ContextMenu Extensions Support Added for Phoenix

[Goldzilla]

Just got an email from Piro stating that Phoenix 0.4 support has been added in ContextMenu
Beta V3.0. He's added a few new features, one which I requested a while ago which allows you
to select text in an input field that gets considered as selected text. Previously it could only operate
on text selected from the page excluding input fields.

I'm going to give it a try when I get into the office [I don't run Phoenix on my currenct computer as it
is over dialup and haven't copied the image over from my laptop yet]. I'll post testing results later today.

Now all I need is Mozilla Sidebar support and I'll feel completely at home with Phoenix.

[Goldzilla]

I sent an email indicating that I didn't see it there yet. Will try again later. Anyone know if Piro has
a special area for Betas?

[johnh123]

No, but please keep us posted if you are able to get the beta.

[Goldzilla]

There's no announcement about it anywhere, you just have to go to the download section and it's below
the regular download link. I tried it on Mozilla with existing ContextMenu Extensions and it creates a second
Extensions pulldown menu. In the context menu, some items are duplicated. Also, the help isn't there so
you're a bit on your own for development. Piro indicated that he's working on the help stuff.

I suspect that he changed some formats for files and/or structures and that he needs to keep both around
for now. There is some kind of conversion thing that I haven't tried yet so maybe that's a way to get from
the old format to the new format.

I installed it on my Phoenix installation and it comes up. I haven't tried loading my personal extensions
from Mozilla yet. I'll give this a try later today.

Now I need to go find the Little Phoenix theme for my laptop.

[Goldzilla]

I did a bit of testing trying to set up an application and it doesn't do anything. If you hit the Property button, it
will hang Phoenix. I was able to import my old stuff but nothing worked. It also disables all of your old functionality
in Mozilla though it shows it as being there. I uninstalled it on Mozilla and Mozilla is running fine now.

I've reported these and a few other problems to Piro and will wait for his reply. At the moment, I don't recommend
trying it out for regular use unless you want to help debug it.

[Goldzilla]

Piro put out a new beta ContextMenu Extensions XPI and I gave it a try. He was a bit
perplexed as to why I couldn't use Applications while he could with 0.4. I've been using
LittlePhoenix and MicroPhoenix and went back to the default and was able to define
Applications. I wasn't able to run them though.

Piro indicated that custom scripts should work now though I haven't tried it out yet.
The new beta still doesn't work with the old one on Mozilla but then I'm not sure that it
is supposed to. I just don't want to kill my Laptop Mozilla environment to test it. So I need
to use a test machine at work for this.

I informed Piro that 0.5 is out and I suspect that he'll move up to that version for his testing.
At any rate, we're making some progress.

BTW, 0.5 seems to be a bit better than 0.4 but I can't put my finger on why it feels better.

[Goldzilla]

The problem was that I need to set the character set to Western (ISO-8859-1). This allows me to set up applications and run them. One note in that when you edit an application, you have to reenter the program file name at the moment. I've sent a note to Piro mentioning this and suggesting that he include a note to the effect that the application won't run if the character set isn't correct.

I wasn't able to import my old stuff either but I'll just type it back in.

On to testing other features. If a few other things work out, then Phoenix will be my primary browser. I'll use Mozilla for email though.

[Goldzilla]

I found that you can't create scripts, send page to, send selected to and custom scripts if you're using one of the
following themes:

Qute
MicroPhoenix
LittlePhoenix
CrystalMini19

I'm using a theme that I don't like [it's bit and gaudy] for now to create my scripts and other custom stuff but will
go back to LittlePhoenix when I'm done creating them. I expect that to work.

So it looks like ContextMenu Extensions is ready for prime time in Phoenix!

[Goldzilla]

I moved my Mozilla custom scripts over to Phoenix and they work. I moved over a send selected text over too but
it doesn't show up in either context menu. I have a shortcut key for it though so I'll use that.

I switched back to LittleMozilla after reentering my scripts and applications and everything looks good. I've provided
Piro with the bugs that I've seen and I suspect that he will have them fixed soon.

[Visceral]

I was having real slowdowns with phoenix rendering some pages and especially when I went to the context menu via right click (pausing, etc). On a hunch I disabled added context menu and everything is back up to speed.

[Goldzilla]

I've read a few comments on ContextMenu Extensions performance and it may be related to shortcut keys. I'm running
a 1 Ghz Pentium III with 576 MB of memory and Windows XP and Phoenix runs like a champ with TabExtensions and
ContextMenu extensions. It does run a bit slow on a 200 Mhz system that I use.

I'd just assume have the additional functionality and go with a faster machine. I'll be loading it on the home desktop machine
which is a 1.8 Celeron with 640 MB and Windows XP tonight. My guess is that performance won't be an issue on that platform.

[Goldzilla]

- Right-click bookmark now works (tested)
- You can set the default mail application to use webmail now (I haven't tested this yet)

[Goldzilla]

Piro has put up about four new betas in the past two days. He's added several features and I'm itching to try them out but they
royally hose Phoenix in that you have to start with a fresh profile and Phoenix appears to hang when you try to start it up the
next time if you change anything. I can't get themes to grab new ones either.

I've reported the problems though I think that he's turned in for the night.

Phoenix is so hosed at the moment on my machine that I'm back to Mozilla with older versions of the ContextMenu Beta.

I'll try to repair Phoenix some time in the future. I didn't save the older beta XPIs though so I may be out of luck until Piro
fixes the current problems.

[Visceral]

ACK.

I follow your reports daily, keep us informed..

[Goldzilla]

One of the new features that I liked is the ability to put custom items [applications, scripts, send selection to and
send page to] in the top-level extension. So that if you click on the extensions menu, your particular script or
search page is right there instead of having to go to the extension and potentially one more submenu. You can
put the class of extensions at the top level menu too.

I also tested Webmail and it does work if there isn't the &subject option in the mailto: address. I've been using it
for a few days and love it. Amazing how not having to hit the compose key and cutting and pasting in the email
address makes life a little easier.

There are other features too which you can read about in the new documentation for ContextMenu Extensions. He
has a new format which is a little more readable than the old pure text documentation. I saw it by pushing a button
somewhere in preferences or in the extension menu. Pretty neat to read about what he's doing.

Of course it's not really available in the current beta unless you want to spend a lot of time restoring your
phoenix files from backup. I was getting pretty good at this this morning.