Mozilla Retires Add-on Collector

Remember the Firefox collections feature? No? Then you are not the only one. Back in 2009 Mozilla introduced collections to the official Firefox Add-ons repository. With this feature users could create their own add-on collections, and publish them  publicly on the Mozilla website. A collection usually listed between 5 and 30 different add-ons that other Firefox users could then install more comfortably in the browser.

There was no option to install all add-ons in one go though, but a third party add-on Massive Extender made that possible.  The collections in theory were quite useful, as many were curated by Firefox users in the know.  Mozilla itself created a few, for web developers and travelers for instance, and other users added theirs which soon became popular as well.

One of the issues here was that the creator of the collection had to maintain the list. Add-ons that were not updated anymore or even entirely removed by their author or Mozilla from the Add-ons repository had to be removed, new add-ons had to be added and so on.

Mozilla yesterday announced that it has made the decision to retire the Add-on Collector. The core reason for retiring the extension are the following:

The add-on is not popular, only “a few hundred people have used the add-on in the past few months”.The Add-on Collector would need a rewrite of all APIs once Mozilla goes forward with plans to improve the collections feature.Some of the features that the add-on offered were already integrated into the site natively.

Firefox users should not confuse the Add-on Collector add-on, with the collections feature itself. From the announcement it is clear, that Mozilla plans to retire the former and improve the latter.

Have you used collections in the past? If so, which features would you like to see to make the feature more attractive and usable? (via Techdows)

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Mozilla Firefox 3.5 RC1 About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday March 8, 2012 -
Tags:firefox add-ons, firefox news

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Classicish Add-on Manager For Firefox

Not every Firefox user likes the new add-on manager that the developers have added to the browser some time ago. Veteran users may recall a time when the add-on manager opened up in a popup window instead of a browser tab. The design changed as well, everything feals bigger and less streamlined in the new add-on manager than in the old.

The Classicish Add-on Manager add-on for the Firefox web browser restyles the current add-on manager to look and feel more like the classic one. The most notable change is that it moves the add-on manager from the browser tab into its own window, making it completely independent from the browser window it was opened in.

Another benefit of that approach is that you can change the add-ons manager’s window size without changing the size of the browser window itself. The interface lists all installed add-ons on startup. Add-ons are listed with a black font color on white background for better readability.

Each add-on listing takes up the same screen estate in the window, and displays the extension’s icon, name, description and an options button.

Everything else has been moved into the right-click context menu. This includes options to disable listed add-ons, to remove them or to check for updates.

The options button opens the add-on’s options menu. Depending on the add-on, it may either open in a new window or on the same page. The back and forward buttons, and the sidebar can be used to navigate back to the listing afterwards.

The sidebar lists add-ons, plugins, themes and userscripts, but no option to install add-ons from the window. Most Firefox users install add-ons directly on the Mozilla site anyway and not in the Add-ons Manager.

Classicish Add-on Manager is a useful add-on for Firefox users who prefer to open the add-ons manager in an extra window instead of the browser tab.

Firefox users can download the add-on from the official Mozilla website.

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DownThemAll, Built-In Firefox Download Manager About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Saturday February 4, 2012 -
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Add-on Compatibility Reporter Turned To Reporting Only Add-on

The Add-on Compatibility Reporter add-on for the Firefox web browser was a useful browser extension to force add-on compatibility in unsupported versions of the Firefox web browser. While it was not able to force compatibility for add-ons that were incompatible due to changes in the browser itself, it managed to enforce compatibility for the majority of add-ons.

Mozilla with Firefox 10 introduced the compatibility by default feature which enforces compatibility natively for the majority of add-ons.

As a consequence, the compatibility enforcing capabilities have been removed from Add-on Compatibility Reporter. The add-on is now only a reporting tool that provides Mozilla and add-on developers with compatibility information about their add-ons.

Firefox users who have installed the extension solely for the reason of enforcing add-on compatibility, can remove it from the browser as it is no longer offering that functionality.

The compatible by default feature does not enable all add-ons by default. Brian King lists the following exemptions from the rule:

Add-ons marked to work with a Firefox version less than 4.0Add-ons with binary componentsAdd-ons explicitly marked by the author as incompatible, i.e. opt-out of Compatible By DefaultAdd-ons tested and determined to not be compatible with a given version of Firefox, and marked as incompatible by MozillaThemes

Most add-ons currently installed in Firefox 10 or higher should be automatically enabled by the new compatible by default feature. Users who are still running pre-Firefox 4 add-ons on the other hand that they now are working in Firefox 10 and higher are left standing in the rain.

One option for them to make their add-ons compatibility would be to install the Nightly Tester Tools to force add-on compatibility. Another option would be to edit the Firefox add-on file directly. Check out Three Methods To Force Add-On Compatibility In Firefox for information on how to do that.

Please note that this affects Thunderbird and SeaMonkey as well.

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Tags:firefox add-ons, firefox compatibility

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Firefox Profile Switcher Add-on

If you are working with multiple profiles in Firefox you have probably your own ingenious way of launching them. Some Firefox users may use shortcuts to launch their profiles, others the built-in profile manager, the command line or an add-on like Switchy

If you are new to the concept, I suggest you take a look at the following guides that will get you started. Only this much: Most Firefox users use profiles to separate work related activities from private activities. This reduces the browser’s memory usage and accessibility, among other things.

Profile Switcher is another extension for Firefox that you can use for various profile related tasks. You can access the extension’s functionality with a click on the Firefox menu button. The two entries Launch another profile and Open profile manager have been added to the menu. The current profile name is displayed in the browser’s status bar as well. You can right-click the name to display the very same menu.

The add-on ships with a button that you can drag and drop to one of the Firefox toolbars instead if you prefer to work with the Profile Switcher extension this way.

The open profile manager menu lets you open Firefox’s built-in profile manager in normal mode or safe mode. You can use the profile manager to create, rename, delete or start profiles. Keep in mind though that Mozilla plans to remove this tool from Firefox to replace it with an external launcher.

The launch another profile menu allows you to launch one of the available profiles directly from within the Firefox web browser. Depending on how you have configured your profiles, you may be able to run multiple profiles at the same time or only one. If the latter is the case, you need to close Firefox before you can open the new profile.

The Profile Switcher add-on can be downloaded from Mozilla’s official Firefox add-on repository. The same add-on is also available as a version for the Thunderbird email client.

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Mozilla Profile Manager Final Released About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday January 26, 2012 -
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