Bin-Blog » Firefox

Link Code Insert: A GreaseMonkey UserScript

Binny V A — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:43:33 +0000

Link Code Insert inserts the HTML code for creating a link at the active element location when the user presses Ctrl+Alt+A. I use it a lot when I am writing a comment and want to add a link. Just select the text you want to link and the userscript will add the HTML code ‘‘ before the selected text and a ‘‘ after it.

Technically, this is a UserScript – and not a plugin. But I prefer to think of a userscript as a plugin of a plugin. So I guess it can be included in the Plugin Week.

Note: You must be using Firefox and must have installed GreaseMonkey for this script to work.

Download/Install the UserScript

Plugin Week 2

This plugin is part of the Plugin Week 2 series. Plugin Week is a week when I publish a new plugin each day for an entire week. I have already one this one time – so this is Plugin Week 2. The plugins released so far…

If you want to get news about the upcoming plugin releases(remember, 1 per day), please subscribe to this site.

Easier Way to Update Twitter Status: Address Bar

Binny V A — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:52:19 +0000

I have already created a script to update twitter(or tweet, or whatever) from the command line. For those who are not big fans of command line, there is another method to make tweeting easier – tweeting from the address bar…

Firefox has an cool feature that lets you substitute words in the address bar – we are going to use this feature to update twitter status from the address bar. And, for that reason, this trick only works in Firefox. First, you have to create a bookmark.

Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks…
Select ‘Bookmarks Menu’
Organize > New Bookmark…

Set the name as ‘Twitter’. The location must be ‘http://twitter.com/home?status=%s’. Enter ‘tweet’ in the keyword field.

Now open up a new tab and type in…

tweet Testing the new address bar tweeting method.

Now the text you entered will automatically be inserted into the textarea in twitter – but you will have to click the Update button for it to be posted. If you want to make it easier, write a greasemonkey script to auto insert the text. But be warned, there is a small security risk in doing that.

New Version of URL Lister Firefox Add-on

Binny V A — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:22:46 +0000

Following the release of Firefox 3, I have updated my URL Lister firefox Add-on. Now it works in Firefox 3 – and I have added a new feature.

For those unfamiliar with URL Lister, its a firefox add-on that shows the URLs of all the open tabs in a textarea so that it can be copied easily. It is my first firefox add-on.

Unfortunately, there is a problem with the mozilla add-ons listing page – I cannot install the extensions using that page. I am getting this error…

Firefox could not install the file at 

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/downloads/file/32487/url_lister-1.1-fx.xpi

because: Invalid file hash (possible download corruption)
-261

However, you can right click the ‘Add to Firefox’ button and choose ‘Save Target As’ and download the file without any issues. Then you can install the extension by dragging the downloaded file into a firefox window. That works perfectly – but not the direct install method.

Firefox 3 – World Record and Downed Servers

Binny V A — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:43:10 +0000

As many others from around the web, I too am waiting for the latest iteration of the Firefox browser – Firefox 3. And again, like many others, I too am participating in the World Record attempt. Unfortunately, even though the release time is upon us, I cannot download the software – because their server is down!

As a linux user, I have come to expect the fact that servers will collapse when a new version of a distro is released. But those are big files that are transferred(the linux images will be anywhere between 600 MB to 4 GB). But in case of firefox, a 8 MB file managed to bring top servers to their knees. A testament to the popularity of firefox – although I wish mozilla had more mirrors.

If you cannot wait to get the latest version, get it from their FTP servers – they are functioning normally. But, those downloads will NOT BE COUNTED in the final tally for the world record.

URL Lister – My First Firefox Plugin

Binny V A — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:03:52 +0000

I just released my first firefox plugin – URL Lister. It shows the URLs of all the open tabs in a textarea so that they can be copied easily.

Download/Install

Install URL Lister

If you have installed it, consider rating it or reviewing it at Firefox plugins sandbox. Go to the public page for URL Lister and write a review for the application. I need reviews to promote it to the main extensions page – sandbox plugins are for registered users only.

Usage

Lets say you have these four tabs open…

Right click any tab and click on the ‘URL Lister…’ to open up the main dialog. You can also use ‘Tools > URL Lister’. You will find the URLs of all the open tabs there.

There is a drop down menu at the bottom – it has these three options…

Plain Text
HTML Anchors
Linked List

Open URLs

If you have a list of URLs and want to open them all, all you have to do is copy those URLs into this dialog and press OK – this will open up all the given URLs.

And my thanks goes to…

URL Lister is sort of a response to this post by Matt Cutts. I want to thank him for the idea.

There is another plugin with a similar function – Tab URL Copier. I lifted some code from that plugin when creating URL Lister. Thanks.