Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Firefox 3: More on Add-ons and Minor Glitch Observations

I mentioned in my previous post that upon launching Firefox 3 for the first time, two of my add-ons were noted as incompatible, that no updates could be found, and so were disabled.

The first, Get Mail, which I use only so that CTRL-m will launch my email program from within Firefox, has an update available on the author's website. From previous communication, I recall that the author does not like the amount of hoops that Mozilla asks its add-on developers to jump through before they'll host an add-on and integrate it into the "Check for Updates" machinery. If you use this add-on, or want to find out more about it, visit the home page for the Get Mail Add-On for Firefox.

The second, XPL LinkScanner Lite, is a safe-surfing utility that scans websites for potential malware and other undesirable behaviors. It has never played within the standard Mozilla framework for add-ons, so I tried uninstalling the existing version, and downloading and installing the latest version. No soap. Firefox still thinks it's not compatible and keeps it disabled. The "console mode" for LinkScanner, accessible by double-clicking its icon in the Windows System Tray, still works -- among other things, this allows individual links to be checked by entering them by hand (or by paste). I have notified XPL of its add-on incompatibility, and if I hear back, I'll pass along whatever I learn.

As I mentioned in the last post, I also use another safe-surfing add-on, McAfee' SiteAdvisor. This utility adds a flag to the lower right corner of the browser that turns green (safe), yellow (warning), red (danger), or gray (no info) as you visit a new page. It also adds flags to the results returned by doing a Google (as John McCain might say). Find out more at the McAfee SiteAdvisor home page.

I have observed one minor glitch which may be of interest to those who run a Blogger blog: The "quick edit" link (the pencil icon), which allows for one-click editing of posts while viewing your own blog, is not appearing at the moment. I have confirmed that I'm logged in and that the appropriate setting is enabled in the Options. I have flushed the cache and restarted Firefox, and it still isn't there.

On a possibly related note, the icon to "Email this Post" is also not visible, although by hovering in the right area, it can be detected by the change in the cursor and the tooltip window that pops up. Clicking in this apparently blank area results in the correct behavior.

If I do a View → Page Source, I can see the code for both of these links where I'd expect it to be. I have no idea why neither icon appears, nor why one should invisibly work and the other not at all.

If any other Blogger users who are running Firefox 3 can weigh in on these in the Comments, I'd appreciate it. Do you see the same problem or not? I have posted this bug in the Blogger Help Group forums, and I'll pass along anything (else) that comes up. (So far, I have received one reply, which suggested that I check my scripting settings. I interpreted this to mean "make sure Javascript isn't disabled in the browser," and I have done that. No soap.)

6 comments:

Rick said...

Hey Brendan,
I just updated and can see both the email and edit icons on my blog. I cannot see an email icon on your blog (nor do I detect anything with a mouse-over--disabled?). Sounds like some kind of settings issue (to state the obvious!).

bjkeefe said...

Thanks for checking in, K.

I just looked at my blog using Ffox 2, and I cannot see the email icon, either, although if I hover between the timestamp and the phrase "Links to this post," I can detect it. So, this seems like something wrong with Blogger. Wonder when that little thing broke.

When logged in to Blogger, though, I do still see the pencil icon using Ffox 2.

bjkeefe said...

Update: Following the procedure pointed to here, the "email post" icon appears to have been restored to visibility. Still no luck with the "quick edit" icon.

Also, for the record, I can see both the "email post" and "quick edit" icons/links when using IE 6.

Grrrrr.

bjkeefe said...

For anyone who didn't notice, I figured out the problem with the non-appearing quick edit icons.

Short answer: allow third-party cookies. Details in this post.

Anonymous said...

hi, i just upgraded to firefox 3, and when i go to google and do a search i cant see any more of the flags that tell me which site is safe or not. it worked perfectly on IE but it wont show the balloons/flags anymore next to the site details on the google listing, please help

bjkeefe said...

Anon:

You might try the McAfee SiteAdvisor while waiting for the XPL LinkScanner upgrade. SiteAdvisor is also an add-on for Firefox and it provides the same functionality on Google search results -- green, yellow, and red flags next to each. I have been using it for quite a long time, and it seems well-behaved.

Visit this page for details and download. You'll note that the page says it only works for Firefox 1.5 and 2.0, but I think that bit of documentation is out-of-date. Everything seems fine with it in my version of Firefox 3.

Let me know how it goes.

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