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How to Update Extensions to Firefox 3

By Adam DuVander July 21st, 2008 Categories: Uncategorized

FirefoxIf you’re a Firefox extension developer who hasn’t made the switch to Firefox 3, Mozilla wants you to know what you need to change. On the other hand, if you have a favorite extension stuck in Firefox 2, you might pass this article along to its developer: Mozilla’s instructions for updating extensions for Firefox 3.

There were a number of changes between Firefox 2 and 3. The largest changes are outlined in the document, which include:

  • Bookmarks and history - major changes, now uses Places API
  • Anything using menus - heavily modified
  • Download manager - now uses Storage API
  • Password manager - now uses Login Manager API

Extensions that don’t utilize above areas of the code may still need tweaks, but may not require major rewrites. You may even get lucky and just need to change the maxVersion of your extension. If Mozilla hosts the extension for you, then you won’t even need to change anything in the extension itself. Just login to the addons site and use the Developer Control Panel to make your maxVersion 3.0.*.

See also:


Tags: extension, firefox
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Next Version of Firefox Due Late 2008 or Early 2009

By Michael Calore July 1st, 2008 Categories: Uncategorized

firefox
The next version of Mozilla’s open-source Firefox browser is due for a release in late 2008, or early 2009 at the latest.

According to the notes from a recent production meeting, the first alpha release of Firefox 3.1 is due in July. Beta releases will likely commence in August. Such rapid development is possible because the team isn’t going to concentrate on new features for 3.1, only on improvements to performance and on fine-tuning the browser’s behavior.

The full meeting notes are on the Mozilla.org developer site.

What should we expect to see in Firefox 3.1? Improvements to Places, the underlying bookmark management and database system that powers the “Awesome Bar,” for one. We’ll get better tagging performance, including the ability to edit multiple tags at once. We should also get the ability to delete URL records from the database so they don’t show up in Awesome Bar searches.

We should also see improvements to Firefox’s JavaScript engine, support for the <video> tag and better support for the web standards outlined in the ACID 3 test. Plus lots of little things: better forms performance, a cleaner shutdown experience and improvements to the site ID and password manager security features.

We’ll have a full review of the alpha as soon as its released later this month.

See Also:


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Eclipse: Ganymede Upgrade is Here

By Scott Loganbill June 26th, 2008 Categories: Programming, Uncategorized

Eclipse, a malleable open-source programming editor and home to many a Integrated Development Environment (IDE) celebrated its Ganymede upgrade Wednesday. According to the Eclipse Foundation, “The Ganymede Release is a coordinated release of 23 different Eclipse project teams that represents over 18 million lines of code.”

Included in the upgrade is a new JavaScript IDE, editor and debugger, a built-in SQL query editor, and plenty of new and upgraded Java tools. For a full listing, check out the Ganymede press release.

The team celebrated by hosting an EclipseDay mini-conference at the Google campus in Mountain View. Go figure. For a peak into this programming-heavy affair, check out this screencast from Mustafa K. Isik on Real-Time Shared Editing on Eclipse.


Cola: Real-Time Shared Editing from Mustafa K. Isik on Vimeo.

Eclipse, originally developed by IBM in 2001 and continued by The Eclipse Foundation in 2004, is primarily a code editor. The software has many features available to it including embedded CVN and SVN version control, hundreds of plug-ins, resources and programming environments.

Other Editors/IDEs on the market include IntelliJ and Microsoft Visual Studio or Apple’s XCode and TextMate for the Mac OS. Eclipse is free, multi-platformed and open-sourced, making it very popular in the development community.


Tags: Eclipse, ganymede
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Five Reasons Android Might Deliver Where iPhone Won’t

By Scott Loganbill June 23rd, 2008 Categories: Uncategorized

While the industry puzzles over when Android-supported phones will hit shelves, it is unclear what impact, if any, it will have against growing iPhone adoption.

Google-led Android doesn’t quite get the hype that Apple’s iPhone does, but there are plenty of reasons to get excited for it. For one, Android’s OS looks to offer a lot more than iPhone can with its latest release.

