Mozilla.dev.extensions
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Weekly Summaries
NOTE: these should be turned into links to separate pages.
FAQ
1. How do I create my summary page?
Like this!
2. Should I put the FAQ questions/answers in the summaries?
No. Put them in a single place (here), instead of in the summaries.
Friday, September 22 - 29, 2006
- Does Firefox support calling COM objects?
- How to write an XPCOM component in C++ that can communicate to a COM component.
- Observer don't get preferences change after extension upgrade
- Asking why extension preferences do not get changed until after it's upgrade.
- toolbarbutton coexisting in toolbarpalette and statusbar
- Discussing methods of having a customizable toolbar button to coexist in a toolbar palette and status bar.
- Header display when replying and forwarding
- Asking if there is a way of changing the Thunderbird displays headers when replying and forwarding.
- some rss feeds don't show up as Livemarks when bookmarked...
- Enquiring why there are some rss feeds that do not appear as livemarks when bookmarked even though the necessary tags for the feed to appear as a livemark are seemingly present and properly formatted in the feeds source.
- Places queries
- Asking for help in knowing the data that is typed into text boxes.
- WM_COPY trouble
- Asking for help with getting an extension to process Windows messages.
- Replace HTML
- Discussing the deasibility of creating an extension that can replace HTML code on a specific page that does not use Greasemonkey.
- XUL Image
- Discussing the feasibility of placing an image in a window that can be moved around anywhere within the window and will always remain on top.
- Sample dynamic menu creation, similar to Firefox Bookmarks drop down
- Discussing how to create a dynamic drop down menu that may have submenus using JavaScript for an extension.
- Tracert extension feasible?
- Asking about the feasibility of making an extension that has the same functionality as “trace route”.
- Thunderbird extension request - easy email within a default domain
- Request for a Thunderbird extension that can automatically detect the default domain when composing e-mails via autodetect.
- How to access the toolbar elements in extension?
- How to get the value of a text box when a button is clicked.
Friday, September 29 - October 6, 2006
UAQ: UnAnswered Questions
- How to extract information from a mail [1]
Question: How can we programmatically extract the subject, sender, date and the body of an e- mail when you are reading one (in Thunderbird presumably)?
Answer: No answer this week.
- Could someone make an adressbook enchancer extension. [2]
Question: Could someone make an addressbook enhancer extension that has the ability to put pictures on a contact and other features the Thunderbird address book lacks.
Answer: No answer this week. The question is not specific enough, is too open ended and ambiguous.
- Saving a whole news thread [3]
Question: Is there a way to save a whole news thread in Thunderbird?
Answer: No answer this week.
- nsiTimer platform differences [4]
Question: We're seeing a timing issue when using nsITimer on MSWindows that does not occur on GNU/Linux.
A javascript XPCOM component sets a TYPE_ONE_SHOT timer to go off in one hour. The timer does not go off until significantly (more than 2X) after that. Anyone else seems different nsITimer behavior on Windows or have any sort of explanation about whether this is a problem with the win32 timer implementation, or whether there is some workaround?
Answer: No answer this week.
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
- Plugin or Extension? Need to launch Windows Explorer instance from a URL [5]
Question: In IE, when I enter a URL that starts with "file://" in the address bar, an instance of the windows explorer will be launched and display the directory in the URL. However, in Firefox, a custom directory listing will be displayed instead of Windows Explorer. Is there anyway, via plugin or extension, for Firefox to mimic the functionality of IE in this respect?
Answer: The IETab (Opens IE in a Firefox tab) should be able do this if you set it to always open "file://*" URLs in an IE tab.
The appearance with a FireFox tab isn't quite the same as having a completely separate Explorer window. However, it's functional and does allow for the Explorer to be handling the display of the folder contents, and all of the right-click context menu support is present so it should meet my needs.
- packaging to release on Mozilla extensions site [6]
Question: Hi, I am planning to release our extension on the mozilla extensions site. When I tried uploading it, it said that update.rdf contains invalid location. What is the valid one and what other things do I need to change to make it work on Mozilla site?
Answer: You must remove updateURL from the install.rdf and use a known to AMO minVersion/maxVersion.
No confirmation that the answer given worked yet.
- Open a URL in new tab [7]
Question: The Function "LoadURL" loads a URL in the Browser window:
function LoadURL(URL)
{
window._content.document.location = URL;
window.content.focus();
}
Is it possible to open the URL in a new tab?
Answer:
var tab = getBrowser().addTab( url );
// And if you want it to load in foreground: getBrowser().selectedTab = tab;
- Is it possible to read the html-code of the current URL/site? [8]
Question: Is it possible to read the html-code of the current URL/site?
Answer: Yes, this is possible. Use the DOM API (http://www.w3schools.com/dom/default.asp has a good tutorial).
Not the best answer but a good starting point for the question asker to do some research towards the answer.
- Thunderbird segfault after extension reads preferences. [9]
Question: Why does his extension not able to read the contents of a folder and then produce a segmentation fault after his extension reads preferences in Thunderbird?
Answer: The person was missing a method call to getService.
- Any Data Encryption Libraries? [10]
Question: Are there any built in libraries that can be used to encrypt data?
Answer: Yes.
1. You can use nsISecretDecoderRing.encryptString() and nsISecretDecoderRing.decryptString(). However, I'm not sure how/if that works if the user hasn't defined a master password in Options->Security->Use a master password.
2. You can AES-128 or AES-256 symmetric encryption via aes.js (http://tinyurl.com/pp79t).
No confirmation from the question asker on whether this answer was helpful in solving their problem.