request for feedback in bug #126 regarding a proposed change for the next version.

[alta88]

@alta88, I agree; I've filed that as bug #128.

your description of the flow there seems exactly right, imo. key combos are impossible to remember, there are too many, so buttons are preferable.

one thing which may save a button and have an interesting ergonomic is having 1 toggle button (flipper active or inactive) and, if active, have left and right mouse click do a decr/incr. maybe even set the cursor to a relevant icon. to revert to normal clicking/cursor, the button could simply be hovered. just an idea..

[kliu0x52]

URL Flipper v3 has entered the final stretch. A beta, v3.0.0b1, is feature-complete, and once the localizations are updated (and if no problems are found), I'll be releasing v3. For those of you who are interested, here is a list of the upcoming changes (see the dependency list), as well as a download of 3.0.0b1.

[Peuj]

Could you add an option or button to go back to initial url?

Thanks

[kliu0x52]

Could you add an option or button to go back to initial url?

What use case would this address? Why not use the back button?

[Peuj]

Maybe I'm too lazy
But for example, I start on this link https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11520 and go until https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11546
For me it's easier to make 1 click to go back to my original link than search for it in the back button list.

Of course for 1 link up or down I can use the back button to go back but for this situation I don't even need URL Flipper.

Thanks

[kliu0x52]

For me it's easier to make 1 click to go back to my original link than search for it in the back button list.

That's not a use case; that's just a description of the feature request. What I mean is, why would you need to go back to the original URL? Instead of two URLs back? Or the URL right after the original? Etc. Right-clicking on the back button gives you the entire history and you can go back to any URL visited during the sequence. What you are asking for is basically a simplified back button that takes you to a specific URL and to only that URL (because if it supported revisiting any URL in the history, then it would just be a clone of the back button), and unless there's a compelling case that can be made for why that particular URL is special and useful enough to warrant a dedicated command, I am not particularly inclined to add this feature.

For a future version (probably 3.1), I do plan to add a feature where you enter a range, and UF will generate a list of links (optionally filtering out bad URLs in the list) within that range that you can then open in any order (random access). I am not sure what your intended use case is, but perhaps this would be a better fit than the command that you suggest.

Of course for 1 link up or down I can use the back button to go back but for this situation I don't even need URL Flipper.

Actually, I use UF even if I am hopping just one step; still faster than manually editing the location bar (esp. w/ the upcoming v3).