Here are five reasons to buy your loved one an Android-operated phone rather than an iPhone for Christmas:

  1. It promises to run on most modern smart phones - More cell networks will support Android than iPhone does — the iPhone is bound to just AT&T. Mobile providers NTT DoCoMo, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and more have committed to the project. Also, more handsets will operate on it. You might even get more life out of your old phone if it supports it. Handset manufactures HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung have already signed on.
  2. It’s open-source software - Any programmer can whip up some code to match popular features from any other phone. Under the Apache license, any programmer can take the code and port their own version of the OS.
  3. It has support for Google products out of the box - The latest Android demonstration displayed the phone’s compass prominently in Google Maps. You can bet Google will have the latest and greatest features of their software running on Android before it hits other operators.
  4. Third-party developers have more access - iPhone prohibits people from using its internet capabilities for things like VoIP or an alternative browser. Android’s API allows you to create an application for anything, even the dialing software. The evidence is in the 50 applications already developed for the Android Developer Challenge last May.
  5. Android allows for ‘unlocked’ phones - Most handsets in America, including the iPhone, are locked by software to a cell phone provider’s network. While there are various ways to jailbreak, it’s not easy and might break your terms of service. The availability of downloading and installing your own unlocked OS might just change the game in respect to shopping for mobile phone providers and signing contracts. If this method gets more popular, it is conceivable phone networks may drop the contracts in lieu of (better) European pre-pay pricing.

Apple proved when they launched the OS X powered iPhones, it isn’t just hardware that drives the killer mobile devices that change the industry. From what we can gather from Android, Google gets it too.


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Android Mobile OS: Still Coming in Late ‘08

By Scott Loganbill June 23rd, 2008 Categories: Uncategorized

Cellphone carriers are reporting that the Google-led mobile operating system Android is going to be delayed. Official word from Google is the operating system is still on track for a 2008 release.

“We remain on schedule to deliver the first Android-based handset in the second half of 2008 and we’re very excited to see the momentum continuing to build behind the Android platform among carriers, handset manufacturers, developers and consumers.”

Monday’s Wall Street Journal reports that cellphone carriers and makers are struggling to keep up with Google’s software changes, causing delays. It appears that whatever delay there is might just be a difference in expectations between Google and cellphone suppliers.

In other words, wake me up when Android is delayed past 2008, but please wake me up. The mobile operating system promises to make up for whatever disappointments Apple’s iPhone 2.0 software announcement may have had.


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Webmasters Pick Favorite Cheat Sheets

By Scott Loganbill June 20th, 2008 Categories: Uncategorized, Web Basics

Webmasters by Design runs through its favorite 45 cheat sheets culled from the web — covering everything from HTML to AJAX.

They failed to add Webmonkey’s cheat sheets to the list, but we’ve got nothing but love for them anyway.

Cheat sheets are a great way to get started with any technology. It cuts through the details and focuses on the most commonly used aspects of the technology — always a great place to learn.

[Picture courtesy David_Stubbart on Flickr]


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Firebug Command-Line API: Not Just Your Weekend Debugger

By Scott Loganbill June 19th, 2008 Categories: Software & Tools, Uncategorized

You may know that Firebug has one of the best interfaces for debugging . What you may not know is it also features a command line and API for heavy-duty debugging.

Firebug is a Firefox extension used by web developers for debugging HTML, CSS, JavaScript and the browser’s DOM.

The command line allows you to enter and execute JavaScript commands straight from the Firebug sidebar. The functions available in the API allows you to maneuver, monitor and investigate web page code in more detail.

Sample API commands include:

  • Generate lists of elements or properties from specified objects
  • Pull XML sources for inspection
  • Execute and monitor a singular JavaScript function

The command line tool is available by hitting Ctrl-Shift-L (or Command-Shift-L on Mac OS). Firebug’s sidebar window opens up with a view of the console window. The console window displays feedback from the commands you enter using the command line at the bottom of the screen.


Tags: browsers, extensions, firebug, firefox
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Zero Day Initiative Finds First Firefox 3 Vulnerability

By Scott Loganbill June 19th, 2008 Categories: Software & Tools, Uncategorized

Sure Firefox 3 is a fast browser, but who knew it would take only five hours after its release Tuesday to find its first vulnerability? Baby grows up so quickly.

Contributors to the Zero Day Initiative program recorded Firefox 3’s first vulnerability before it was confirmed and exposed by the group Wednesday. The vulnerability allows attackers to run programs on any Firefox user’s computer. To expose the vulnerability, victims would have to click on the wrong link first.

The Zero Day Initiative is a program founded by TippingPoint dedicated to exposing security issues in software.

Adhering to etiquette, the report won’t dive into any more specifics until Mozilla has a chance to repair the vulnerability. If it makes you feel any better, the vulnerability extends to Firefox 2 as well — meaning Firefox users have been living with it for a long time without even knowing. Who knows what else might be out there?


Tags: browsers, bugs, firefox
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Firefox Demand Exceeds Supply as Mozilla’s Servers Melt Down

By Scott Loganbill June 17th, 2008 Categories: Software & Tools, Uncategorized

After a few hiccups and false starts, downloads of Mozilla’s highly-anticipated Firefox 3 web browser are flowing smoothly. But for a period of about two hours, the demand for the open-source browser was too much for Mozilla’s servers to handle.

Tuesday marks the official start of Mozilla’s attempt to set the Guinness World Record for downloads in one 24-hour period. This is the first record of its kind, so there’s no hard goal, but the company is shooting for 5 million downloads. The goal appears within reach, as Firefox 3 passed the 1 million download mark shortly before 2pm.

But things didn’t start off so well Tuesday morning. When the download window began at 10am Pacific time, page requests sent to the SpreadFirefox.com and Mozilla.com website were timing out. Other Mozilla and Firefox websites hosted by the company were also unresponsive. Users trying to be among the first to download the application a few minutes before 10am saw connection interrupted errors in their browsers. We here at Webmonkey also noticed some cryptic errors while trying to use Firefox’s own internal update tool just after the official release was supposed to have been made available.

The high demand continued to tax Mozilla’s servers for about two hours. A company representative says the downloads stablized just before 12pm Pacific time in North America, and about half an hour before then in Europe, where the local time was late Tuesday evening.

Once Mozilla got the kinks worked out, downloads quickly peaked at about 14,000 per minute. The total downloads had passed 1 million at about 1:50pm. After the initial rush, downloads have settled down to about 8,000 per minute.

Such heavy traffic isn’t uncommon for new highly-touted releases. However, considering Mozilla asked for it by inviting users at a certain time on a certain day to download the browser, the influx of downloading customers was expected. Instead, the company ended up orchestrating its own Denial of Service attack.

Follow the progress at the special download counter site set up by Mozilla.

Update: This post was updated to include statistics from Mozilla and a new headline was added.

Direct download links for Firefox 3, courtesy of Bwana McCall.
MacOS (en-US): http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.0&os=osx&lang=en-US
Linux (en-US): http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.0&os=linux&lang=en-US
Windows (en-US): http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.0&os=win&lang=en-US


Tags: browsers, firefox
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Parallels, VMWare Battle For Mac Virtualization Supremacy

By Scott Gilbertson June 13th, 2008 Categories: Uncategorized

VmwarevsparallelsParallels and VMWare, the two major virtualization options for Mac OS X, have both pushed out some interesting new features in their respect beta releases. Parallels has released a new build with support for Parallels Tools in Linux virtual machines and VMWare has added Mac OS X Server to its list of supported guest operating systems.

It’s worth noting that Parallels Server for Mac already supports Mac OS X Server, but due to the OS X Server licensing restrictions, you could only run a virtual server on a real OS X server. Now that Apple has lifted the licensing restrictions for OS X Server slightly (you still can’t run it on non-Apple hardware), VMWare has jumped in on the fun.

Parallels’ latest salvo in the feature war between these two is support for the Parallels Tools in various Linux distributions (including Ubuntu 8.04). That means the same tools that you use in Windows VMs are now available for your Linux VMs. The Parallels update also includes support for running 3D graphics in your Windows VM on Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.3.

Reader often ask which of the two is a better option for virtualization on the Mac. The truth is they’re both great and either one will handle your virtualization needs without difficulty — just make sure you have plenty of RAM installed.

You can grab the latest build of Parallels of the download site and VMWare Fusion 2 beta 1 is available from the VMWare site.

See Also:


Tags: Mac, software, virtualization
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